MARTINEZ, Calif. - A preliminary hearing for three people charged in a gruesome California murder spree got underway on Monday with the main defendant, a former stockbroker, described in court as a drug dealing murderer who dabbled in witchcraft. The hearing for Glenn Helzer, 31, his brother Justin, 29, and Justin's girlfriend, Dawn Godman, 27, was held to assess whether the three will be tried for the August 2000 murders of five Bay Area people, including the daughter of famous blues guitarist Elvin Bishop. Defense lawyers had sought to keep the preliminary hearings closed to the public and the press, saying the grisly details of the murders and the defendants' alleged witchcraft dabblings would prevent them from getting a fair trial. But the judge in the case ruled last week that the hearings should remain open.< On Monday, prosecutors began sketching out a case which depicts Helzer -- a former stock broker with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter -- as a would-be cult leader who was determined to launch his own ``self awareness'' movement to bring truth to the world. To finance this, prosecutors allege, he required a substantial amount of money and hatched a plot to kidnap his former brokerage clients Ivan and Annette Stineman, and force them to convert their securities into cash that would be laundered through the account of his girlfriend, Selina Bishop.
ALSO ACCUSED IN SHOOTING DEATHS
Prosecutors say that the first part of the plot was carried out, and that the Stinemans and Bishop were killed, dismembered, and stuffed into duffel bags which were later discovered submerged in a rural backwater of the Sacramento Delta. The Helzers and Godman are also charged with shooting to death Bishop's mother, Jennifer Villarin, and Villarin's boyfriend, James Gamble, in Villarin's home in Marin County. All defendants have pleaded not guilty. Defense attorneys have accused the prosecution of playing up the defendants' supposed connection to witchcraft, and gruesome particulars of the murders in an attempt to garner media attention to the case. Faced with an objection from the defense after questioning a witness about the Helzer's and Godman's alleged interest in black magic, Contra Costa County District Attorney Hal Jewett said the link between the alleged witchcraft and the murders, ''will become apparent.'' ``There are no surprises so far,'' said Kim Kruglick, defense counsel for Godman. Court papers filed by Jewett last week describe Glenn Helzer as a proponent of self-awareness programs who ``had a long-standing vision of bringing truth to the world through a program he would implement and direct in the name of 'spirit' and 'unconditional, fearless love.''' But they also say he had grown involved in witchcraft and drug dealing in the run-up to the eventual murder spree