Robert Blake: Actor Robert Blake Pleads Not Guilty in Wife’s Murder

Ex-Baretta actor Robert Blake, 68, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he murdered his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, in May 2001. Blake, who was arrested last Thursday, faces four counts stemming from his wife’s slaying. During the arraignment, which lasted approximately 10 minutes, he remained silent only saying "not guilty, your honor." Blake’s bodyguard, Earl Caldwell, entered a not guilty plea to the charge of "conspiracy to commit murder." Blake and Caldwell will remain in jail until the next court date set for May 1. Caldwell’s bail is $1 million and Blake’s bail will be set at the next court date.

Prosecutors say that Blake had plotted Bakley’s murder for some time. She was slain outside a popular Italian eatery, Vitello’s, in Los Angeles on May 4, 2001. According to the five-page complaint, Blake first began scheming two months prior to Bakley’s death. He approached two different people to perform the murder either at Vitello’s or in the Arizona desert. It is believed that when Blake couldn’t convince either of the men to pull the trigger, he did it himself. As reported in the complaint, Blake drove Bakely to the restaurant and parked more than a block away near a dumpster at a construction site. He then shot her as she sat in the passenger seat of his car with a vintage World War II P-38 handgun and then tossed the unregistered weapon in the dumpster. A complete copy of the complaint can be found on TheSmokingGun.com.

Bakley, a convicted felon, had a very sordid past. She has been described as a "scheming star chaser" who only wanted to marry a movie star. She ran several scams and conned many men out of money. Blake’s attorney, Harland Braun, has suggested that someone from her past may be the trigger man. Blake met Bakley at a nightclub in 1999 and they later married and had a daughter, Rose, who will be two years old in June. Blake’s daughter from his first marriage, Delinah, is caring for the child. Bakley’s sister, Margerry, claims there was no love between Blake and her sister and told E! that the marriage was a "sham from the beginning." As reported on Eonline, Captain Jim Tatreau of the LAPD’s robbery-homicide division said, "Robert Blake had contempt for Bonny Bakley. He felt that he was trapped in a marriage that he wanted no part of. Quite frankly, the entire situation was not one of his liking at all."