Testimony in Richmond County Superior Court on Tuesday provided details about the night in June 1998 that Mr. Holt was abducted after closing the store on Bobby Jones Expressway.

Tom Fernandez, then an assistant manager of the Augusta store, told jurors he received a call from the store's alarm company for an open door about 6 a.m. June 21. He also was told Mr. Holt had not come home from work that night. When Mr. Fernandez arrived at the store, he found the doors open.

"The safe in the cash office was open, and bags were lying all over the floor," Mr. Fernandez testified.

Robert Stark, a loss prevention supervisor for Sam's Club, testified he was investigating the Augusta store in 1998 because of a high loss in merchandise.

Mr. Stark said the loss was eventually traced to two cashiers who were "sliding" merchandise to customers. One of those cashiers and a defendant in the racketeering case, Laverne Ellis, 29, pleaded guilty last month to violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law.

Carlston Coleman, 39; Ronald Coleman Jr., 29; Kendric Dudley, 30; Ronnie B. Overton Jr., 22; Charles D. Winters, 29; and Jarman L. Harold, 25, have pleaded innocent to RICO charges. The two Mr. Colemans, who are not related, also have pleaded innocent to charges of armed robbery and kidnapping in Mr. Holt's abduction.

Ms. Ellis was granted immunity as part of a plea negotiation. In exchange for testifying truthfully in Richmond County and possibly in Aiken County, she will not face charges in the abduction and slaying of Mr. Holt.

Reach Ashlee Griggs at (706) 823-3552.