The detective supervising the Robert Blake murder case admitted Wednesday
he didn’t test the restaurant booth where the actor claimed to have
left his gun.
Detective Ronald Ito testified at the Van Nuys, California courthouse, it
didn’t occur to him to order a gunshot residue examination of the booth, after
the Baretta star claimed he had left the gun during his last meal with wife
Bonny Lee Bakley.
Blake stands accused of killing his wife outside Vitello’s restaurant in
Studio City, California, in May 2001.
Defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach asked Ito, “You didn’t make the test
in spite of information you had about where Blake said he had left the gun?” to
which Ito replied, “I did not.”
Blake claims he carried the weapon for protection and after realising he had
left it in the booth, left Bakley in their car outside and went to retrieve it
alone. Upon his return to the vehicle, Blake claims he found Bakley had been
shot.
Schwartzbach went on to show a video of Blake‘s home being searched by police
officers. Ito identified two lockers containing letters from Bakley’s
“customers” in a mail order sex scam.
After Schwartzbach noted the correspondence wasn’t taken in evidence, he
said, “Isn’t it true the things you seized were only the things you believed
would incriminate Mr. Blake?”
Ito replied, “I had to decide what was pertinent and what was not.”
Ito claims his team read the letters at the house and despite investigating
five or six “unhappy customers”, they were all cleared of any links to Bakley’s
murder.
The trial continues.
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