Blake Defense Opens

The wife and son of retired stuntman Gary McLarty testified Tuesday that he was addicted to cocaine and suffered a mental breakdown several years after he said actor Robert Blake solicited him to kill his wife.

The testimony marked the opening day for the defense in the Blake murder trial in Van Nuys after four weeks of prosecution witnesses.

It began with an assault on the credibility of McLarty, a crucial witness for prosecutors.

His son, Cole, 31, a Hollywood stuntman, said he became aware of his father’s cocaine use when he was 11 years old and said his father used “anytime he had money, which was pretty much all the time.”

Blake is accused of killing his wife, 44-year-old Bonny Lee Bakley on May 4, 2001, as she sat in the actor’s car about two blocks from a Studio City restaurant where they had just dined.

Prosecutors argue that when Blake, 71, failed to persuade three men, including McLarty, to kill Bakley, the actor fatally shot his wife himself.

Cole and Karen McLarty testified that Blake was worried that somebody was “stalking him.” They said Gary McLarty told them Blake had offered him $10,000 to “blacken” that person’s eyes.

Gary McLarty, testifying for the prosecution last week, said that Blake offered him $10,000 in March 2001 “to pop” Bakley as part of four possible scenarios, including an ambush near a restaurant.

Defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach also called Blake’s maid, Lidia Benavides, who testified that she twice saw an older man in a beat-up car near Blake’s house before Bakley was killed.

In addition, she said Blake told her that he had increased security at his home.

On cross-examination, Benavides acknowledged she was paid $1,000 for an interview she gave to a tabloid.