A cartoonlike plot to pass weapons around the downtown jail in a yellow cake with chocolate frosting came to light Tuesday in a pretrial hearing for two brothers accused of carrying out a fatal hit on a state prison officer.

Chong Vue had the cake in his cell and asked a sheriff's deputy to take it to his younger brother, Gary, in another section of the jail, according to testimony at a security hearing before their upcoming murder trial.

"When they opened that cake up, there were several metal pieces," sheriff's Sgt. Dan Morrisey testified in Sacramento Superior Court. "And these pieces actually matched up to a large cookie sheet that had been lost from the kitchen at that time."

Deputy District Attorney Eric Kindall said the disclosure of the cake containing the potential stabbing devices "sounds like something right out of the movies."

The discovery led to a more detailed search of Chong Vue's cell as well as other cells in the jail, Morrisey testified. The searches "produced 24 different pieces of metal that were in the process of being moved and turned into shanks, or jail-made weapons," he said.

Testimony from Morrisey and another jail deputy convinced Judge Steve White he needed to tighten up security on the Vue brothers when their trial begins today with jury selection.

On the suggestion of the Sheriff's Department, White ordered that the Vues be chained at the waist and ankle during the trial, but that the chains should be covered so jurors and court visitors can't see or hear them.

Sheriff's officials also asked that the brothers be handcuffed for trial. White, however, declared in a tentative decision that each defendant be allowed to keep one hand free, for purposes of writing.

The judge lent his approval to strip-searches on the defendants before they are allowed into the courtroom every day.

"These are serious shanks, and there is evidence that connected the defendants to them," White said.

Chong Vue, 32, and his brother Gary Vue, 31, are accused of being the gunmen who shot and killed state correctional officer Steve Lo, 39, in the garage of his south Sacramento home before dawn on Oct. 15, 2008, as he was leaving for his job at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

Both have already been convicted of a gang murder in Minnesota. They face life in prison with no chance of parole if they are convicted again in the Lo killing.

Their older brother, Chu Vue, 46, has already been convicted and sentenced to prison without possibility of parole for arranging the murder of Lo.

Chu Vue, a former Sacramento sheriff's deputy, discovered his wife was having an affair with Lo, evidence showed. He then retained his brothers to kill Lo, according to the prosecution's theory.

Jail deputies discovered the shank-stuffed cake at the same time Chu Vue's trial was under way last year. Deputy Kenny Shelton testified Tuesday that jail investigators also found inmate-fashioned weapons in a coffee creamer container in Gary Vue's cell.

It was unclear how the cake got in the cell or whether it was baked in the jail's kitchen. Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said Tuesday that he has never heard of inmates at the downtown jail having cake in their cells.

"I would be very curious to look into it," Ramos said. "Wow."

A court clerk provided the description of the cake after seeing pictures taken by the deputies. The photographs were not immediately available for viewing after Tuesday's hearing.

Searches of a vent in Chong Vue's cell as recently as June 17 turned up two bundles of jail clothing, ropes and more metal objects, Shelton said.

"In my opinion, they have one purpose, and that's to be a weapon," Shelton testified.

Jury selection is expected to take up two days this week before the trial breaks for two weeks due to previously arranged vacations by courthouse personnel.

Editor's Note: This story has been changed from the print version to correct the year in which Steve Lo was killed. Corrected on Aug. 3, 2011.

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