BURBANK, Calif. — Blood, blood everywhere, and not a drop on Robert Blake.

When the "Baretta" star's wife was shot twice in his sports car more than four years ago, a neighbor who came to her aid described the blond mother of four as gurgling blood from her nose and mouth while unconsciously struggling for air.

Blake, whose hands were clean, says he stepped away briefly during the time Bonny Lee Bakley was murdered. But he also told police that, when he found her, he reached for his dying wife as she bled in his car. Yet forensic investigators never found any of the dead woman's blood on Blake's hands or clothes.

On Wednesday, the actor explained to a jury for the first time why he was spotless.

Story continues

advertisement

"I shook Bonny with my right hand and said, 'Wake up, toots,'" Blake testified. "And I saw drops of blood from her nose and maybe a little bit from her mouth."

As he spoke, crime-scene photos were shown to jurors, depicting Bakley's dried, caked blood on the car's center console, passenger seat and a few specks on the driver's seat.

"Did you notice the pool of blood on the console?" Bakley family civil attorney Eric Dubin asked Blake.

"That blood was not there," Blake said firmly. "I'm not blind. The light was on. That blood was not there."

Blake was acquitted of murder charges in March and is now being sued in civil court by Bakley's four children for their mother's wrongful death. During his criminal trial, expert witnesses on both sides argued about how much blood Bakley would have lost after being shot twice in the head and right shoulder.

The plaintiffs contend that Blake never touched Bakley after she was shot, as evidenced by the lack of blood on his hands, and that he was so concerned with appearing innocent, that he purposely avoided tainting his hands or clothes.

"Is it true, sir, that you had no blood on your clothes following the night of the killing?" Dubin asked.

"Is it true I had no blood on my clothes following the night of the killing? I think that was what was determined by the, uh, forensic, uh, yadda-yadda," Blake said casually.

The actor also answered a question that has long puzzled watchers of his criminal trial: Why did he walk two blocks back to the restaurant where they had just dined to retrieve his forgotten gun, instead of just driving up and running in to fetch it?

An intricate piece of Blake's story concerns the fact that he was carrying a licensed revolver on the night Bakley was killed. But that gun was not the murder weapon — it was Blake's alibi.

Blake says that, during the time it took him to walk back to the restaurant to get his revolver, someone else snuck up and gunned his wife down.

"Why didn't you drive up to get the gun?" Dubin asked.

"It never occurred to me," Blake said matter-of-factly. "And it probably wouldn't have been a good idea any way, because you'd have to double-park."

The actor explained that the busy Studio City street in front of Vitello's Restaurant was dangerous on a Friday night and difficult to maneuver around.

Intimidation, not murder

A star of the 1967 movie "In Cold Blood," Blake has kept a strong, unwavering constitution through three days of direct testimony. But he appeared groggy and disoriented by day's end Wednesday.

His eyes were heavy, his mouth hung slightly open and his typical snappish responses and taunts of "You stop that!" to his questioner were reduced to a muddled whisper, causing the court reporter to twice ask him to repeat himself.

Despite a withering demeanor, he stuck to his guns, defending his innocence when asked about seemingly suspicious behavior before his wife's death, including his surreptitious contact with two stuntmen who had histories of violent behavior.

"There were some strange things happening in front of my house that concerned me," Blake said, describing a man with a "buzzcut" who would park in front of his home late at night and speed off when Blake approached. "Stunt guys, men and women, they take care of their own ... I told Duffy what the problem was, and it was my understanding that he'd take care of it."

Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton told jurors at Blake's criminal trial that he met with the actor in March 2001 to talk about ways to kill his wife.

Buy a calling card, Hambleton said he told Blake, so our calls will be untraceable.

Blake had a different take.

"Duffy said if he was going to do the job — intimidate whoever it was hanging out in front of my house — he didn't want any connection with me in case there was any trouble with the police," Blake testified. "He said, 'Nothing can revert back to you if I have to get a little tense with somebody.'"

Investigators discovered that Blake used the calling card more than 100 times in a two-month period to call Hambleton — the last time on May 4, 2001, the night Bakley was killed. He never used the card again.

"In any way, shape or form, did you communicate to Duffy Hambleton that you wanted him to kill Bonny Lee Bakley?" Dubin asked Blake.

"No," Blake said.

Hambleton told police he backed out of the alleged solicitation and he was not charged with any crime.

Child of the Depression

Hambleton and another stuntman also claimed that Blake said he was withdrawing cash in small increments of $5,000 and $10,000 to pay a hit man.

Bank records, which have not yet been presented at the civil trial, indicate Blake withdrew more than $125,000 in the weeks preceding his wife's murder.

Blake explained Wednesday that, as a Depression-era child, he liked to keep money in his dresser drawers at home. He also revealed for the first time that he gave most of the cash to Bakley.

"I gave her $125,000 or $135,000 over a short period of time," Blake said.

Bakley, who was a successful mail-order porn entrepreneur, once refused Blake's offer of $250,000 to have an abortion. Blake said that she began to accept his money after they became engaged.

With an incredulous tone, Dubin read to Blake from the couple's marital agreement, which stated that she waived all rights to any money or community property.

"I had the intention of giving her all the money she needed, so she wouldn't have to be in her business anymore," Blake said, telling jurors that he didn't pay any attention to their contract.

Jurors may pose approved questions in the civil trial, and one juror had a question for Blake Wednesday morning.

The actor, who says he is dyslexic, did not use his wife's cellphone to call 911 on the night she was shot, but instead went knocking on doors for help.

Dubin paraphrased the juror's question, which asked somewhat rhetorically — if Blake knew how to use a handgun, and was able to learn his lines as an actor, and was familiar with using his home phone, then which part of using a cellphone was hard to master: the opening of the phone, the dialing, or pressing the send button?

Blake explained that he knew how to use cellphones, but found them distasteful and rude.

"I have one now and I don't like it," Blake said. "When this trial's over, I'll throw it away."