"Not Guilty" and that's the name of that tune.
A jury of seven women and five men deliberated for more than 36 hours before returning a verdict of not guilty in the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley and not guilty on one count of soliciting someone to murder her. The jury deadlocked on a second solicitation charge.
The jury was deadlocked 11-1 for not guilty on the second charge. The prosecution has agreed to drop the solicitation charge rather than retry the case.
Jurors told reporters they found Blake not guilty because the prosecution's evidence never "put the gun in his hand."
The 71-year-old actor was accused of shooting Bakley, his wife of only six months, outside his favorite Studio City restaurant Vitello's after trying many other options to get her out of the life of their infant daughter Rosie.
According to the prosecution, Blake was obsessed with keeping Bakley out of his daughter's life, due to her long history of sexual and criminal activity bilking men out of money through a lonely hearts mail-order scam. The prosecution said Blake first tried to abduct Rosie, tried to get Bakley's probation revoked by planting drugs on her, tried to get others to "whack" her, and finally shot her himself when everything else failed.
Bakley was on probation for mail fraud at the time that she died. She had bilked hundreds of men out of money with her mail-order scam and even married some of them and had their adult children cut out of her victim's wills.
She also had a history of pursuing celebrities. The defense argued that there were hundreds of people with a motive to kill Bakley.
Blake told an interviewer that he believed after he and Bakley got married, someone recognized her photo in the press and began to stalk her. He said Bakley was concerned about former victims -- she had received threatening letters from some of them -- and that is the reason he carried a gun for protection and hired a bodyguard at one point. A former maid of Blake testified to seeing a stranger in a vehicle parked near Blake's house in the day leading up to the shooting.
Bakley was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's hospital.
Several days after the shooting a vintage World War II Walther PPK was found with its serial number partially filed off in the Dumpster near where Blake's car was parked and proved to be the murder weapon. The handgun Blake retrieved from the restaurant was not the murder weapon, test revealed.
Note: One of the signature lines "Baretta" used in almost every episode was "... and that's the name of that tune." Another was "... and you can take that to the bank."
A jury of seven women and five men deliberated for more than 36 hours before returning a verdict of not guilty in the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley and not guilty on one count of soliciting someone to murder her. The jury deadlocked on a second solicitation charge.
The jury was deadlocked 11-1 for not guilty on the second charge. The prosecution has agreed to drop the solicitation charge rather than retry the case.
Jurors told reporters they found Blake not guilty because the prosecution's evidence never "put the gun in his hand."
The 71-year-old actor was accused of shooting Bakley, his wife of only six months, outside his favorite Studio City restaurant Vitello's after trying many other options to get her out of the life of their infant daughter Rosie.
According to the prosecution, Blake was obsessed with keeping Bakley out of his daughter's life, due to her long history of sexual and criminal activity bilking men out of money through a lonely hearts mail-order scam. The prosecution said Blake first tried to abduct Rosie, tried to get Bakley's probation revoked by planting drugs on her, tried to get others to "whack" her, and finally shot her himself when everything else failed.
Bakley was on probation for mail fraud at the time that she died. She had bilked hundreds of men out of money with her mail-order scam and even married some of them and had their adult children cut out of her victim's wills.
She also had a history of pursuing celebrities. The defense argued that there were hundreds of people with a motive to kill Bakley.
Blake told an interviewer that he believed after he and Bakley got married, someone recognized her photo in the press and began to stalk her. He said Bakley was concerned about former victims -- she had received threatening letters from some of them -- and that is the reason he carried a gun for protection and hired a bodyguard at one point. A former maid of Blake testified to seeing a stranger in a vehicle parked near Blake's house in the day leading up to the shooting.
Deadly Night at Vitello's
On May 4, 2001, Blake and Bakley went to Vitello's restaurant for dinner. After they left, Blake returned to the restaurant to retrieve his handgun, which he had left in the restaurant booth. He asked for water and after drinking two glasses, he left again. When he returned to the car he found Bakley had been shot, he said. He ran to the nearby home of Sean Stanek, who called 911 and returned to the scene with Blake. Stanek tried to stop Bakley's bleeding while Blake sat on the curb crying.Bakley was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's hospital.
Several days after the shooting a vintage World War II Walther PPK was found with its serial number partially filed off in the Dumpster near where Blake's car was parked and proved to be the murder weapon. The handgun Blake retrieved from the restaurant was not the murder weapon, test revealed.
Note: One of the signature lines "Baretta" used in almost every episode was "... and that's the name of that tune." Another was "... and you can take that to the bank."
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