OLATHE, Kansas — A California woman who struck up an e-mail and phone relationship with accused serial killer John Edward Robinson Sr. testified Wednesday that she mailed three pastel-colored letters for him in March 2000.

The letters, purportedly from murder victim Suzette Trouten and eventually received by the woman's family in Michigan, are part of the prosecution's circumstantial evidence against Robinson, on trial for the murder of three women, including Trouten, in Kansas.

The body of Suzette Trouten, above, was found stuffed in a barrel on Robinson's property.

Jean Glines, the California woman, testified that Robinson asked her to send the letters from near her home in San Jose because he was worried about a friend. Glines said he told her that a woman who worked for him was in an abusive relationship and wanted her husband to think she was living in California. She said he overnighted the letters to Glines and asked her to mail them immediately.

Glines, who knew Robinson because she had once worked with his wife, Nancy Robinson, in a mobile home park in Clayton, Missouri, agreed to do him the favor.

Glines had recently split from her husband and she and Robinson had begun corresponding upon her return to California in 1997. She said Robinson told her he was divorced from his wife, Nancy. (In fact, he was been married to her for 38 years.) "He wanted to know if he could call me if he was feeling down because we were both in the same situation," she explained.

Not longer after that, she testified, Robinson asked her to have phone sex. "I told him it wasn't by bag," Glines said, adding that Robinson was much more interested in her than she was in him.

Because of a mix-up at her post office, Glines said she didn't receive the letters Robinson had sent and called him to let him know. "He went totally ballistic," she said. "He was cursing up one side and down the other. It kind of shook me up. He got so upset so fast."

Glines testified that the letters she ultimately received a few days later were addressed to either Minnesota or Michigan. She also remembered that there was no return address but only the name Suzette or the initials ST. Shortly after she mailed them on March 27, she said, her relationship with Robinson ended.

Trouten's aunt and godmother, Marshella Chidester, then testified that her mother had received a letter purportedly from her granddaughter. The postmark was from San Jose and dated March 27, 2000.

Chidester also testified that she and other family members had received an email from her niece March 24. "I questioned it," she said. "Suzette sometimes wasn't the best speller in the world and it didn't seem like her writing. We hadn't heard from her over the telephone for a couple of weeks. I couldn't understand why she hadn't called."

On May 5, Chidester said she received a letter that was supposedly from Trouten. This letter was typed and signed, "Love ya, Suzette."

Chidester confirmed that the signature was that of her niece but found something else unusual. "She said she quit smoking Marlboros — not just 'I quit smoking.' I thought it was odd."

Robinson is accused of luring at least a few of his victims through Internet chat rooms for people with an interest in sadomasochism. Suspected of killing six women in all, Robinson will face trial in Missouri for killing three women after his trial in Kansas is completed. Five of Robinson's alleged victims were found stuffed into barrels in Kansas and Missouri.

Outside the Johnson County Courthouse Wednesday, a man working for a local shock jock almost found himself in trouble with the judge presiding over the trial. The man was handing out T-shirts that read: "Roll out the barrels. John E. Robinson Trial 2002."

Defense attorney Sean O'Brien held up one of the T-shirts in court, offering it as evidence for a renewed defense motion for a change of venue. The judge, while noting his displeasure, denied the motion.

A former correspondent for Newsweek and People Weekly, Sue Miller Wiltz is currently writing a book about Robinson for Pinnacle Books. She is covering the trial for Courttv.com.