BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:52 p.m. ET March 16, 2005LOS ANGELES - Jurors acquitted former TV actor Robert Blake in the murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley, and found him not guilty of soliciting former stuntman Gary McLarty to kill Bakley.
But the panel was deadlocked 11-1 on the second of three counts, alleging Blake solicited Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton to kill his wife.
The 71-year-old star of the 1970s detective drama ??Baretta? dropped his head, trembled with emotion, and let out several deep breaths after the verdict was read.
The jury of seven men and five women delivered the verdicts on its ninth day of deliberations, following a trial with a cast a characters that included two Hollywood stuntmen who said Blake tried to get them to bump off his wife.
Blake had faced life in prison; prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. Jurors began deliberations March 4.
Blake was charged with shooting 44-year-old Bonny Lee Bakley to death in their car outside the actor??s favorite Italian restaurant on May 4, 2001, less than six months after their marriage. Prosecutors claimed Blake shot Bakley in a car outside the Studio City restaurant after failing to persuade Hambleton and another ex-stuntman to kill her.
The announcement of the verdicts came several hours after jurors reviewed testimony from an author who said police provided him with details of an interview with a former Hollywood stuntman whom Blake allegedly asked to kill his wife.
Miles Corwin wrote the book ??Homicide Special: A Year with the LAPD??s Elite Detective Unit? in which he included details of the Blake investigation and other cases.
In his testimony, Corwin couldn??t recall whether he heard a tape recording or read a transcript of the police interview with Hambleton shortly after the killing of Bonny Lee Bakley.
No direct links to crime
Hambleton told police that Blake had approached him to work on a script and had said nothing about wanting to have his wife killed, Corwin testified.
Jurors listened to about 45 minutes of testimony from Corwin.
Hambleton denied knowing anything about a plot to kill Bakley until six months after the crime then gave a detailed account of Blake allegedly scouting locations for the murder.
Hambleton??s testimony was crucial to the prosecution because there is no DNA or other physical evidence linking Blake to the crime.
In his closing arguments, defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach suggested Hambleton made up the story while either delusional from drugs or to win favor with authorities as he faced an unrelated misdemeanor firearms charge.
On Tuesday, the panel reviewed testimony from Hambleton about that charge. He said he told the San Bernardino County Sheriff??s Department there were 20 armed men on his property. When deputies arrived, they found only Hambleton brandishing a weapon.
Jurors also heard other testimony by Corwin that he reached the crime scene about 4 a.m. and stayed with detectives as they investigated. He confirmed that he wrote in his book that he observed a mirror in Blake??s house on which were written the words: ??I??m not going down.?
Last week, jurors reviewed testimony by three people at the restaurant who saw Blake the night of the killing.
