Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Blake to Be Arraigned Today

Aired April 22, 2002 - 07:34   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now on to the murder mystery unfolding in Hollywood. Actor Robert Blake, who was arrested Thursday, is scheduled to be arraigned on murder charges later today for the shooting death of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley last May.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez is near Los Angeles. She joins us now from outside the courthouse -- good morning, Thelma.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

In just a few hours, actor Robert Blake will be formally charged with one count of murder, with the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, and two counts of soliciting murder. Now Los Angeles police say it was the 68-year-old actor who shot and killed his 44- year-old wife Bonny Lee Bakley on the night of May 4 last year after the two had dined at Vitello's restaurant near their Studio City home.

Police say they found the murder weapon in a nearby trash dumpster shortly after Bakley was killed. Bakley was the mother of the couple's now two-year-old daughter Rose. Blake married Bonny after DNA results proved that he was the father.

The couple lived apart. Bakley lived in a guest house on Blake's property. And since the very beginning, Bakley's family said it was the actor who was her killer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BAKLEY, BONNY LEE BAKLEY'S BROTHER: I'm 99 percent sure it was him.

MARGERRY BAKLEY, BONNY LEE BAKLEY'S SISTER: There was nobody else who wanted to kill him but Mr. Blake, and he actually told her, "I'm Bobby Blake and I can get away with killing you, and I will."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTIERREZ: Just one day after Bakley's murder, Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, went before the media and he began to say that it was someone out of Bakley's questionable past who killed her and that Bakley trapped Blake into a marriage, and that she (UNINTELLIGIBLE) men for money.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, USC LAW PROFESSOR: There is always a danger in putting the victim in a murder case on trial. On the one hand, this may be the way here of raising reasonable doubt, arguing that there are other people who had the motive to kill. On the other hand, there is a dead woman, and there's a real danger that the jury might sympathize with the victim and turn against the defendant and defense counsel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTIERREZ: Now that Blake has been arrested for murder, Defense Attorney Harland Braun will not say exactly what his defense strategy will be. He says he still has 35,000 pages of prosecution documents to go over -- Paula.

ZAHN: And, Thelma, let's talk about not only the potential charges, but the potential penalties Blake could face if he is, in fact, convicted.

GUTIERREZ: Paula, that's the most interesting thing. If he is convicted of murder, with the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, he could actually face the death penalty. But, again, it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether or not they will seek the death penalty -- Paula.

ZAHN: That's interesting. There was a piece in one of the papers this morning that suggested that Harland Braun said that his client said, "Look, I'm 70 years old." He's lived you know, 140 years of living and had quite a peculiar reaction to the prospect of a death penalty if he were convicted.

We'll talk about that more a little bit later on this morning. Thelma, thank you for joining us in the middle of the night there Los Angeles time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com