VAN NUYS, Calif. — A stuntman who thought he was meeting with Robert Blake to talk about a movie idea testified Wednesday that it soon became clear that the actor was asking him to kill his wife.

"Somehow we, meaning he and I, were going to get rid of her," said Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton, who told jurors he met Blake at a deli in Studio City about two months before Bonny Lee Bakley was shot to death.

"I felt extremely uncomfortable," he said. "There were obviously people who could hear our conversation."

Hambleton said Blake drove him around Studio City and suggested ways his wife could be killed, including ambushing as the couple took a walk, or hiding in Blake's camper van and "taking care of business" before or after the couple went to dinner at Vitello's Italian restaurant.

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"The conversation went: 'We are going to take care of my wife,'" Hambleton testified. "Later on, he told me what her name was: Bonny Blakely [sic]. Then it went from 'we' to 'me.'"

"I was trying to get out of it every possible way I could," Hambleton testified.

"What alternatives did you offer [Blake]?" prosecutor Shellie Samuels asked.

"That I could go speak with Bonny. That he could buy his way out of the situation." Hambleton said Blake seemed "extremely reluctant and somewhat agitated" at his suggestions.

"The whole thing hit me by surprise," he said.

The former stuntman told jurors that money was not discussed, although they had two more meetings. He testified that he felt intimidated by the actor and was afraid to refuse to see him. At their last meeting, Blake allegedly became angry when he finally said he wouldn't participate.

"He said, 'Well, if you're not going to do it, I sure as hell am," Hambleton said.

Blake, who claims he had nothing to do with Bakley's May 4, 2001, death, did not show any emotion as the witness recounted their alleged conversations.

The 71-year-old actor appeared sleepy at times, watching the stuntman and patting his white hair absentmindedly with a thin, pale hand.

Blake's defense attorney suggested during cross-examination that the meetings were instead about a movie idea involving motorcycles.

"You talked enough about the treatment that he told you to get a motorcycle and start getting in shape?" Gerald Schwartzbach asked Hambleton.

The witness admitted that he had bought a bike and began to run and lift weights in preparation, but maintained that Blake predominantly talked about "snuffing" Bakley.

Blake is charged with one count of murder and two counts of soliciting Hambleton and another witness, Gary "Whiz Kid" McLarty, who also testified this week, to kill his wife of six months.

Plotting a murder

Hambleton, 68, said he met Blake in the mid-1960s at a Studio City gym where they both worked out.

Hambleton was a stunt performer on the '70s "Baretta" series, but before the March meetings the last time he'd seen the actor was on the set of the TV show "Joe Dancer" in 1980.

The retired stuntman, who wore a dark suit and bushy mustache, appeared to have gained weight since his appearance at a preliminary hearing in 2003, and his gleaming pate was shaved bald.

Like McLarty, Hambleton testified that his first meeting with Blake was facilitated by a mutual acquaintance, Roy "Snuffy" Harrison — whom Hambleton later told Blake he didn't trust as a go-between.

"I suggested [Blake] purchase a calling card. I explained you wouldn't be able to trace the calls," Hambleton said.

Blake drove them to a 7-11 and paid cash for the card, the witness said.

An AT&T representative previously testified that he retrieved the phone calls Blake made with that calling card, at prosecutors' request, using the card's unique identification numbers. Jurors saw several pages of phone records, indicating dozens of calls between the two men.

A killing scenario

The stuntman testified that at their first March 2001 meeting, Blake drove him back to the actor's "Mata Hari Ranch" residence, showed him the guest house where Bakley slept, and suggested a killing scenario.

Blake would leave the front property gate open, so someone could sneak in like a burglar, climb the stairs to Bakley's bedroom and "take care of business," Hambleton testified. Blake allegedly walked the witness down the street and showed him a possible escape route — a footpath that led across the Los Angeles River.

McLarty testified about a similar scenario he claims Blake suggested.

Hambleton said Blake showed him a zippered carrying case, which contained a .25 automatic Baretta or possibly a mini Colt handgun.

"He said that in the event I needed a gun, this one was unregistered, a throwaway, couldn't be traced," the witness testified, adding that he didn't touch it.

Blake also brought out a three-ring binder filled with nude photos and con letters derived from Bakley's mail-order porn business.

"He was trying to convince me how evil she was," Hambleton said. He told jurors he wasn't convinced.

At their second meeting at a cafe, Blake allegedly brought up more ways Bakley could be killed, including an ambush shooting while the couple was in a Laughlin, Nevada, motel room, or while they were out camping.

At their third and final meeting, Blake allegedly told the stuntman that Bakley had returned to California from South Carolina, that she was staying at his place, and he "wanted to get the show on the road."

"He said he had a friend who had already dug the holes — plural 'holes,'" Hambleton said, implying that he feared Blake might kill him. "That definitely got my attention. I thought there was only supposed to be one hole."

Delving into drug history

Under cross-examination, Schwartzbach pointed out that in Hambleton's initial interviews with police, he vehemently denied that Blake asked him to murder Bakley, that he was "just as surprised as everybody else" about her death, and that he had no information to offer.

Hambleton said he came finally clean with police about the alleged murder discussions when they interviewed him again in November 2001.

The witness also admitted that he had lied to a friend when he told him Blake offered him $100,000 to kill Bakley.

"The fact of the matter is that you got that figure out of reading the tabloids?" Schwartzbach asked. Hambleton agreed.

Hambleton also conceded that he used methamphetamine when he turned 60, but stopped about two years later in early 1999.

Perhaps anticipating future testimony, Schwartzbach asked Hambleton if he had kept meth in a hutch in his dining room, if he had meth-making materials in a pool cabana, and if he tended to pick at his face and believe animals and people were after him when he was using drugs.

Hambleton laughed at one point, answering no to each question. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said.

Cross-examination of the stuntman will continue on Thursday. Prosecutors expect to rest their case on Monday.

Robert Blake faces life in prison if convicted.