BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — A lawyer for the children of actor Robert Blake's slain wife acknowledged Thursday that Bonny Lee Bakley "did some stupid things in her life" but loved her kids, and he said he would prove Blake's actions led to her killing.

Blake was acquitted of murder charges by a jury in March, but Bakley's two adult children and two minor children, including her 4-year-old daughter with Blake, are suing for monetary damages.

"She did some stupid things in her life," attorney Eric Dubin said in opening statements of the wrongful-death trial.

"Regardless of what she did for a living, Bonny loved her kids and her kids loved her," he said. "I ask you to listen to her kids and not the lawyers."

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Dubin talked for nearly four hours before he was cut off by Superior Court Judge David Schacter on grounds he persisted in presenting arguments rather than stating facts. Arguments are allowed at the end of testimony.

"You mean my whole opening statement is over?" Dubin asked.

"Yes," said the judge.

Dubin then told the jurors there had been a plan to kidnap Rosie, a plan to get Bakley arrested and jailed, and a plan to have her killed. "It was a plan that led to the wrongful death of a mother of four," he said.

In the defense opening statement, Blake lawyer Peter Ezzell methodically outlined a scenario almost identical to that heard in the criminal trial, except that he said Blake will testify.

Ezzell said Blake will tell the jury how he met Bakley, that she defrauded him into thinking she would not get pregnant and how he responded when he learned she was carrying his child.

Blake agreed to a "marriage of convenience" but he wanted to make it work, Ezzell said.

Blake had nothing to do with Bakley's killing and evidence does not link him in any way to her shooting, Ezzell told the jury. "He will tell you he was shocked tremendously by what he saw" when he found Bakley slumped over in his car.

Dubin indicated that his first witness on Friday would be a private investigator hired by Blake to investigate Bakley's past.

During his statement Thursday, Dubin also played a tape that had been excluded from the criminal trial because the judge ruled that it contained no threats by Blake.

At one point on the tape, Blake declared, "You deliberately got pregnant, and for the rest of your life you'll never forget it and I'll never forget it."

Dubin promised to present a witness to implicate Blake's former handyman, Earle Caldwell. The witness, he said, dated Caldwell in the 1980s and claims she can identify the murder weapon as one she saw in Caldwell's possession in 1986. The judge has not ruled whether she can testify. Caldwell was initially part of the criminal case, but charges against him were dismissed.