A jury acquitted tough-guy actor Robert Blake of murder in the shooting death of his wife four years ago, bringing a stunning end Wednesday to a case that played out like pulp fiction. Jurors also acquitted Blake of one charge that Blake solicited murder, but deadlocked on a second solicitation charge. The jury voted 11-1 in favor of acquittal and the judge dismissed the count. The jury of seven men and five women delivered the verdicts on its ninth day of deliberations, following a trial with a cast a characters that included two Hollywood stuntmen who said Blake tried to get them to bump off his wife.The 71-year-old star of the 1970s detective drama "Baretta" dropped his head as the verdict was read and then appeared to shake with tears. He almost fell while reaching for a water bottle. He had been charged with murder, two counts of solicitation of murder and a special circumstance of lying in wait. The murder charge and special circumstance enhancement could have carried a sentence of life in prison; prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. The solicitation counts could have carried a maximum penalty of 11 years. Blake was charged with shooting 44-year-old Bonny Lee Bakley to death in their car outside the actor's favorite Italian restaurant on May 4, 2001, less than six months after their marriage.
Prosecutors said Blake believed his wife trapped him by getting pregnant. They said Blake became smitten with the baby, Rosie, when she was born and desperately wanted to keep the child away from Bakley, whom he considered an unfit mother. Bakley had been married several times, had a record for mail fraud and made a living scamming men out of money with nude pictures of herself and promises of sex. "He was tricked by Bonny Lee and he hated her for it," prosecutor Shellie Samuels said in closing arguments. "He got taken by a small-time grifter." The defense called it a weak case that lacked physical evidence and was built largely on the testimony of two witnesses who were once heavy drug users. Blake was acquitted of asking one of those witnesses, Gary McLarty, to murder Bakley. No eyewitnesses, blood or DNA evidence linked Blake to the crime. The murder weapon, found in a trash bin near the car where Bakley was killed, could not be traced to Blake, and witnesses said the minuscule amounts of gunshot residue found on Blake's hands could have come from a different gun he said he carried for protection.
The four-month trial was part of a wave of celebrity court cases in California that have provided endless fodder for the tabloids and cable networks. The Michael Jackson child molestation trial started just as the Blake case was wrapping up. Rock 'n' roll producer Phil Spector will stand trial later this year in Los Angeles for allegedly murdering a B-movie actress.
