Robert Blake at his preliminary hearing at the the Van Nuys Courthouse |
HOLLYWOOD - After eight days of deliberations, a seven-man, five-woman jury Wednesday acquitted actor Robert Blake of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City, Calif., restaurant in 2001. The verdict ends a lengthy four-year trial that included testimony from more than 100 witnesses--and could have sent Blake to prison for life.The jury also acquitted the former Baretta star on one of two solicitation of murder charges, but deadlocked on the second charge, with the vote 11-1 in favor of a not-guilty verdict, CNN.com reports. Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp dismissed the charge, ending Blake's
criminal court trial.
Blake, 71, put his head down on the desk in front of him after the verdicts
were read, his hands visibly shaking as he took a drink from a bottle of
water. He hugged his attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, wiped tears from his
eyes and covered his mouth with his hand.
After regaining his composure, Blake asked his defense team to call his daughter,
Delinah Blake Hurwitz, who was not in court. Bakley's daughter, Holly Gawron, 24, sat in the back row of the courtroom and cried after the verdict was read.
While Blake praised his defense team, and condemned past friends and co-workers who have tried to discredit him in the media over the past four years.
"In the past four or five years, all of you (reporters) have interviewed a
great many people,'' Blake told reporters. "You've interviewed my friends. You've
interviewed producers that worked for me. You've interviewed distant relatives
and close immediate relatives, You've interviewed, 'Hey, I lived in his house,
I know him inside out.'
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"Guess what? They're all liars, and about half of them are commode scum,''
Blake said.
Jury foreman Thomas Nicholson told reporters there was simply no convincing evidence to convict Blake.
"They couldn't put the gun in his hands,'' Nicholson said.
He added Blake had no gun shot residue on hands and no blood on his clothing.
Bakley, 44, was shot to death May 4, 2001, as she sat in Blake's parked car outside Vitello's restaurant in Studio City, after the two had dinner. Blake claims he left Bakley to return to the restaurant to retrieve a Smith & Wesson he carried (that was not the murder weapon) and found her bleeding upon his return.
At the time, Blake told detectives he was armed because his wife feared someone was stalking her.
The two met in1999 at a Burbank jazz club. Before long, Bakley became pregnant and the couple married in October 2000 after DNA tests proved Blake was the baby's father.
Blake still faces a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Gawron and Bakley's three other children.