Ruling on Brando Testimony Hurts Blake’s Defense Strategy

In a blow to the defense, the judge in the Robert Blake murder case on Tuesday ruled that jurors should not hear testimony suggesting that actor Marlon Brando’s son might have killed Bonny Lee Bakley.

Christian Brando might have had a motive to kill his former lover but he lacked the opportunity to do so, said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp, who was ruling on pretrial motions. Authorities said he was at home in Washington state the night Bakley was fatally shot.

Bakley had told Brando that he fathered her child and even gave the girl the Brando family name before a paternity test concluded she was Blake’s daughter, according to allegations in court papers.

The ruling knocks out a major part of Blake’s defense strategy. The 70-year-old actor is charged with killing his wife May 4, 2001, near a Studio City restaurant, where they had eaten dinner.

The former star of the 1970s detective drama “Baretta” faces life in prison without parole if convicted. Prosecutors allege he solicited two former stuntmen to kill Bakley, and when they refused, did it himself. Blake has pleaded not guilty.

Schempp ruled that defense witness Dianne Mattson should not testify at trial, because she lacked credibility. Mattson told defense lawyers and Court TV in July that she overheard Brando in a conversation on a speakerphone suggest that Bakley could be killed, talking of “putting a bullet in her head.”

Blake’s defense lawyers alleged in court papers that Brando, who served five years in prison for fatally shooting his sister’s boyfriend, could have hired someone to kill Bakley, 44.

But Schempp left open the door for defense lawyers to question a key prosecution witness about the Brando telephone conversation.

Outside of court, Blake’s attorney, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., was optimistic.

“We have a real good case,” he said, even without the Brando testimony.

He said he was pleased the judge will allow him to try to discredit the prosecution’s two key witnesses, stuntmen Ronald “Duffy” Hambleton, 67, and Gary McLarty, 63, with evidence of their alleged illicit drug use and its potential effects on them.

The judge ruled that it would be relevant for jurors to know if either stuntman had used illegal drugs during alleged conversations with Blake, later police interviews or last’s year preliminary hearing.

“I think it’s important if long-term drug use has affected their ability to perceive,” Schempp said.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie L. Samuels said it was highly unlikely, if the stuntmen were hallucinating from the use of illicit drugs, that they would both imagine Blake asking them to kill his wife.

As Mesereau stood before television cameras, Blake, a few feet away, ate a hot dog in what has become a lunchtime ritual at the Van Nuys Courthouse.

The actorsaid he had no worries, despite being on trial for murder.

“The hardest part of this is having to wear a suit and tie,” he said, in between bites.