SANTA ANA, Calif. – A Mechanicsville man made his first Orange County court appearance Monday, March 30, after he was extradited last week from Virginia to face charges that he swindled and murdered a retired Phoenix investor in February 2008 after luring him aboard a boat in Dana Point Harbor.

Gary Shawkey, 45, is charged with killing Robert Vendrick, 71, for money, a special circumstances murder that could yield him a life term in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted.

Shawkey, a motivational speaker and author of a self-help book, appeared in a courthouse holding cell in a mustard-colored jail uniform during the one-minute court appearance.

Superior Court Commissioner Cheryl L. Leininger continued his arraignment to April 24, and ordered that he be held without bail.

Fred Vendrick, 67, of Hermosa Beach, Robert Vendrick’s younger brother, watched the hearing from the courtroom gallery. He said he became emotional about seeing the man accused of murdering his brother for the first time, but was glad to see the case proceeding.

Prosecutors contend that Shawkey swindled Vendrick, who had retired from the software industry, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the previous three years by promising him high returns on nonexistent investments.

But by February 2008, Vendrick was becoming reluctant to invest more money with Shawkey, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh.

Shawkey then persuaded Vendrick to invest in a new venture involving the development of “top secret computer software” for the federal government, and got him to wire $100,000 and fly to Orange County, according to a statement from the District Attorney’s Office.

Baytieh contends that Shawkey lured Vendrick aboard a boat in Dana Harbor with a story that they would meet federal agents at San Clemente Island, and then killed him at sea and disposed of his body sometime on Feb. 14, 2008.

The body was never recovered.

Baytieh said he expects to prove during the trial that Shawkey murdered Vendrick to prevent him from going to authorities and exposing the swindle.