Big Picture

Ashlee & Vincent Take NY Plus, Nicole Kidman hangs out with her family and Bradley Cooper is a grizzly guy. The latest pics!

MORE PHOTOS +
Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.
Click Here

Our Partners

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Robert Blake: Jury of Peers?

Jury selection has begun in Robert Blake's murder trial and the roster of potential jurors even includes some of the Baretta star's Tinseltown peers.

Married?with Children's Christina Applegate and A Mighty Wind's Harry Shearer were among those called upon to perform their civic duty, reports the New York Daily News.

The selection process kicked off Monday as potential jurors were asked to fill out questionnaires about the case. The search for more potential panelists continued yesterday and today and is expected to carry on next Thursday and Friday.

The final picks won't be made until next month when attorneys on both sides are expected to begin one-on-one questioning of the prospective jury pool on February 17.

Shearer won't have a hand in deciding Blake's fate--the Spinal Tap star has already got himself excused citing a contractual obligation to The Simpsons, for which he voices the roles of Montgomery Burns, Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders.

Though Applegate was ordered to return on Thursday, it's unlikely she'll see the inside of a courtroom. She's in post-production on two movies, including Will Ferrell's Anchorman and Ben Affleck's Surviving Christmas and is expected to beg off to be available for reshoots and voice-overs.

Blake, 70, is charged in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, who was killed on May 4, 2001, as she sat in a parked car outside of an Italian restaurant where the couple had just dined. Blake claims he'd left Bakley in the car while he ran back into the restaurant to retrieve a gun he'd accidentally left behind. When he got back to the car, Bakley was dead.

He faces one count of murder (with a special circumstance of "lying in wait") and two counts of solicitation of murder. If found guilty, he could face life in prison.

Blake, who's continued to maintain his innocence, is currently free on $1.5 million bail.

0 Comments

Now loading...

Add Your Comment!

Guests

E! Online members

Register | Forgot password?

Play nice and have fun. And please, no HTML tags or special characters including [&*#()!@$].
You've got 1000 characters left.

Post Comment