Hollywood star 'shot wife then bungled alibi'

Seventies TV star Robert Blake murdered his conwoman wife after he failed to find a hitman to do the job, a Los Angeles court was told.

The actor, former star of the series Baretta, shot Bonny Lee Bakley in the head because he was obsessed with getting his infant daughter away from her, according to the prosecuting lawyer Shellie Samuels.

But the plan unravelled when Blake became distraught after the shooting in the car park of an Italian restaurant. He failed to go back into the restaurant to establish his alibi.

Blake ' s lawyer, Gerald Schwartzbach, said there was absolutely no evidence the actor shot his wife. He said the two chief witnesses against him were drug addicts who suffered hallucinations and had cooperated with authorities to avoid prosecution themselves.

In their opening statements, both sides agreed Blake was a poor actor and that his late wife had a chequered past that included conning elderly men out of money in a lonely hearts scheme. They also agreed Blake, 71, loved the couple's then infant daughter and that Ms Bakley was obsessed with marrying a celebrity.

Ms Samuels said Blake was so bad a performer that he looked agitated at his final dinner with his wife on 4 May, 2001.

Then, Ms Samuels said, after Blake shot Ms Bakley twice in his car parked nearby, he lost his composure so badly he was unable to carry off a key part of his plan - returning to the restaurant to establish an alibi.

Mr Schwartzbach denied his client had put on an act when he discovered the body: "Mr Blake was not turning it on and off. He was absolutely shocked and distraught and perplexed."

Ms Samuels said Blake so hated and despised Ms Bakley, 44, that he tried to have her abort his child. After she went through with the pregnancy, he embarked on schemes to have her arrested or killed.

She said he only married her to protect the baby and get her to drop child-snatching charges against him. "This was not a marriage made in heaven," Ms Samuels said, as she told how Blake solicited two stuntmen to kill Ms Bakley and sent a close friend to plant drugs on her.

Blake sat with a near-vacant expression as Ms Samuels told the court how he allegedly killed his wife.

The couple, she said, ate dinner in an Italian restaurant where he looked highly nervous and even vomited. After dinner, she said, Blake went to the car, shot Ms Bakley in the head and tried to pretend he had returned to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had left behind.

But the prosecutor said Blake messed up his alibi.

"What the defendant found out was that shooting somebody in real life was a whole lot more traumatic than in the movies. He was not able to compose himself. No one could recall him going back to the restaurant," she said.

Mr Schwartzbach told the jury there was neither direct nor circumstantial evidence of his client's guilt. "There is no DNA evidence to link him to the crime," he insisted.

Blake faces a charge of murder and two charges of solicitation of murder. He could be jailed for life if convicted.

The case continues.