2 Guns Among Items Taken at Blake’s Home

Los Angeles police investigating the shooting death of actor Robert Blake’s wife removed two 9-millimeter handguns, more than 100 rounds of ammunition, credit card receipts and other items from his Studio City home during a search last weekend, according to documents obtained Tuesday by The Times.

Although police say Blake is considered only a witness, the search was criticized by his lawyer, who insisted that police overlooked important evidence: scores of documents belonging to Blake’s wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

The lawyer, Harland W. Braun, said the materials that police left behind demonstrate shady business dealings by Bakley. Letters and other records reveal a scheme to solicit money from lonely men by placing ads in adult magazines and corresponding with them; some were persuaded to send her cash and bus and airline tickets through the mail, Braun said.

“By ignoring the possibility that someone came from her past, they’re overemphasizing Blake as a possible suspect,” Braun said. “Blake’s position and my position is that he’s innocent. So we want them to investigate Blake--we’re not trying to hide anything--and every other possible suspect.”

Lt. Horace Frank, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, said investigators are examining all legitimate evidence.

“The department is conducting a full investigation in this matter,” Frank said.

Frank said the material carted away by homicide detectives, including documents listing Bakley’s nickname, LeeBonny, was deemed crucial to solving the case.

“They only took what would assist them in solving this particular crime,” Frank said.

A spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms said Tuesday that a gun involved in the case was being checked at the bureau’s National Tracing Center in Falling Waters, W. Va. The results will be provided to the LAPD, she said.

Bakley, 44, was found fatally shot in the couple’s car about 10 p.m. Friday. The car was parked a block away from Vitello’s, a Studio City restaurant where the couple had dined earlier.

Blake, best known for his role as a police officer in the 1970s television series “Baretta,” told police that he found his wife wounded after he left her alone briefly to retrieve a handgun he had forgotten in the restaurant.

Blake’s lawyers said he told police that he had the gun, which he is licensed to carry, because Bakley was afraid for her safety. Blake is a gun collector who keeps a variety of firearms at his home, Braun said.

Blake, 67, and his wife, who married recently after DNA tests showed that Blake was the father of Bakley’s daughter, lived in separate homes on his property, his lawyers said.

The couple had considered a prenuptial agreement, but neither signed one, the lawyers said.

Cary Goldstein, a lawyer who represented Bakley during the paternity case and part of the negotiations over the prenuptial agreement, spoke highly of her.

“In my dealings with her, she was nothing but honest and honorable,” Goldstein said. “She was never deceptive.”

“LeeBonny loved the man and didn’t understand why he was keeping her at a distance” he said. “She did care for him.”

Officers looked through Bakley’s living unit Friday night. On Saturday, they returned with a search warrant for Blake’s address.

Later, Braun and private investigator Scott Ross removed three steamer trunks and six suitcases of additional documents.

Braun, who frequently represents police officers, was assisted by two anti-gang officers who have been suspended from the LAPD’s Rampart Division. They pored through thousands of pages of letters and financial records searching for leads.

Braun said the documents the police left behind are important because they help show that many people might have had motives to hurt Bakley.

Letters released by Braun show a woman portraying herself as young, attractive and desperate. She asks for money to help with transportation and other expenses.

One letter promises a future relationship, “if we hit it off in the bedroom or out of it.”

The letter is signed “Karen,” one of the pseudonyms Blake’s lawyer says Bakley used.

Braun said he was at the Blake property as police searched Saturday.

“All I know is I stood there and told them what to search for,” Braun said. “I explained to them what her business was. . . . Her letters would be an indication of who would have an inclination to kill her.”

Police said they performed a test within hours of the shooting to learn whether there was gunpowder residue on Blake. Although Braun has said the test results were negative, police said Tuesday they were awaiting results from a crime lab.

Frank declined to divulge what investigators found in a recent search of a vacant lot yards from where Bakley’s body was found.

Bakley’s uncle, George Hall, said his niece visited friends and relatives in northern New Jersey about a month ago.

Hall said that after the trip, an old friend, whom he would not identify, told Hall that Bakley displayed unusual behavior, crying and acting distraught.

“She mentioned [to the friend] that Blake wanted the baby but didn’t want her,” Hall said.

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Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein and Josh Meyer contributed to this story.