VAN NUYS, Calif. — Robert Blake's former handyman, Earle Caldwell, allegedly plotted to plant drugs on Bonny Lee Bakley to get her arrested, a witness testified Wednesday in the actor's murder trial.

"He told me he was going to Arkansas to plant drugs on Bonny's home or person," said Lisa Johnson, Caldwell's former girlfriend. "He said there were people there who would help him once he arrived. He led me to believe it was either her probation officer or law enforcement officers. I don't remember exactly."

"And if anyone asked for him while he was gone?" asked Prosecutor Shellie Samuels.

"To tell them he was on a fishing trip," Johnson said, adding that Caldwell returned a week later and reported that the plot was "unsuccessful."

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Johnson could not recall the date of the alleged drug-planting trip, but according to court records, around Dec. 16, 2000, Bakley's adult children Holly and Glenn Gawron found a tackle box in Bakley's car containing "bindles of cocaine, which the Gawrons later sold."

Johnson also testified that three days before Bakley was killed, Caldwell left town suddenly, telling her he was going to San Francisco and "don't ask questions."

"He was very stern and it was very sudden. He sounded extremely mysterious," Johnson said.

On May 5, 2001, the day after Bakley was murdered, Caldwell phoned Johnson and instructed her to remove specific items from his apartment.

"He was afraid police would immediately search his apartment, and he didn't want to lose his possessions," Johnson said.

Among the items she collected were a computer, sweatshirts, Post-it notes, receipts, a brown bottle filled with clear liquid sitting on his kitchen windowsill, and an Altoids tin in the freezer, which contained what the witness described as "brown, clear rocks of a grainy substance."

She testified that she had never known Caldwell to use drugs.

A year after Bakley's murder, Caldwell and Blake were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The charges against Blake's former handyman/bodyguard were dropped when a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence.

Caldwell invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and will not testify in the actor's murder trial.

Blake, 71, sat quietly and listened to Johnson's testimony but did not betray any emotion. Jurors appeared to be taking notes and leaning in as Johnson described her boyfriend's "unusual" behavior around the time of Bakley's murder.

Following directions

Johnson, who appeared to be in her late 30s, said she began dating Caldwell in January 1999, and that he was separated from his wife.

She told jurors that the handyman began working for Blake in 2000 and was "essentially on call to Robert 24 hours a day," leaving in the middle of the night if Blake called.

When she got Caldwell's May 5 phone call, Johnson said, she waited until dark and then parked in the back alley of his apartment building to carry out his request.

"He wanted me to box everything and keep it in my apartment until he returned," Johnson testified, adding that Caldwell asked her to throw away the bottle of clear liquid and Altoids tin in separate places. She said she dutifully followed his request.

When Caldwell returned from the Bay area a few days later, he sat alone in Johnson's bedroom and examined the contents of each box.

"He was in a foul mood," Johnson told jurors. "He said this is his and Robert's business, not mine."

During cross-examination, the defense suggested that the brown liquid and granular rocks may have been Caldwell's drugs. The witness conceded that Caldwell was a bodybuilder, but said she was not sure if he used steroids.

Johnson told jurors that she "glanced" at her boyfriend's items as she boxed them up and defense attorney Gerald Schwartzbach tried to undermine her credibility as he questioned her about an item in the box that drew her attention — a card sent by Caldwell's wife only days before his trip to the Bay area.

The card read, "I miss you, Love always," according to Schwartzbach, and was signed by Caldwell's wife, who lived in San Francisco.

Johnson agreed that she felt "betrayed" and that the discovery of the card played a role in her decision to break up with Caldwell in July 2001.

She also conceded that when she was first interviewed by detectives, she said Caldwell seemed surprised to learn about Bakley's murder.

"Mr. Caldwell never told you that he was going to physically harm Miss Bakley, did he?" Schwartzbach asked. "And he never told you that Mr. Blake wanted physical harm to be done to Miss Bakley?"

Johnson said "No," to both questions.

Memories of a stuntman

Jurors also heard from retired stuntman Roy "Snuffy" Harrison, who said he has been a close friend of the defendant's since they met on the "Baretta" set in the 1970s.

Prosecutors say that when Blake couldn't get two former stuntmen — Gary "Whiz Kid" McLarty and Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton — to kill Bakley, he pulled the trigger himself.

Harrison told jurors that at Blake's request, he put the actor in touch with the two men. He also testified he did not know why Blake wanted to speak with the stuntmen, and he characterized the request as a casual social inquiry.

"A name would come up, and he'd say, 'Tell him to give me a call,'" Harrison said.

According to the account the witness gave police in May 2001, he facilitated a meeting between Blake and Hambleton shortly before Bakley's death. However, on the stand, the elderly stuntman's memory of events was spotty.

He explained to the prosecutor that a few weeks before detectives interviewed him, he underwent a five-way heart bypass surgery and valve replacement.

"I was goofier than a beach ball right then, because of the drugs they gave me for my heart," Harrison said.

He did remember that on Thanksgiving 2000, he saw Hambleton's son at Day in the Dirt, an annual motorcycle racing event that draws stuntmen, actors and racing fans. He said he later contacted Hambleton's son and asked him to tell his father, "The Buzzard wanted him to call."

The Buzzard, Harrison said, was Blake's nickname from his "Baretta" days.

Blake smiled at this comment and appeared amused at times to see his old friend on the stand. They were also seen chatting in the hallway after court.

Robert Blake is accused of murdering his wife of six months in a desperate attempt to gain custody of their infant daughter, Rose Lenore Sophia Blake.

He is charged with one count of murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait and two counts of soliciting McLarty and Hambleton to murder Bonny Lee Bakley. He faces life in prison if convicted.