BURBANK, Calif. — Robert Blake kept a cool distance from his dying wife the night she was shot to death, a witness testified Monday in the "Baretta" star's wrongful death civil trial.

"People react differently, but for the most part, I was surprised by how much he held back," said Mary Beth Rennie, a hospital worker who was strolling near the crime scene with her boyfriend minutes after Bonny Lee Bakley was murdered. "Other than one time approaching the car when he looked at her and walked away, I didn't see him get close to her."

While a passerby tried to stanch the blood gushing from Bakley's head wounds, Rennie said, Blake sat on the curb nearby, rocking back and forth. But as police and ambulance arrived, according to the witness, the actor began to cry loudly, moaning, "My wife! My wife!"

"He vomited twice," Rennie said, noting that she was not close enough to see if the tears were real, but observed that the vomit was.

Story continues

advertisement

"There was something that did not seem natural," she said.

Earlier this year, a jury deliberated for nine days to find Blake not guilty of murdering his wife. Several witnesses in the criminal trial, including Rennie, said Blake acted strangely, but the jury was ultimately unconvinced that it was the behavior of a cold-blooded killer.

Blake is now being sued for monetary damages by Bakley's four children, including Rose Lenore Sophia Blake, or "Rosie," the 5-year-old daughter the couple once shared.

Rosie is being raised by Blake's adult daughter Delinah and her husband, who have legally adopted her.

For the out-of-work actor, who turned 72 on Sunday, his civil trial may seem like a series rerun — different season, but same dialogue, same twisting plots, and same shady characters.

Prosecutors in the criminal trial theorized that Blake was so obsessed with wrestling custody of Rosie from his wife — a successful mail-order pornographer — that he tried to get his handyman, Earle Caldwell, and then two drug-addicted stuntmen to kill Bakley.

The stuntmen are expected to return to the stand for the civil trial.

Caldwell testified last week that he got along well with Bakley, he was out of town on May 4, 2001, when she was killed, and he had nothing to do with her death.

Prosecutors dropped conspiracy charges against Caldwell because of a lack of evidence. But Caldwell is now Blake's co-defendant in the wrongful death suit.

Prosecutors alleged that when Blake couldn't get the stuntmen to kill his wife, he shot her himself as she sat alone in his parked Dodge Stealth, shortly after they had dinner at Vitello's, an Italian restaurant in Studio City, Calif.

Blake always has maintained his innocence, saying that there are plenty of scorned men in Bakley's past who had motive to kill her.

Bakley made money selling photos, and sometimes unfulfilled promises of sex, to men who answered ads on the back pages of lonely-hearts magazines.

Blake's attorney, Peter Ezzell, told jurors during opening statements that Blake was in shock when he saw his wife bleeding and slumped over in the car.

Rennie agreed that he seemed hysterical, but felt that his actions were "a little over the top."

"Would it be fair to say that strangers were comforting Blake's wife as he sat on the curb?" Eric Dubin, the Bakley's family attorney, asked Rennie.

"The nurse did, yes," Rennie said, referring to a samaritan who stopped to help.

Detectives found the murder weapon, an untraceable WWII-era 9 mm pistol, in a Dumpster near the crime scene. No prints could be recovered from the weapon. In fact, there was no blood, no DNA, and no hard physical evidence putting the gun in Blake's hands.

But unlike in the criminal trial, to find Blake liable in the civil trial, 9 of the 12 jurors need to be convinced that it's more likely than not that Blake and Caldwell's actions led to Bakley's death.

He is expected to take the stand in the next week, something he did not do in his civil trial.

The Bakley children are seeking an unspecified amount of monetary damages. They previously refused a $250,000 offer to settle the lawsuit.