Blake Breakdown in Court

Mon., Feb. 14, 2005 6:15 PM PST by Joal Ryan

The prosecution rested. The accused sobbed.

Reports from the Van Nuys, California, courtroom could not pinpoint why Robert Blake broke down at the defense table Monday. But they did detail what the wailing sounded like.

City News Service called it an "audible sob" and an "emotional outburst." Associated Press talked of Blake's "entire body shaking" and his "sobs resonat[ing] from the hallway outside."

The normally stoic, if fidgety celebrity defendant was escorted from court--"rushed," AP said--by his lawyers once the crying jag set in. A calmer Blake returned to the scene of his ongoing murder trial about three minutes later, the wire service said.

Blake, 71, is charged with the murder of wife Bonny Lee Bakley, gunned down on May 4, 2001, as she sat in a parked car outside a restaurant in Studio City, California.

The Emmy-winning actor's sobbing scene was prefaced by the presentation of the final exhibit from the prosecution's case: Blake's own 2003 TV interview with Barbara Walters.

In the segments shown in court, Blake talks of his love for his and Bakley's daughter, Rose, born in 2000.

"Rosie is safe," Blake tells Walters at one point. "Those monsters will never get her."

The prosecution maintains that Blake, after failing to hire two ex-stuntman and a Carlito's Way mobster to kill Bakley for him, shot his wife himself in order to end an unwanted marriage and rid his young child of the Bakley family, supposedly the "monsters" of the Walters sound bite.

If something about the Walters video sent Blake over the edge Monday, then City News Service points out that the onetime Baretta star appeared out of sorts all day.

All things considered, it wasn't a bad day for the actor.

The prosecution's nearly monthlong presentation ended the way it began, with no physical evidence linking Blake to the crime.

A Los Angeles Police Department forensics expert testified Monday that 11 fingerprints were found in the 1991 Dodge Stealth that Bakley was sitting in when she was shot. Three of the prints belonged to Blake, who owned the car; two of the prints belonged to Earle Caldwell, Blake's bodyguard/handyman; and, six of the prints belonged to anybody's guess--the forensics expert couldn't determine their origin.

Blake's defense is expected to center around the argument that lots of people wanted Bakley, a convicted scam artist, dead.

Also on the stand Monday was a bank teller who testified of $126,000 withdrawn by Blake over a six-month period ending in March 2001, three months before the Bakley slaying.

The prosecution apparently was trying to link the cash withdrawals to its hit-man scenario.

Under cross-examination, though, the teller said there was nothing illegal or unprecedented about Blake's banking activity.

Blake has pleaded innocent to all charges. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Emotional day in court or no, the onetime TV star is expected back Tuesday morning when the defense goes on offense.