Jurors in Blake Case Visit Scene of Crime

Court moved outdoors Thursday night, as jurors in the murder trial of actor Robert Blake toured the site of the crime in Studio City.

The entourage, including Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp, toured two blocks of Woodbridge Street, stopping first at Vitello’s, the Italian restaurant where Blake and his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, dined the night she was shot and killed. Prosecutors maintain that Blake hated Bakley and killed her May 4, 2001, to gain custody of their infant daughter, Rosie.

The 71-year-old actor told authorities that after dinner, he left Bakley in his car and returned to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun that he had left at their table. When he returned, Blake said, he found Bakley mortally wounded.

A series of witnesses have testified that the Emmy Award-winning actor behaved oddly that night by not comforting his dying wife and appearing to feign grief by crying without tears.

Prosecutors had requested Thursday’s tour to help jurors understand witness testimony and pictures they had seen in court.

Despite media restrictions that allowed only three reporters to trail the group, several television news helicopters hovered above. Court officials made an unsuccessful attempt to restrict air space.

The area has changed little since the murder, with the exception of a two-story Mediterranean-style house that was built on the lot next to where Bakley was killed.

Jurors were admonished not to draw specific comparisons between conditions on the night of the murder -- including weather, street parking and lighting -- and what they saw Thursday.

Even so, both sides Thursday morning were trying to make the crime scene look as realistic as possible. They parked a 1991 Dodge Stealth, similar to the car Blake drove the night of the killing, in the same space that Blake’s car occupied.

The 12 jurors and six alternates appeared to carefully examine the scene, sometimes pausing at vantage points that had been described by witnesses. They took notes, asked questions of court personnel and sometimes returned to spots they had passed.

Blake spent much of the time standing across the street with a defense representative.

For the tour, authorities trucked in the same 22-foot commercial trash bin that had partly obstructed views of Blake’s car on the night of the crime. Police found the murder weapon in the trash bin the day after the murder, coated with oil. No fingerprints were found.

Blake’s defense attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, suggested that Los Angeles Police Department criminalist Michael Mastrocovo and Det. Steve Eguchi mishandled evidence by not quickly and completely checking the trash bin for fingerprints.

Schwartzbach also has criticized the LAPD for moving the bin to a landfill before examining its contents. Mastrocovo testified that climbing into the bin, which contained nails and other wood and metal debris, was unsafe and that using a tool could have damaged evidence.