Robert Blake, the Emmy-winning star of “Baretta,” was charged with murdering his wife Bonny Lee Bakley in 2001, acquitted by a Los Angeles jury in 2005, then found liable for her death months later in a civil wrongful death suit and ordered to pay $30 million. He spent his remaining years bankrupt, living on Social Security and his Screen Actors Guild pension, and died of heart disease at his Los Angeles home on March 9, 2023, at age 89.1ABC News. Baretta Actor Robert Blake Dies at 89 Bakley’s killing officially remains unsolved.2Biography. Bonny Lee Bakley Murder
Who Robert Blake Was
Born Michael James Gubitosi in Nutley, New Jersey, on September 18, 1933, Blake began performing as a small child in his family’s vaudeville act. After the family moved to Los Angeles, he worked as an extra at MGM and, by age six, was appearing in the “Our Gang” comedy shorts as “Bobby Blake.”3Biography. Robert Blake His adult breakthrough came in 1967 playing the real-life killer Perry Smith in the film adaptation of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” In 1975 he took the lead in the detective series “Baretta,” winning an Emmy for outstanding actor in a drama. After the show ended he largely retreated from Hollywood, resurfacing in a small role in David Lynch’s 1997 film “Lost Highway.”4CNN. Robert Blake Profile
Blake met Bonny Lee Bakley at a jazz club in 1999. When Bakley became pregnant in 2000, she initially claimed the father was Christian Brando, son of Marlon Brando, but DNA confirmed the child was Blake’s. Their daughter Rose Lenore Sophia Blake was born in June 2000, and the couple married that November.2Biography. Bonny Lee Bakley Murder
The Killing of Bonny Lee Bakley
On the night of May 4, 2001, Blake and Bakley had dinner at Vitello’s, an Italian restaurant on Tujunga Avenue in Studio City. They left around 9:40 p.m. and walked to Blake’s Dodge Stealth, parked about a block away. Blake said he then went back to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he had left inside, telling police he had been carrying the weapon because Bakley believed she was being stalked.5CNN. Blake Wife Shooting When he returned to the car around 9:50 p.m., he said, he found Bakley slumped in the passenger seat. She had been shot twice in the head and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. She was 44.6Los Angeles Times. Blake Wife Slain Outside Restaurant
Ten days later, police recovered the murder weapon from a trash bin about a block and a half from the scene: a vintage, World War II-era German-made Walther pistol, coated in motor oil and trash, its serial number filed off.7CBS News. Robert Blake Arrested in Wife’s Murder It was not Blake’s registered handgun, and investigators could never prove he had possessed it. A Vitello’s busboy told police he cleared the couple’s table after they left and found no gun there, undercutting Blake’s account of going back to retrieve his own weapon.8Yahoo News. Who Really Killed Bonny Lee Bakley
The Criminal Charges and Trial
The LAPD investigation ran nearly a year. Detectives examined more than 900 items of evidence, interviewed more than 150 people, and traveled to about 20 states.9LAPD. Robert Blake Arrested for Murder of Bonny Lee Bakley Police arrested Blake on April 18, 2002. Four days later the Los Angeles County District Attorney charged him with one count of murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait, two counts of solicitation of murder, and one count of murder conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty. The lying-in-wait allegation made the case death-penalty eligible, but on April 25, 2002, the DA announced the office would seek life without parole instead.10CNN. Robert Blake Case Timeline Blake was held without bail for eleven months in Men’s Central Jail before being released on $1.5 million bond in 2003.11Los Angeles Times. Blake’s Fourth Attorney Takes Over
The trial began in late 2004 in Los Angeles Superior Court before Judge Darlene Schempp and ran about three months. Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels argued Blake killed Bakley because he could not otherwise gain sole custody of their daughter, and that he had tried to hire someone else first.12CBS News. Prosecution: Blake a Bad Actor The state’s key witnesses were two retired stuntmen, Ronald “Duffy” Hambleton and Gary McLarty, who testified that Blake had solicited them to kill Bakley — McLarty said Blake offered him $10,000 — and that Blake had shown them a small, untraceable gun and discussed staging the killing outside Vitello’s as a backup plan.13CBS News. Closing Arguments in Blake Trial
Defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach attacked both witnesses as habitual drug users and liars, and family members and an ex-convict took the stand to back that up.14Today. Witness in Blake Case a Meth User On the physical evidence, Schwartzbach pointed out that no eyewitness placed Blake at the shooting, no blood or DNA linked him to the killing, and prosecutors could not prove he had ever possessed the Walther. Defense experts noted only four or five gunshot residue particles were found on Blake’s hands, far below the nearly 100 an expert testified would be expected if he had fired the weapon.2Biography. Bonny Lee Bakley Murder
The Verdict
On March 16, 2005, after more than a week of deliberations, the jury acquitted Blake of murder and one solicitation count and deadlocked 11–1 in favor of acquittal on the second solicitation count. Judge Schempp dismissed the remaining count. Jurors afterward called the circumstantial evidence “flimsy” and said the prosecution “couldn’t put the gun in his hand.”15CNN. Blake Not Guilty of Murder
The Civil Verdict and Bankruptcy
Bakley’s four children had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Blake in 2002. In November 2005, eight months after the acquittal, a civil jury in Los Angeles Superior Court reached the opposite conclusion. By a 10–2 vote, jurors found that Blake “intentionally caused the death” of Bonny Lee Bakley and ordered him to pay $30 million. The same jury found that Blake’s handyman, Earle Caldwell, did not collaborate in the killing.16Spokesman-Review. Blake Found Guilty by Jury in Civil Trial The two outcomes were reconcilable because of the burdens of proof: the civil jury needed only to find it more likely than not that Blake was responsible, rather than proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.17Spokesman-Review. Blake Trial Latest Case of Celebrity Justice
Blake filed for bankruptcy in February 2006. His filings listed the $30 million judgment, more than $1.2 million in federal taxes, and about $334,000 in state taxes as his principal liabilities, against assets of between $100,001 and $500,000. His real estate holdings, once estimated at $4 million, had already been sold to pay his defense.18Los Angeles Times. Blake Files for Bankruptcy19Foster’s Daily Democrat. AP Interview: Acquitted Actor In 2008, the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, ruled the $30 million award excessive and gave Bakley’s estate the choice between accepting a reduced judgment of $15 million or a new trial on damages.20Hollywood Reporter. Blake Appeals $30 Million Civil Verdict The parties eventually reached a confidential settlement.21ABC News. Daughter of Actor Robert Blake Opens Up
His Later Years
In a 2006 Associated Press interview, Blake described living in a small apartment, working as a stable boy at a friend’s Malibu ranch, and getting by on Social Security and his Screen Actors Guild pension. He said he needed bankruptcy court approval to buy a car. “I’ve woken up some nights and wanted to drive till the car goes off a cliff,” he said, adding, “I want to live. I’m going to survive no matter what.”19Foster’s Daily Democrat. AP Interview: Acquitted Actor
Blake resurfaced publicly in 2012 on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote a self-published memoir, “Tales of a Rascal.” The interview turned combative when Morgan pressed him on Bakley’s death. Blake called his late wife a “con artist” and said of his finances, “I can’t afford to buy spats for a hummingbird.”22CBS News. Angry Robert Blake on Piers Morgan Of the civil verdict he told Morgan, “They didn’t win it, I lost it. I went up there, suicidal, to lose that.”23CNN. Robert Blake on Piers Morgan
Blake’s daughter Rose was raised by his older daughter Delinah, who was granted permanent guardianship in July 2002 and later adopted her.24Los Angeles Times. Delinah Blake Granted Guardianship Rose grew up calling her adoptive parents Mom and Dad and did not see Blake for years. She reached out to him in 2019 but, according to NPR, referred to him as “Robert” rather than “Dad.”25NPR. Robert Blake Dies at 89
Blake died of heart disease on March 9, 2023, at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by family. He was 89.1ABC News. Baretta Actor Robert Blake Dies at 89 The killing of Bonny Lee Bakley has never officially been solved.2Biography. Bonny Lee Bakley Murder