Blake’s Lawyer Seeks Dismissal of Charges

Robert Blake’s lawyer, citing insufficient evidence, on Friday asked a judge to dismiss the murder and conspiracy charges against the 70-year-old actor.

Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., in a 67-page motion, said there was “absolutely no evidence” tying Blake to the vintage handgun used to kill his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, on May 4, 2001, near a Studio City restaurant where they had dined.

The motion did not address two other charges that accuse Blake of soliciting two former stuntmen from his 1970s “Baretta” television days to kill Bakley before allegedly doing it himself. Mesereau said he would ask the court to dismiss those counts later.

Blake spent 11 months in Los Angeles County Jail before he was released on $1.5-million bond in March. He faces life in prison if convicted on all counts.

Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp will consider Blake’s motion, which is routine in murder cases, at an Oct. 31 hearing in Van Nuys.

In March, Judge Lloyd M. Nash ordered Blake to stand trial for murder, two counts of soliciting murder and conspiracy with the special allegation that he ambushed Bakley while she sat waiting for him in his car on the evening of her death.

Blake has denied the charges, telling police that he went to Vitello’s restaurant to get a handgun he had left at the table and had returned to find Bakley bleeding from the head.

“There is absolutely no evidence that this man killed anybody and there is no evidence that he conspired with anybody,” Mesereau said. “He’s innocent.”

In his motion, Mesereau argued the murder charge should be dismissed because there are no witnesses to the killing nor any forensic evidence linking Blake to the Walther P-38 gun used to fatally shoot Bakley.

Two lead particles found on Blake’s hands, which prosecution experts described as being “consistent with gunshot residue,” could have come from any number of sources, including the handgun Blake told police he was carrying, the victim’s hands or even the detective who conducted the residue test, Mesereau said.

Without such evidence, Mesereau said prosecutors were engaging in “mere speculation” when they accused Blake of ambushing or “lying in wait” for Bakley, a special allegation that, if proven, would make Blake ineligible for parole.

Mesereau also asked the judge to throw out the allegation that Blake and Earle Caldwell, the actor’s former handyman, had conspired to kill Bakley, saying prosecutors failed to present evidence at the preliminary hearing to support that charge.

The lawyer said no evidence was presented at the preliminary hearing that “suggests that Mr. Caldwell furnished any guns to Mr. Blake or that he ever did so with the specific intent to kill Ms. Bakley.”

Mesereau downplayed a key piece of prosecution evidence -- a handwritten list of items that included black duct tape, a blank gun and swimming pool acid -- that was found in Caldwell’s Jeep. Authorities say these items were to be used in the killing.

Mesereau said these “innocuous household items” were consistent with those used by a handyman such as Caldwell and noted that none were used in Bakley’s slaying.

Although prosecution evidence showed that Caldwell visited a Web site to find information about gun silencers, Mesereau said a silencer was not found and that an expert testified that none was -- or could have been -- used on the murder weapon.

In a separate motion, Caldwell’s lawyer, Dana M. Cole, said his client “appears to be little more than a pawn in the prosecution’s attempt to gain leverage to obtain further information in its case against Mr. Blake.”

He asked Schempp to dismiss the only charge ever filed against Caldwell.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, declined to comment on the motion. Prosecutors are due to file a response with the court by Oct. 17.