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CNN Live At Daybreak
Robert Blake Arrested for Wife's Murder
Aired April 19, 2002 - 05:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: If you are wondering why it took so long, you're certainly not alone. L.A. police have arrested actor Robert Blake, telling us physical plus compelling and significant circumstantial evidence led to his demise. Blake's bodyguard was also placed in cuffs.
For more, CNN's Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police took Robert Blake into custody at his sister's home in Hidden Hills, California, where officers said he offered no resistance. The actor was then taken to LAPD headquarters, Parker Center, where he was booked on a charge of murder with a special circumstance of lying wait and two counts of solicitation of murder. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
CAPT. JIM TATREAU, LOS ANGELES POLICE: Robert Blake shot Bonny Bakley.
BUCKLEY: Police say Blake killed his wife on the night of May 4, 2001, after they dined at a restaurant in Studio City. The two had been married for only a few months after DNA tests showed Bonny Bakley's infant daughter Rose was fathered by Blake.
TATREAU: We believe the motive is that Robert Blake had contempt for Bonny Bakley. He was in a, he felt that he was trapped in a marriage that he wanted no part of.
BUCKLEY: Blake's own attorney concedes that his client had a potential motive, but he insists on Blake's innocence.
HARLAND BRAUN BLAKE'S ATTORNEY: He understands that there's never been a question of motive in this case. What this lady did to his life was horrific. So he's understood that. He was there and he has a motive. But he maintains that he didn't do it and I haven't seen anything to the contrary.
BUCKLEY: Police say their investigation took them to 20 states. They say they interviewed 150 witnesses and examined some 900 items of evidence.
BRAUN: There's physical evidence and there's significant and compelling circumstantial evidence.
BUCKLEY: But Blake's attorney suggested the victim, Bakley, had enemies. She allegedly tricked men into sending her money.
BRAUN: I'm not trying to besmirch Rosey's mother, but I mean the woman had an extensive history and there are people in her past who have made threats to her. There are people with motives.
BUCKLEY: Also arrested in the case, Earle Caldwell, a handyman and bodyguard to Blake, who is to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder. He once told CNN's Larry King that he didn't know who could have killed Bakley.
EARLE CALDWELL, ROBERT BLAKE'S BODYGUARD: It's so wild. There's so much craziness going on. It's hard to say anything. I think who didn't have anything to do with this, and this is Mr. Blake. He just doesn't have it in him to do something like that.
BUCKLEY: Just after midnight, Blake was moved out of Parker Center, bound for the L.A. County Jail.
L.A. County Jail.
(on camera): Blake will remain in custody through at least Monday, when he'll face formal arraignment. Even then, say legal observers, given the nature of the charges and the special circumstance alleged, it's unlikely he'll be granted bail.
Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.
COSTELLO: And if you missed CNN's "Newsnight With Aaron Brown" last night, you missed an extended show featuring legal experts on the Robert Blake case. But don't worry, we have some of it for you this morning.
First, you'll hear former O.J. Simpson attorney Howard Weitzman on the challenge facing Blake's attorney Harland Braun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD WEITZMAN, O.J. SIMPSON'S FORMER ATTORNEY: I think Harlan is between a rock and a hard place here. He's been very vocal, but you don't get a free pass to kill somebody that you think might be a scumbag or a bad lady. Those free passes don't exist in our society. And for the police to come put publicly at this stage and say Blake was the shooter and we have witnesses who said they were solicited by him to kill her is a pretty strong statement. You would think they wouldn't make that statement without being able to back it up. But the spin is beginning. This is going to be a great television movie. I don't think it'll be a feature film.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of the cases that we become obsessed with are important and interesting because they reflect issues that are happening in society, like the Yates case and how are we dealing with it.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean so some of them have, and some have just the sort of, some have a prurient interest. I mean this guy became famous, to me, because he had that white bird on his shoulder and I wasn't allowed to watch him because he was up too late and he was too violent. I mean, you know, I mean so I became interested, you know, and a lot of people feel that way, that he's interesting because he is a celebrity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: You heard her mention it. We're going to have more on Robert Blake, the actor. Most of us do remember him as Baretta, the guy with the bird on his shoulder. That role and others, though, mirrored his own personality.
As for his own life, CNN's Charles Feldman reports parts of Robert Blake's life may have been too hot for even Hollywood.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bet you haven't heard many actors say something like this before.
ROBERT BLAKE, ACTOR: I ain't doping, I ain't juicing. God is kind of checking me out to see how much I can take.
FELDMAN: That's actor Robert Blake during a 1985 interview, but typical Blake. Blake played tough talking, shoot from the hip characters in the movies and on TV. He played his real life much the same way. Blake was, is, a Hollywood institution, something he talked about during a ballet workout back in 1992.
BLAKE: I started in 1936. 1938 I was in "The Rascals" and I've been in front of the box all my life. And all I ever did was get in front of the box, hit the marks and say the jokes.
You and mama have been mighty good to me ever since I was a kid.
FELDMAN: Blake was just a boy when he got the part of Micky in the "Our Gang" comedy film. But he claims his real life was no laughing matter.
BLAKE: I had a real snake pit horror childhood, that my father was an insane man who should have been locked up. He locked me in closets, he threw me against the wall, he made me eat on the floor like a dog, he kept me on a leash. He was insane. And my mother was worse.
FELDMAN: By the time Blake reached his 20s, movie roles proved hard to find, but TV beckoned. The tube provided Blake with roles, some money, and a respite. But the small screen was not the best place to show off Blake's obvious talent. In 1967, Blake got the role of a lifetime, playing a killer in the movie "In Cold Blood."
BLAKE: We just live there all alone in that big, empty failure. FELDMAN: Despite the wide acclaim Blake got for his star turn, his past dealings apparently caught up with him. Salvation of sorts once again came from the small screen. In 1974, Blake took on the role of TV cop Baretta.
BLAKE: The next cop you meet ain't going to be a chump like me.
FELDMAN (on camera): The very first episode dealt with Baretta trying to solve the murder of his fiance outside of a restaurant.
(voice-over): But Blake's personal demons again started to run amok. Battles erupted on the set. Baretta was dropped from the ABC lineup in 1978 and it took years before Blake returned to TV. But he did in 1985 in "Helltown." He played a tough priest.
BLAKE: Are you ready to kill me? Are you ready to kill a priest, huh?
FELDMAN: "Helltown" proved no match for the glitzy "Dynasty" series and was quickly dropped.
BLAKE: And it all came to a head when I was doing "Helltown" and I fell apart. I mean without getting real dramatic, I just, it was the end of the road. And I came as close to really just sticking a .357 in my mouth as anybody could come. And I quit. I quit everything. I quit life.
FELDMAN: Blake has made a few films since, including a TV movie based on the life of John List, who killed his family. But nothing put his name back in headlines like his current real life situation.
Charles Feldman, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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