Trying to limit post count shown

Hello:

I have a multicolumn archive page for a particular category (category 3):
http://testing001.compoundeyedesign.com/index.php/category/news/

I am trying to show only 5 posts per column but it’s actually showing 10. Because of this error, you get some repeated posts. Ignore the rightmost column — that’s a sidebar.

I’ve looked at the code and I can’t figure out why it’s not working. Here’s the loop shown in the first column:

<!-- column 1 -->
  <div class="col-md-4 col-lg-3 right-trim">
	<?php
		//YOU'LL NEED THIS ENTIRE CODE BLOCK FOR ANOTHER TEMPLATE
		//declares that the variable $myOffset has a global scope
		global $myOffset;
		//sets the value of the variable $myOffset
		$myOffset = 0;
		//creates a variable $temp that has the value of the $wp_query
		$temp = $wp_query;
		//states that $wp_query is null, so we can use that variable again to create our new query. this  is what WP uses in the normal loop
		//if not set to null, WP gets very confused
		$wp_query= null;
		//recreates the $wp_query variable with a new query
		$wp_query = new WP_Query();
		//add the posts to the $wp_query variable. the offset is how many posts should be skipped before displaying the content
		//so the offset= the value of $myOffset, in this case 0 (but that changes for the next loop) then show category 6 , the press release
		//category, then show 5 posts. The last bit is for the pagination.
		// To show another category instead, just change 6 to the category ID you want to use.
		$wp_query->query('offset=' . $myOffset . '&cat=3&showposts=5'.'&paged='.'$paged');
		//this is the custom loop
		while ($wp_query->have_posts()) : $wp_query->the_post(); ?>
		<!--This shows the post title as an H3 link-->
		<h3 id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
		<!--this shows the post content. you could use the_excerpt() instead. this shows the first 55 words of a post, but no images-->
	  <?php the_content();?>
      <hr/>
	<?php endwhile; ?>

	</div><!-- column 1 -->

All the annotation came from a developer who I’ve lost contact with, otherwise I’d go back to him.

The code in the next 2 columns is very similar but with $myOffset = 5; or $myOffset = 10;.

Any suggestions? I hope this isn’t too confusing.

Cheers, R