Robert Blake may have hated his wife, but not enough to kill her, to borrow the title of his most famous film, in cold blood.
Such was the conclusion reached Wednesday by 12 of the Baretta star's peers, who determined that there was not enough evidence to convict the actor of the shooting death of Bonny Lee Bakley.
Blake was visibly relieved as the verdict was read in the Van Nuys, California, courthouse. He rubbed his eyes, hugged his attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach and, minutes later, broke down and cried.
Shortly thereafter, he walked out of the courthouse a free man.
The actor made it clear that mounting his defense came at no small cost.
"If you want to know how to go through $10 million in five years, ask me," he told reporters outside the courtroom.
"I'm broke. I need a job."
He went on to thank his "small band of dedicated lawyers for saving my life. They saved Rosie's daddy's life." Blake had gone through three different lead attorneys before sticking with Schwartzbach.
The 71-year-old actor had faced life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.
During his rambling half-hour remarks to reporters, he said he was ready to "cowboy it...Get in a motor home or van, feel the wind in my hair and find a little bar in Arizona or someplace."
After hearing nine weeks of testimony from a roster of colorful witnesses, 12 of Blake's peers--five women and seven men--deliberated for almost eight full days before determining the actor was innocent of murder and one count of soliciting murder.
The jury was deadlocked, by an 11-1 vote in favor of acquittal, on a second count of solicitation of murder involving Blake's alleged attempt to hire a former stuntman to do away with Bakley.
Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp dismissed the charge, putting an end to Blake's courtroom drama.
Bakley was killed in Studio City on May 4, 2001, as she sat in Blake's car outside of Vitello's restaurant, where the couple had just dined.
Blake's defense team contended that the actor had left Bakley in the car while he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a forgotten firearm that he carried for protection.
When he returned to the car, he found his wife bleeding to death from two gunshot wounds to the head.
The prosecution, on the other hand, alleged that Blake shot his wife twice in the head himself in order to end his unwanted marriage.
However, no DNA evidence or eyewitnesses linked Blake to the murder scene, making the defense's version of events appear more plausible to the jury.
In a press conference following the verdict, jury foreman Thomas Nicholson said the lack of physical evidence made the prosecution's case seem "flimsy."
"They could never connect all the links in the chain," Nicholson said. "We couldn't put the gun in his hand."
Over the course of their deliberations, jurors requested to review the testimony of several witnesses: the owner of Vitello's restaurant, where Blake and Bakley dined the night she was murdered; a couple who also dined at the restaurant that night; a former stuntman who testified that the actor tried to hire him to "snuff" Bakley; and author Miles Corwin, who wrote a book titled Homicide Special: A Year with the LAPD's Elite Detective Unit and was with police as they investigated the case.
Both the defense and the prosecution agreed that Blake and Bakley did not wed for love but rather for Blake's love of the couple's infant daughter, Rosie, whom he only accepted as his child after a DNA test proved he was the father.
The prosecution contended that Blake resented being conned into marriage by Bakley and tried various schemes to get out of the union, including trying to have her arrested before the wedding.
During the trial, which began in December, jurors heard from two former stuntmen--Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton and Gary "Whiz Kid" McLarty--star witnesses for the prosecution who alleged that Blake had approached them and attempted to hire them to kill Bakley.
However, the defense managed to discredit Hambleton and McLarty's testimonies by bringing up their past histories of drug abuse, ultimately discounting the stuntmen's recollections of how Blake offered them money to "whack," "pop" and/or "snuff" Bakley.
At the press conference following the verdict, Nicholson dismissed Hambleton as a "prolific liar" who was unable "to keep his story straight."
Blake never took the stand at his trial. Instead, his defense team screened a February 2003 interview in which the Emmy winner told Barbara Walters, "It's all about Rosie. It's always been about Rosie. The greatest gift in the world, and I'm going to try to mess it up by being selfish?"
The child, now four, lives with her half-sister, Blake's adult daughter, Delinah Blake Hurwitz. She gained custody of Rosie in June 2002 after her father was arrested and booked for the homicide of Bakley, 44.
Now that Blake has been absolved of Bakley's murder, it is unclear whether he will reclaim custody of Rosie.
Bakley's daughter, Holly Gawron, 24, sat in the back of the courtroom and wept as the verdict was read.
However, Gawron may still have her day in court. Blake still faces a wrongful-death civil lawsuit, which requires a lower threshold for liability, filed by Bakley's family on behalf of her four surviving children, including Rosie.