I live in Humboldt County, not southern hum, but I have heard almost nothing about this accused murderer Gary Lee Bullock or his life before the murder. Only old news mostly, about the brutal murder. Yes, I do have a job, so may have missed some news. I wasn't even aware this preliminary hearing had progressed so far. Maybe they don't want to taint the jury pool, but what do people know about him...anybody??
We lived in SoHum for 15 years and we moved away 30 years ago. My husband was Gary's teacher one year in elementary school and our daughter was his classmate through eighth grade. He is in her sixth grade class picture and probably in others, as well as my husband's class picture that year.
My husband remembers that Gary was a very quiet boy, not someone who stood out. He was neither the best nor the worst behaved in the class and was certainly not a child that my husband would have expected to do something like this (and in almost 30 years teaching, he had a few kids that he figured would end up in big trouble). Our daughter recalls that he seemed to have a troubled home life, but that would be rumor.
There are more rumors from locals in the comments section of this article that I don't think has been posted before. Lots to wade through. I believe this article mentioned that he had been a truck driver, but was unemployed. His wife and children have left the area.
http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2014/jan/14/gary-bullock/
Although I know nothing about Gary's family and home life, I do know what it was like in SoHum at the time we lived there. The area was known for very strong marijuana, "Humboldt Homegrown." One day on the main drag of Garberville I saw Harry Reasoner of "60 Minutes" filming a segment about pot growing in the area. At the check stand in the local market in Redway, there were displays of ziplock bags with the Humboldt Homegrown logo and Wiss clips for clipping off the buds.
Quite a few of the parents of my husband's students were growers. After the harvest, some would take their kids out of school for a month vacation in a warm climate, including Tahiti. They would ask my husband for school assignments to take with them. It was common to see low-income locals suddenly acquiring brand new 4WD trucks, which we jokingly referred to as "pot wagons." When our daughter reached Junior highschool, she told us about kids coming to school with wads of cash they had "earned" growing their very own pot plant. As I recall, they could make $1000 from one plant at that time.
There were two pot-related murders just on the road we lived on, and we weren't even in the biggest growing area. A criminal element was traveling to SoHum to rip off growers and violence increased. It wasn't just "hippies" doing the growing. We knew of two long-time respected locals who were growing.
We moved away so that our daughter would not go to highschool in that environment. However, we have close friends still living there and we visit occasionally. It's like time travel. Nothing has really changed, except that medical marijuana is grown openly. Now meth and heroin (which Gary admitted to taking in the article linked above) have made big inroads.
Gary Bullock came of age in this environment. Apparently, he did OK for awhile, but drug use took him down. He was arrested for cocaine in April 2013. According to comments in the above linked article, it wasn't the first time he was arrested.
Even though we don't feel that we really knew Gary well as a child, to see a former student and our daughter's classmate commit such a horrendous crime is heartbreaking. I look at that little boy in the class pictures and it doesn't seem real. My heart goes out to his family and children, and to the good people in SoHum who must be in shock. But above all, I feel for the Eurekans at St. Bernard's who loved their priest. I can't begin to imagine their horror and sorrow.
Maybe it will provide background for others. 
