FORT CAMPBELL -- The soldier accused of killing Pfc. Barry Winchell is a boastful drunk who picks fights and once told acquaintances he hated blacks and "faggots," servicemen testified yesterday.

A string of soldiers questioned at a Fort Campbell hearing said Winchell had bested Pvt. Calvin N. Glover in a fistfight the night of July 3. Early July 5, Winchell was found beaten and unconscious in the hallway outside his barracks.

Some accounts indicated Glover may have been looking for revenge. Though civilian gay and lesbian rights organizations are pushing the issue, yesterday's proceedings hinted at but did not determine whether Winchell's four-month relationship with a man had anything to do with the attack.

Glover, 18, is charged with premeditated murder. Spc. Justin Fisher, 25, stands charged with four related offenses, including encouraging Glover to strike Winchell and lying to investigators.

A hearing for Fisher will be held later.

Winchell's victory over Glover in the fight was a popular one, said Pfc. Arthur Hoffman. "It'd been a long time coming, sir," Hoffman told a defense attorney.

The hearing, a military equivalent to a combined grand jury and preliminary hearing in civilian court, continues today. Glover was given the chance to hire a civilian lawyer, but he will be tried in the military courtroom because the slaying occurred on the post.

Rumors had circulated that Winchell, a 21-year-old anti-armor weapons operator, was gay, some of his friends said from the witness stand.

But none of the men directly connected his sexual orientation to the beating, in which his head was smashed repeatedly with a baseball bat. An Army investigator present at the autopsy said the blunt trauma was severe. The force of the beating cracked Winchell's skull, he had another deep impact over one eye and a fracture across his forehead, Special Agent Alfred Brown said.

The details of Winchell's last days saddened but somehow relieved Calpernia Addams, his boyfriend, who lives as a woman and works as a female impersonator at The Connection, a gay club in Nashville.

Army investigators interviewed Addams shortly after Winchell's death, but he has remained off the post until yesterday and was not included in an on-post memorial service held for Winchell's family and friends.

"It's very dear to me to hear details of Barry's life in that last time," Addams said yesterday after watching the proceedings on a video link in a building across from the courtroom.

Addams, who served in the Navy, said he holds no hope that the case will bring sweeping changes for gay service members. Military law does not contain provisions that could classify the killing as a "hate crime," post officials said.

The case is, however, a step in the right direction, Addams said.

Glover entered the courtroom yesterday in handcuffs and fatigues, his pale face bowed. He hugged family members and wiped away tears before the proceedings began.

For six hours, 10 witnesses questioned by prosecutors and defense attorneys sketched the events of late July 4 and early July 5, before Winchell died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The guys at the barracks drank heavily on Independence Day, Hoffman said. The party broke up around midnight.

Winchell had volunteered to watch the area mascot that night, a high-strung Australian blue heeler named Nasty. To keep her company, Winchell pulled a cot out of his third-floor room onto the front walkway and slept outside, the men said.

Pfc. Nikita Sanarov told investigators he awoke to banging on his barrack door at 3 a.m. July 5. Fisher stood outside saying, "Winchell is dying," and he asked if Sanarov could get his car to help him. Sanarov testified that as he brought his car around to the barracks, he saw Glover sprinting from one housing unit to another.

He later saw Glover run from his barracks unit carrying a handful of clothes toward some Dumpsters, he said. Glover dropped some of the clothes in his hurry, Sanarov said.

Several soldiers said they recalled Glover coming from the direction of the Dumpsters toward the scene as paramedics loaded Winchell into an ambulance. Glover was drenched in sweat or water, they said, and had stripped to a pair of shorts.

Brown said investigators picked up a blood-stained glove on the ground near the Dumpsters. A crime lab still is processing the glove, a blood-smeared shirt and some socks found in Glover's room, and more than 60 other pieces of evidence collected at the scene, the attorneys said.