Testimony continued Wednesday in the preliminary examination of Bob Bashara to determine if there is enough evidence to have Bashara stand trial for the murder of his wife, Jane.
The death of Jane Bashara, a popular marketing executive from Grosse Pointe Park, and the kinky details of her husband's lifestyle, have captured national attention since she was was strangled in her garage in January 2012 and her body was dumped in an East Side Detroit alley inside her Mercedes SUV.
Bashara, 55, has been charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit murder, suborning of perjury during a capital trial, witness intimidation and obstruction of justice.
Bashara already is serving a 6- to 20-year sentence after he pleaded guilty in October to trying to hire a furniture store owner to kill Joe Gentz while the St. Clair Shores handyman was in jail.
Gentz pleaded guilty to killing Jane Bashara and was sentenced to 17-28 years in prison. He also has
maintained Bashara hired him to commit the murder.
Testimony was interrupted in early afternoon by a power outage in downtown Detroit just as Rachel Gillett, Bashara's mistress and sex slave, was saying she had visited Bashara's sex dungeon in the basement of a building he owned in Grosse Pointe Park. The hearing is scheduled to resume Thursday at 9 a.m.
Testimony from witnesses Wednesday included these allegations:
* Bashara and Gillett engaged in "breath play," or restricting oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal.
* Jessica Bashara, Bob's college-aged daughter, testified for about 30 minutes. Her father stared at her, but appeared to show little emotion.
* Jessica said she caught her father watching porn several times.
* She also caught him on alt.com, the gathering place for aficionados of BDSM — bondage, discipline, sadomasochism.
* Jessica found text messages and a card that had sexually explicit content.
* Jessica said her father denied his relationship with his mistress was sexual. Her father told her he "wasn’t physically capable, and there were other ways of having sex.” Earlier testimony revealed Bashara suffered from erectile dysfunction.
* Bob told his daughter her mother must have been the victim of a carjacking. When word of his affair surfaced, he began discussing Joe Gentz, to whom he said he owned money.
* Gillett said she met Bashara on alt.com in 2008 and called him "Master Bob."
* Bashara gave Gillett a ring that was a family heirloom supposedly meant for Jane Bashara.
* Bob and Jane Bashara were in counseling for their troubled marriage.
* Jane Bashara's 401 (k) contained $800,000 to $900,000, but one of her credit cards was canceled because of the family's money issues.
* Joe Gentz told an acquaintance a guy named Bob wanted a hit-and-run on his wife. Gentz later said he was joking.
