OAKLAND — A key witness, a former inmate, testified that former Alameda County sheriff’s deputies accused of instigating the throwing of fecal matter in the county jail, would call them “crappuccinos” or “spreading the gospel.”

Former Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputies Justin Linn and Erik McDermott are charged with felony assault under the color of authority, witness intimidation and conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with those attacks from 2016 and others that occurred at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

Judge Morris Jacobson is expected to determine next week if there’s enough evidence to try the two men.

An inmate, Shane Woodcook, who worked in the F-pod of Building 2 where the alleged crimes took place, testified during the hearing, laying out his firsthand knowledge of the allegations. Another inmate testified that he was once put in a cell, covered in excrement, for up to five days.

Woodcook told the judge that both Linn and McDermott would call the throwing of feces and urine, which is typically called “gassing” in jails, instead “crappuccinos,” and would make jokes about it.

The deputies would deliberately allow an inmate who had the nickname “Preacher” to “spread the gospel,” Woodcook said.

The alleged gassing would occur when the two deputies left the food slots in cell doors open, and then allowed inmate “Preacher” to put a shampoo bottle inside, filled with his feces and urine, and spray the inmates with it. Woodcook said deputies typically targeted inmates who were giving them a hard time.

Woodcook, who lived in another building, was a pod worker, cleared to hand out food and other items to those inmates in that F-pod and clean the area. In addition to Fernando Soriano, who testified Tuesday, he named another two inmates who were also subjected to the gassing.

Woodcook also described how one inmate, Ruben Febo, sent a letter out to authorities kick-starting the investigation against Linn and McDermott. Woodcook said that when it became known Febo wrote the letter, both deputies took Woodcook aside, and told him to “keep his mouth shut.” Linn allegedly took off his body-worn camera and brought Woodcook into a refrigerator in the jail’s kitchen to talk to Woodcook in private, away from others and from cameras, he testified.

They also allegedly told him to spread the news that Febo was a snitch, which he refused to do, Woodcook said.

Woodcook said he personally witnessed the gassing and commented that the inmate assigned to do it was given special treatment by both Linn and McDermott. The inmate would get extra food, and was allowed very frequently out of his cell, and was given extra supplies for the gassing — such as plastic gloves, bags and gray bins, Woodcock testified. The housing area, F-pod, was administrative segregation, which means most inmates there spend their time in a cell alone, except for specified time outside, called “pod time.”

Woodcook testified how the two deputies sometimes withheld meals from certain inmates, including Soriano, Febo and another man.

“It was unusual. Everyone has their due right to get their issue of food,” Woodcook said.

It was Linn and McDermott who by key, or by a push of a button from a security post, would unlock the doors to let Preacher out, Woodcock testified. No inmates were allowed to have a key, or be outside their cells unless it was pod time.

The other inmate who said he was gassed at the direction of Linn, Robert Brown, said in testimony that after getting into a verbal argument with Linn he was placed in a cell where a previous inmate had defecated and it had not been cleaned.

Brown said he was also gassed four times. The first time, the inmate who did the gassing distracted him by putting an empty potato chip bag in his cell, and when Brown went to reach for it close to his cell door, he was doused with the excrement. He also described this inmate, not Preacher but another man, as getting special treatment from Linn.

Brown said he was forced to stay in his cell, which was covered in excrement, for three to five days. Although he asked multiple deputies, including Linn and McDermott, to be let out and clean himself and his cell, no one did for days, he testified.

Testimony continues for the rest of the week before Judge Jacobson, with a decision expected next week.