Videotape Key Trial Item in Fatal Carjacking : Crime: Husband’s camera recorded suspects moments before wife was killed and 2-year-old was tossed from the vehicle.

As he proudly videotaped his wife and their daughter leaving for her first day of preschool, Biswanath Basu didn’t know he was also filming two men who would be accused of killing his wife in a carjacking.

The key videotape evidence likely will be shown by prosecutors as the first of two trials gets under way today in the slaying of Pam Basu.

Mrs. Basu’s arm became tangled in a seat belt as she was forced from her BMW at a stop sign a block from her home, police said. She was dragged almost 1 1/2 miles before the driver ran up against a fence to dislodge her.

Along the way, the carjackers stopped and tossed the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Sarina, still in her child seat, onto the road. She was not injured. The carjackers were arrested at a police roadblock about half an hour later.

Mrs. Basu’s slaying prompted Congress to pass a law making carjacking a felony punishable by a life sentence if death is involved.

The videotape, taken in September, shows Bernard Miller and Rodney E. Solomon walking in the background as Mrs. Basu, 34, straps Sarina in and drives off, Basu said.

Miller and Solomon are each charged with first-degree murder, kidnaping, robbery and felony theft. Each has pleaded not guilty.

Miller, 17, is being tried as an adult but is shielded from the death penalty because he was 16 at the time of the slaying. He faces life in prison if convicted. Solomon, 27, could be sentenced to death. No date has been set for his trial.

Police say the pair were seeking another car after a stolen Cadillac they were in ran out of gas.

Police say Miller and Solomon, the alleged driver, each told detectives that the other was responsible for the carjacking.