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CNN Live Today
Blake Defense Has Tape of Phone Conversation
Aired August 02, 2002 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A new twist in mystery surrounding the death of actor Robert Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.
CNN's Charles Feldman exclusively obtained secretly recorded telephone conversations that the defense argues supports its theory that someone else could have been out to get Bakely.
Charles Feldman joins us live from Los Angeles with more -- Charles.
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Well, police investigators say they have a strong case against actor Robert Blake in the murder of his wife. I've obtained exclusively a secretly recorded telephone conversation that Blake's attorney says raises doubts about his client's alleged guilt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FELDMAN (voice-over): When LAPD detectives arrested Robert Blake for shooting his wife Bonny Lee Bakley to death, the then-chief of police all but said the prosecution of Blake would be a slam dunk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here today to announce that the Bonny Lee Bakley case is solved.
FELDMAN: In various court documents, the case against Blake became clearer. He allegedly tried to hire at least two hit men to kill his wife before settling on doing the job himself.
Although no DNA evidence apparently links Blake to the crime, and it has yet to be established that the murder weapon belonged to him, investigators are hanging much of their case on the testimony of the two Hollywood stuntmen police say Blake tried to hire to murder his wife.
But Robert Blake's high-powered defense attorney has long argued that Bakley's sordid life, pursuing lonely men for money, left a trail of possible other suspects who had motive, and perhaps opportunity, to kill her.
And then, just a few weeks ago, Blake's lawyer, Harland Braun, got a tape of a phone conversation handed over by prosecutors that gave him hope of being able to drive his other suspects theory home.
A tape, one of many, secretly recorded by Bonny Lee Bakley. A tape of a conversation with Christian Brando, son of actor Marlon Brando, whom she thought was the father of her child before DNA tests proved Robert Blake actually was.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CHRISTIAN BRANDO: It ain't my baby.
BONNY LEE BAKLEY: How do we know that? You never took a test.
BRANDO: It ain't my kid.
BAKLEY: Well, as far as I was concerned, I thought it was.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
FELDMAN: But it was another portion of that recording that made Blake's attorneys eyes widen.
Christian Brando had a history of violence. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his sister's boyfriend back in 1990.
On the tape, Brando warns the woman he had had an affair with that her lifestyle could prove dangerous.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BRANDO: You have no idea what you do to people with this (EXPLETIVE DELETED). No idea. It -- you know what, it kind of hurts.
You better really, really get a handle on that, and really think about what you're telling -- you know, you're doing besides running around sending letters to guys and embezzling all this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) money from these idiots, you know, that are going to, you know -- send you all the phone cards and all the rest of the (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
Think about it. It gets close. You're lucky, you know, I mean, not on my behalf, but you're lucky somebody isn't out there to put a bullet in your head.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
FELDMAN: Blake's attorney says he hopes to introduce the tape at Blake's murder trial to show people other than Blake were out to get his wife.
HARLAND BRAUN, BLAKE'S ATTORNEY: I mean, if someone said to me that maybe not me but somebody else might put a bullet in my head, and that person had killed before and gone to prison for it, I think you would take it pretty seriously.
FELDMAN: But, at least so far as the young Brando is concerned, Blake's lawyer is likely to have an uphill battle.
Police early on ruled Brando out as a suspect. In the end, arresting Robert Blake for the crime. CNN has been unable to contact Brando over several days to learn what he thinks of Blake's defense strategy to drag him back into this case.
For his part, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin says he understands exactly what Blake's attorney is trying to do.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: From day one the defense has been trying to show that lots of people, not just Robert Blake, had a motive to kill Bonny. This tape -- the release of it -- is another attempt to show other people with possible motives.
FELDMAN: A lawyer representing the Bakley family says, despite the release, publicly, of the Brando tape, they have no question who killed Bonny Lee Bakley.
Says the attorney: "We're pretty convinced that Blake did this. The evidence is pretty strong."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FELDMAN: Now, Robert Blake has pleaded not guilty. In the months ahead, defense and law enforcement sources are likely to leak other tidbits to the media, all in an effort to influence a jury, even before there actually is one -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Charles Feldman from Los Angeles, thanks Charles.
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