Detectives Search Blake’s Home, 2 Other Locations

With Robert Blake in custody in the county jail’s hospital ward, Los Angeles police detectives searched the actor’s Hidden Hills home and two other places Friday for additional evidence to prove that he killed his wife.

Blake’s lawyer said authorities also sought to bolster their case by offering a deal to the actor’s bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, who, like Blake, was arrested Thursday. But attorney Harland W. Braun said no deal was struck. Police denied that any deal had been offered.

Blake, 68, and Caldwell, 46, are suspects in the death last May of Blake’s wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, who was shot in the head near a Studio City restaurant where she and Blake had just eaten.

The actor, who has maintained his innocence, is accused of shooting Bakley with a World War II-vintage weapon.

Blake, booked on suspicion of murder, is being held without bail in a segregated area on the hospital floor of the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, the same ward that once housed O.J. Simpson, among other high-profile inmates.

Sheriff’s officials stressed that Blake, best known as the detective in the 1970s television series “Baretta,” is being held there because there was not enough room in segregated housing in other areas of the jail. They added that he was not suffering from any medical condition.

“Because of his notoriety, to put him in the regular population, it would put him in danger,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Carl Deeley.

In sweeps of Blake’s home in Hidden Hills and Caldwell’s apartment in Burbank, homicide detectives seized papers, computers and weapons, said Capt. Jim Tatreau of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Acting on search warrants issued Thursday, detectives also examined a third location, identified only as somewhere in “the southern part of the state,” he said.

In a news conference at the LAPD’s headquarters, Tatreau said detectives plan to present the case against Blake and Caldwell to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office early Monday. If prosecutors file charges, both men are expected to be arraigned that morning in Van Nuys.

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No Additional Arrests Expected

Tatreau also said detectives have questioned two people Blake allegedly solicited to murder his wife but don’t anticipate making any additional arrests.

“They’ve certainly been interviewed and provided statements,” Tatreau said of the two people.

In response to a question about whether the two people rejected Blake’s alleged offer to kill his wife, Tatreau said, “No one has offered that they turned it down and no one has confirmed anything about their role or what they did.”

That was typical of the tenor of the news conference, in which little new information was disclosed about the nearly year-old case. Investigators traveled to more than 20 states, interviewed more than 150 witnesses and collected about 900 items of evidence, authorities said. No other LAPD murder investigation has required so much travel, Tatreau said.

The case was especially complex because Bakley had a checkered past and, according to Braun, many potential enemies. She had a criminal record and had been running a mail-order dating service in which she allegedly sent letters, videotapes and nude photographs to men in exchange for cash, plane and bus tickets.

Blake married her in November 2000, five months after she gave birth to a daughter, Rose. Tests had shown Blake to be the father. The girl has remained with Blake and his adult daughter, Delinah, since Bakley’s death.

Police said Blake told them that Bakley was shot in the couple’s car when he left her alone briefly to retrieve a gun, which he is licensed to carry, from the restaurant where they had been eating. Police said Thursday that he killed her to escape their marriage.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the charges expected to be filed Monday will likely be similar to what Police Chief Bernard C. Parks announced Thursday night.

Parks said he expected that Blake would face one count of murder with a special allegation of lying in wait, which means he could face the death penalty, and two counts of solicitation, and that Caldwell would face one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

Braun said the way the arrests were carried out suggested there might be friction between the two agencies over handling of the case.

He said he thought police “jumped the gun” by not waiting to arrest Blake until a criminal complaint or indictment was filed.

“It looks to me as if Parks is trying to jam this down [Dist. Atty. Steve] Cooley’s throat,” Braun said. “I think it’s a very weird situation.”

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Case ‘Came Together’ After Nearly a Year

Gibbons said the district attorney’s office did not file a criminal complaint before the arrest because the case had not been formally presented to prosecutors. “There is a ballet, if you will,” she said.

“We’ve been working with them for 11 months,” she added. “Finally it all came together a few days ago.”

Gibbons declined to comment on Braun’s claim that authorities had offered a deal to Caldwell, who police said was believed to have been out of town the night Bakley was killed.

Braun said police “offered to let him go last night if he would give them information that would have hurt Robert, but he didn’t have any.”

Bakley’s family, which has expressed relief over the arrests, announced plans Friday to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against Blake and Caldwell in the next two weeks. The lawsuit must be filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by May 4, the one-year anniversary of Bakley’s death.

“The family is pleased they are making a step toward closure and resolution,” said Bakley family attorney Cary Goldstein. “They are still feeling the pain of the murder.”

He said child custody is not an issue at this time. Rose is living with Blake’s adult daughter. The Bakley family may eventually seek visitation rights.

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Times staff writers Jean Guccione and Mitchell Landsberg contributed to this report.