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Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace Mysteries: Robert Blake

Aired September 13, 2013 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: When many people hear the name Robert Blake, they think Hollywood, famous actor, tough guy. They think of Baretta. They think are the famous movie "In Cold Blood." They may even think of "Little Rascals." That`s kind of how Robert Blake got his start in the show business industry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably the role that catapulted him to fame in America was as the tough-talking, rough-around-the-edges Italian-American detective named Baretta, who didn`t have another cop as a sidekick, he had cockatoo named Fred. And what`s interesting about Robert Blake is that he was a very deep, intense actor, and I believe he could have worked to the day of his death had not fate given him such a hard slap in the face.

GRACE: I don`t think that at all. I think about two things. I think about his baby girl, who now doesn`t have a mother. The mother was murdered. And I think of the scene of the crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police in Los Angeles searched the home of actor Robert Blake for several hours. According to the LAPD, the search was part of the ongoing investigation into the shooting death of the television actor`s wife, Bonny Bakley.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: It was a warm May late afternoon, borderline evening time, when Blake and his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, go to have dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant, Vitello`s. They were regulars. In fact, there was even a dish named after Blake.

He always parked on the street. He never parked in the parking garage, the parking area that the restaurant had. That was not uncommon. This is how it went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say Bakley was found in the front of her husband`s car with a gunshot wound. According to police, Blake told them he and his wife had dinner at this Italian restaurant in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood, leaving around 9:40 PM.

According to Blake`s attorney, the actor went back to get his gun, which he had been carrying at his wife`s request because she believed somebody was stalking her. Police say Blake told them after he found his wife, he ran to a home across the street to get help. Bakley died at a nearby hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Robert Blake`s credit card was swiped to pay for the meal. In about 17 minutes, he was on the phone calling 911 to report his wife was shot dead.

Now, what`s interesting is what happened in those 17 minutes. So movie star Robert Blake and his wife go have dinner. They sit in their usual spot. As I recall, it was a booth. They eat, they pay, they leave.

Now, Robert Blake says that he realized he had left his .38 Smith & Wesson back in the restaurant, that he had been carrying it, because his wife, Bonny, thought she was being stalked. So he says he leaves -- the woman that`s being stalked, his wife -- he leaves her alone in an isolated parking -- street parking area.

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST, "ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL": He puts her in the passenger seat, and then he says he remembers that he forgot his licensed pistol back at the restaurant. He goes the block-and-a-half back to the restaurant, according to him, gets the gun. And by the time he returns, his wife has been gunned down, shot in the face and shot in the shoulder, and she is dying in the passenger seat of his car.

GRACE: Also during that time, no one in the restaurant can place Robert Blake coming back in to look for his gun. Also, the busboy that cleaned the table where they had eaten didn`t find a gun. The busboy cleaned the table immediately after they ate so another group could be seated. There was no gun there.

Now, interesting about Blake`s story that he went back in to retrieve his Smith & Wesson .38. I mentioned that the busboy didn`t find the weapon in the booth where they were sitting. He immediately cleaned that booth.

But all the witnesses did notice that Robert Blake came back into the restaurant. He did not search for a gun, but he quietly drank two full glasses of water and then left.

Now, this would be after he sees his wife shot dead in the car he comes in and gets the water. That`s one way you can look at it. If you look at it in Blake`s -- through Blake`s defense, he says that he leaves his wife, who was being stalked, to come in and get his gun, but there is no dispute that instead of getting the gun and leaving, he sits down and he has two glasses of water while he leaves his unarmed wife, who`s being stalked, out in the car. It`s a big lie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Robert Blake`s wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was found shot in the actor`s car outside an Italian restaurant in Studio City. She was 44. They`d been married just six months. Bonny Lee was the mother of Blake`s youngest child, Rose, who was 11 months old at the time. Blake said he had left Bakley in the car while he returned to the restaurant to retrieve his gun.

Almost from the beginning, some members of Bakley`s family pointed the finger of accusation at the actor. Blake consistently denied any involvement in his wife`s death. Blake`s attorney repeatedly pointed to Bonny Lee`s own checkered past and suggested that it had caught up with her with fatal results.

He says he left something in a restaurant, went back, came back and she was dead. Things can happen in a second, can`t they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Larry, anyone who`s ever carried a concealed firearm knows that you don`t just accidentally leave it in a restaurant and say, Oops, I left my firearm in there. I better go back and get it.

Anyone who`s been at crime scene knows what a dangerous location that was. And if he was at all concerned, as he says he was, about her safety, particularly that evening, why would he leave her with an open window sitting in that neighborhood? It was really bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s frantic. He`s in agony. He`s screaming, Help me. Call 911. My wife`s been hurt. So I call 911. They told me what I needed to do, and I go out and try to help him. And she was slumped over in the passenger seat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was shot in the back of the head? You could tell...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know where she was shot. I mean, it looked to me -- after the fact -- I mean, it was dark in the car until the light was turned on. I was helping her out, and it looked to be about the face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Although defense attorneys will tell you there is no playbook for grief or shock, I find Robert Blake`s behavior around the time of his wife`s murder to be highly suspicious.

Number one, he never asked about her condition after he called 911. He chose not to ride in the ambulance with her, even though he was offered that opportunity. He did not try to perform CPR or touch the body or approach the body or speak to her in any way.

Witnesses state that in the hour before her murder, there at Vitello`s restaurant, he seemed extremely agitated and nervous. As it turns out, there were some witnesses around, out in a parked area, when they saw Robert Blake. And they said they were afraid to approach because they thought Blake was a robber, he was acting so suspiciously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you don`t remember him leaving anything (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) he ran back out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember him leaving. After he left, I don`t know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. But they were both in a good mood? Do you remember them talking about anything in particular? Were they celebrating anything in particular or they just come around all the time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He comes here two, three times a week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With his wife or alone?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He comes with his wife, with other people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So nothing out of the ordinary last night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came in, had a nice, quiet dinner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. He made jokes about -- about the soup, about -- that this soup has kept him from catching the flu all this winter and -- you know? I just -- yes, I says, That`s Vitello`s (INAUDIBLE) you know, made a joke.

GRACE: Well, she was in the car, and the shooter apparently came up from below and shot down. We know that. So what do you think? His hand might have some blood on it? Because the rest of him was protected by the car, Chris. Think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, and of course, the car also is an important piece of evidence because...

GRACE: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... fingerprints on the car...

GRACE: You said...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... that don`t belong to Blake or any of the other suspects here.

GRACE: Hey, check out the car wash!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t want to talk about things other than what you want to talk about, but you know, let`s be honest. The car does matter and...

GRACE: You were talking about why he didn`t have blood splatter on him, and I gave you the perfect solution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, that he somehow knelt on the side of the street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: No. Like the timeline. Blake is with his wife. He goes back into the restaurant to get his gun that somehow wiggled down from his crotch to his ankle and he didn`t feel a thing. Five minutes later, he comes out. This unknown, uncatchable assailant -- nobody sees -- he`s like the wind -- comes, kills his wife, and then doesn`t get very far, drops the murder weapon in the Dixie (ph) dumpster right there at the scene, almost as if the murderer never left the scene.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: And there is quite a back story to Bonny Lee Bakley`s ultimate murder. According to the state, Robert Blake, the movie star, had had many, many foiled attempts to get rid of his wife. He wanted their daughter, OK, the little girl, Rosie (ph). That`s what he wanted. Although I might point out, since Bonny Lee Bakley`s murder, he doesn`t even have custody of Rosie. So that motive is questionable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know she feared for her life. There were times when she was greatly in fear of him. There -- she was treated, I think, very wrongly by him, brutally, and taken advantage of. He was controlling her by having kidnapped the child.

She was still under federal authority. She was out in Los Angeles, introducing the baby to Blake, they were bonding, and he basically kidnapped the child at that time. When she went back -- when she needed to go back to Little Rock, he didn`t produce the baby for her. He sent her on a wild goose chair around town.

KING: Certainly reason for her then to be concerned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He spent this last year trashing my sister, trashing me, and now it`s the LAPD`s turn. Next it`ll be the DA`s office and probably the judge. He`s just out there trashing everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he`s a danger to himself and perhaps even his own children.

GRACE: We are talking to Bonny Lee Bakley`s daughter. Remember the night your mom was murdered. Immediately, Robert Blake goes in the hospital claiming he`s sick and can`t take a polygraph. Did you know right then there was something terribly wrong?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew before my mother was murdered something was terribly wrong. I`ve known a lot of steps along the way in his plot. He lured my mother into a trap. It was like a sick, twisted game to him, telling her he loved her, he wanted to make things work, to move in with him, and everything was going to be OK. Just a bunch of lies.

GRACE: You know, Holly (ph), tell me about your mom`s relationship with Robert Blake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it was shaky, to say the least. They met. They got together. She fell in love. She was extremely infatuated, but -- she wasn`t after his money. She had his child. She wanted to marry him. That was her plan. But she really did love him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... knew he was contemplating killing her for a long time before May 4th.

KING: Had she told you that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She told me that. I listened to their conversations. I listened to my sister over and over again. They were in a bad situation. He wouldn`t be the first husband to turn on his wife.

KING: What was the relationship, as you saw it -- in five years, you`d have seen a lot of it -- between him and the late wife?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It almost seemed like the beginning of dating. You know, they were getting to know each other on this vacation trip that they took. They were, you know, walking hand in hand and getting along and enjoying each other`s company.

KING: Did you like her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I thought we got along very well.

KING: Did you know anything about any threats to her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not directly. She didn`t talk about any person in particular threatening her. She did seem to be, you know, a little paranoid, looking over her shoulder and wanting me to enter the house before she did, things like that.

KING: With your knowledge of him, are you saying that you can`t conceive of him doing something like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, I can`t.

KING: Because?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I know his heart and we both went through recovery together.

KING: Alcoholic recovery?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alcoholic, OK, recovery, and also the spirit. We felt a spirit and know about that power. And we shared those comments together many times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I really never saw Robert do violence against anyone. You know, a lot of people talk about Robert Blake, but I knew Michael Goobiosi (ph) and I never saw the violence that people are talking about. I mean, he was -- I was the one -- if anybody was angry in the house, it was me when I would look at the pictures and when she would call up and never, ever once would she even mention little Rosie. All she worried about was having black furniture upstairs in her porno business.

You know, this was a woman, who -- if I may say, this is a woman who not only robbed people off, you know, of money, she robbed souls. Do you understand? These were real, real -- I was the one that worried about it. Not Robert. Robert was going to make this work. I mean, I know I might have said (INAUDIBLE) I`d stick an icepick in her eyeball.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excuse me? What did you say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But what I`m saying is that Robert -- I threatened to stick an icepick in her eyeball.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I was -- he -- I was going to live in the back house...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and she was going to live upstairs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean, why? What do you mean, why? Look at this woman. That whole family, a bunch of Jerry Springer rejects.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, I`ve never said there`s not a motive in this case. What Bonny did his life was horrific, basically. She turned his life upside down, got him involved in a marriage he did not want to be involved in because he loved Rosie.

KING: Do you think they`re using Earle Caldwell or they`re threatening Earle Caldwell by arresting him, charging him, getting him to turn?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. That`s what they`re doing. They told him last night that if he would cooperate, he could go home and sleep in his own bed, and Mr. Caldwell says, you know, I`ve been talking to you for 11 months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: There are allegations he tried to get a PI, a private investigator, to commit the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley, a mobster turned minister -- tried to get him to murder his wife, tried to get a bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, and unwittingly, his assistant, Cody Blackwell (ph), to kidnap the baby Rosie.

There was allegedly another attempt to plant drugs on Bonny Lee Bakley and get her arrested so she would lose custody of the baby.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Now there`s the issue of money. As you`re reviewing Robert Blake`s accounts, bank accounts, it was learned that over a period of months, he had been withdrawing money, writing checks in the amount typically of $5,000 at a time, for nearly $130,000 leading up to the day that Bonny Lee Bakley, his wife, was murdered.

Also in the home during a search, about $10,000 was found in $100 bills. They were in two envelopes in this drawers, each one containing $5,000. Now, many court watchers and investigators believed that he had been quietly withdrawing this money in small increments at a time to pay a hitman. That was the speculation.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The bottom line is that Bonny Lee Bakley was not a sympathetic figure. The victim had a lot of problems. She was a grifter. She was a con artist. She ran a lonely hearts club that scammed men out of money.

She was not a sympathetic character, so it was hard to put a movie star behind bars for a very long time because of what he may or may not have done to this very unsympathetic woman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The kid that everybody hated in school, because I was, like, poor and couldn`t dress good, and you know, and everybody always made fun of me because I was, like, a real loner type, you know?

So then you grow up saying, I`ll fix them. I`ll show them. I`ll be a movie star, you know? And it was too hard because I was always falling for somebody. So I figured, well, why not fall for movie stars instead of becoming one, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT BLAKE, CHARGED WITH MURDER: I believe in people. My whole life, the good times, the bad times, family, no family. I`ve always believed in people ever since I was 2 years old dancing for them on the street corner for pennies and nickels. And because I believe in the system -- ours is the best justice system in the best country. And I`m OK because I believe in God, the same God that was there with me on that street corner when I was 2, the God that was with me in that cement box for a year and the God that`s with me now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This trial dragged on and on. And there were so many witnesses, so much evidence. At the end of the day, who would you believe? Would you believe a couple of former stuntmen who said that Robert Blake tried to hire them to kill, to whack, to pop, to snuff out his wife, or would you believe Robert Blake, the acclaimed actor?

It turns out that the stuntmen who claimed that Robert Blake had tried to hire them had a bunch of problems, namely drug addiction and mental illness between the two of them. So they were not credible witnesses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state`s case took about 28 days and it was built on a foundation of means, motive and opportunity. The prosecution felt right from the get-go that Robert Blake was a very angry man that he was duped into marrying Bonny Lee Bakley. He never wanted her to be pregnant, but once she was, he loved the child, hated the woman.

From the very beginning, according to the prosecution, he had plans to have his child kidnapped, taken away from her. He had plans to try to have Bonny Lee Bakley arrested for a variety of reasons. None of that worked.

So what the state really tried to pin its case on was the fact that two stuntmen testified that Robert Blake offered them money to whack out his wife. He, according to the prosecution, did everything in his power to get one of these two stuntmen to get rid of his wife once and for all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who you would go to if you were looking to solicit somebody to kill your wife? You`re not going to go to your minister. You`re not going to go to your banker. You`re not going to go to anybody of standing because not only are they not going to kill your wife for you, they`re going to go to the police and they`re going to tell the police that you tried to get them to kill your wife.

So what`s important -- what was important in Blake`s search for someone to kill his wife was not only that he find someone that would be willing to kill his wife, but that he find someone that if, in fact, that person was not willing to kill his wife would not go to the police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Speaking of forensics, I`ve always been shocked that police did not recover the murder weapon until the next day because it was right under their noses. The murder weapon, which was a Walther P-38 double action standard issue German weapon in World War II, by the way, was only a few feet away from the car, from the murder scene, in a dumpster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The defendant was only gone one minute, one-and- a-half minutes. This person was able to get in there and shoot her in a minute-and-a-half and get away. Nobody saw him. Nobody heard the shots. But he leaves the gun, takes the time to walk over to the dumpster and throw the gun in, takes the chance that someone`s going to hear him throw the gun in, takes the chance that someone`s going to see him throw the gun in, when he can just take the gun and get away like he did because nobody knows who that person is, clean getaway.

Why leave the gun? The gun is there because where else did the defendant have time to put it? He couldn`t get in the car and drive it somewhere because he had a dead woman in the car. He had to get rid of the gun there, so he threw it in the dumpster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The thing about the murder weapon -- it was found a dumpster right near the crime scene. There were no prints on the gun. And this gun is untraceable. Why? Because it`s an antique. It`s a Walther semiautomatic. These were issued to German soldiers during World War II. There is no way to track this gun down.

GRACE: When you look at the forensics involved in the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley, this is what was found. Bonny Lee Bakley was dead in the car, in Robert Blake`s car. She had been shot in the shoulder and in the cheek. Her window was still open. One of the spent shell casings was found a gutter on the same side as where she was sitting. Another shell casing was found down in the seats of the car.

Now, forensics could tell, could prove that she was not shot point- blank. If she had been shot point-black in either the shoulder or the cheek, you would have stippling or burn marks, which is basically gunshot powder residue from the gun on the skin.

You will still get that gunshot residue typically if you shoot from three feet or less away from the victim. They could tell this was not a point-blank gunshot wound because she did not have that stippling or gunshot powder residue burn mark on her face.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Despite the fact that there are these two incredible guys who say they were solicited, despite the fact that there`s no physical evidence and there`s no scientific evidence, there`s no direct evidence, there`s no circumstantial evidence to support the charge that Mr. Blake personally shot Bonny Bakley, there is no evidence, direct or circumstantial, that Robert Blake shot Bonny Bakley. There is no credible evidence that he solicited either Duffy Hamilton (ph) or Gary McLarty. There is certainly no proof going to be any proof beyond a reasonable doubt on any charge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Superior court of the state of California, County of Los Angeles. People of the state of California versus Robert Blake. We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Robert Blake not guilty of the crime of first degree murder of Bonny Lee Bakley in violation of penal code section 187, subsection 8 as charged in count one of the information, this 11th day of March, 2005, signed by the foreperson, juror number five.

Superior court of the state of California, County of Los Angeles. People of the state of California versus Robert Blake. We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Robert Blake not guilty of the crime of solicitation of murder in violation of penal code section 653F, subsection B, to win, solicit Gary McLarty to commit and join in the commission of the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley as charged in count three of the information, this 14th day of March, 2005, signed by the foreperson, juror number five.

GRACE: Hard to believe, but Baretta, AKA Robert Blake, is a free man tonight. Did the jury decide Bonny Lee Bakley deserved the death penalty? And what part did Blake`s celebrity play in him beating the rap?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was in shock. I was devastated. I just don`t know how they came to that conclusion. Maybe it`s just more obvious to me because of, you know, talking to my sister so much and for so long and hearing all the threats, and -- you know, he promised he was going to do it and he did it. And he said he`d get away with it, and he did. I guess this is just the final time I can be hurt by him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: In a shocking turn of events, this California jury let`s Blake go. After nine days of deliberation, they vote not guilty on murder, they vote not guilty on solicitation of a crime, and deadlock 11 to 1 not guilty on the second solicitation, just -- just a shocking turn of events.

The prosecutor who handled the case publicly stated that the jury was, quote, "incredibly stupid." The jury claimed that they wanted more accurate eyewitness accounts, that they weren`t satisfied with the amount of gunshot residue on Blake. You know, I -- I don`t know what that jury wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone was not in agreement right away. So what we did was, we had to go through all the facts. And yes, we have our discussions. It was a complete discussion. Everyone put in their opinions. We all answered any questions. We dissected the evidence. We dissected the testimony, went through everything, and came back with a fair decision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt Robert Blake was an innocent guy. I think the prosecution did the best job that they could do with what they had. They didn`t really have a lot go on. I mean, that`s one reason why we had a circumstantial case.

BLAKE: I`m going to go out and do a little cowboying. You know what that is? No, you don`t know what that is. Cowboying is when you get in a motor home or a van or something like that and you just let the air blow in your hair. And you wind up in some little bar in Arizona someplace and you shoot one-handed nineball with some 90-year-old Portuguese woman that beats the hell out of you. And the next day, you wind up in a park somewhere playing chess with somebody. And you go see a high school play where they`re doing "West Side Story."

I never lost hope. Sweetheart, if you live to be a million, you will never, ever in your life meet anyone more blessed than me. When I was a young man, I used to think that I was smart and clever and that good things happened to me because I was just -- none of that`s true.

I told Barbara Walters God has been on my side since I was in the womb. And God has never left me. My whole life is a blessing. For all the times I should have been dead or not even born and all that, I`m going to take credit for that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: As an afternote, an addendum, a PS, Bonny Lee Bakley`s family sued Robert Blake civilly for wrongful death and they won. She had four other children, a $30 million verdict. I`d be very interested to find out if Blake has paid one red cent of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Baretta" start Robert Blake -- he`s found not guilty of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, in a criminal trial. Now he`s testifying in the wrongful death civil trial brought by Bakley`s family. He`s having to personally respond to accusation that he tried to hire people to kill Bakley, his wife. What`s he saying?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he`s saying it`s not true. I mean, these people who testified that Blake tried to solicit them to kill Bonny Lee Bakley, they testified at the criminal case, and I have to tell you they didn`t do such a good job. A lot of people felt these witnesses were completely discredited.

Now, granted, the standard of proof is much different in this case. It`s easier to prove that Blake did it. Nonetheless, these witnesses did not do a particularly good job. This is a really contentious trial. I mean, I think it`s kind of hilarious that Blake is calling the lawyer for the other side "Junior."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Robert Blake has spent a lifetime as an actor, but he wasn`t able to win over one audience, a group of civil jurors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority of us felt that Mr. Blake was guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By a vote of 10 to 2, jurors found Blake liable in the death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, and ordered him to pay $30 million to her children in damages. Jurors said the actor`s testimony in his own defense was pivotal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a group, we believed that Mr. Blake was probably his worst enemy on the stand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The verdict came eight months after Blake was acquitted in his criminal trial. But unlike the criminal case, where the burden of proof was beyond a reasonable doubt, in the civil trial, it only took a preponderance of the evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a good day for justice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blake has consistently maintained he found his wife dead in their car in May 2001 after they had dinner at a Los Angeles area restaurant. He said she was shot while he went back inside the restaurant to retrieve a gun.

Jurors in his civil trial weren`t required to determine exactly how Blake was responsible for his wife`s death, just that he was. After his acquittal on murder charges, he described himself as penniless.

BLAKE: I`m broke. Right now, I couldn`t buy spats for a hummingbird. If you want to know how to go through $10 million in five years, ask me. All you`ve got to do is get in front of...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

BLAKE: What? I`m broke!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.

BLAKE: I need a job!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The lawyer for Bakley`s family expects Blake to pay up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ll take a cashier`s check or cash. I leave it at whatever he wants to do, but hopefully, not in quarters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s really hard to tell what Robert Blake is doing with his life these days. We know that recently, he appeared on the Piers Morgan show. He was cantankerous. He was agitated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLAKE: I didn`t murder my wife. It may be significant to you...

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": I didn`t say you did.

BLAKE: ... but it isn`t to me.

MORGAN: I said...

BLAKE: You said there`s nothing more significant.

MORGAN: Than the murder of your wife.

BLAKE: Personally, it`s not the most significant thing in my life.

MORGAN: What is...

BLAKE: The most significant thing in my life is when I was 2 years old and I found an audience. The next most significant thing is when I went to MGM as an extra, and three years later, I starred in my first film.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He claims he is absolutely flat broke. The family of Bonny Lee Bakley, which certainly has not seen the money that they were awarded, says he`s probably hiding money somewhere. Who knows? One thing we know, he`s no longer the big star he was before this happened. This has tainted him.

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BLAKE: I have lived my life in front of people. From the time I was 2 years old, I was in front of people, never with them. And I`ve always been kind of alone that way. But as long as there was a camera within 10 feet of me that I could get in front of, or if I can get in front of an audience, I feel comfortable. I feel at home. But I`ve never been a successful person in terms of relationships. You know, I`ll give you one line...

MORGAN: Are you capable of love?

BLAKE: Absolutely. I love my life. I love God. I can`t tell you -- love spills out of my ears at night when I`m lying alone, the gratitude that I have for my life. How could you not love a God that kept you alive in a cement box for a year?

My goal in life is to make one more beautiful film, not write books and not do talk shows and not go out and sign autographs, like all older actors and (EXPLETIVE DELETED) do. And there`s nothing wrong with it. That`d be fine. I could go on the road and spend the rest of my life with the people.

But then the cops would have won. The (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that killed me would see that I was still in my grave. But if I get in the middle of that arena and ride that bull and do the best movie I ever did in my life and Harvey Weinstein`s out there someplace and Kevin Costner and whoever they are, and I`ll find one of them, and I`ll go out the way I want to go out. And that`s not living some kind of half-assed (EXPLETIVE DELETED) life that old actors live.

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GRACE: The Italian restaurant they went to that night, the shooting behind the restaurant, the handgun thrown away, conveniently, in a dumpster, right behind the restaurant -- I think of how Bonny Lee Bakley was maligned and dragged through the mud during the trial, the murder victim, and how, ultimately, celebrity and show business beat out Lady Justice. That`s what I think of.

END