Update Robert Blake

Blake speaks at wife's funeral
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Actor Robert Blake, haggard and somber, spoke fondly of his slain wife during a brief funeral that drew more reporters than mourners and none of Bonny Lee Bakley's family. Blake attended the service with the couple's daughter, Rose Lenore Sophie Blake, who turns 1 on June 2. He was flanked by his adult son and daughter from another marriage. During the service, Blake stood graveside and said: "It's because of Bonny that Rosie was born. It was her will, her conviction, not mine, her dedication that brought Rosie into this world, and for that I thank God and I thank Bonny." While the service took place, Fox News interviewed Margery Bakley in New York, who alleged that Blake killed her sister. She said she did not attend the funeral because she didn't want to associate with Blake. She also criticized him for betraying the wishes of her family, which wanted Bakley cremated. The service took place three weeks after Bakley, 44, was found shot to death in Blake's car outside a Studio City restaurant.

Blake's wife to be buried in Calif.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Three weeks after she was shot to death, Robert Blake's wife will be buried Friday in a small service with the actor and their baby daughter at her graveside, his lawyer said. Attorney Harland Braun said Bonny Lee Bakley will be interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, a final resting place for many famous movie stars. Blake arranged for the funeral and invited members of Bakley's family to attend but they declined, Braun said. The girl, Rose Lenore Sophie Blake, will be 1 year old on June 2. Blake's adult children also planned to attend the service, where a Catholic priest was expected to officiate. Bakley was shot to death May 4 as she waited in the actor's car for him to return from a restaurant where they had just eaten. Blake told police he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he had been carrying to protect his wife. Police have made no arrests and have sealed all documents in the case.

Blake, slain wife had agreement
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Six weeks before they married, actor Robert Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley signed a temporary custody agreement for their infant daughter which barred Bakley from associating with felons or doing business on Blake's property. Bakley also was forbidden to have her friends or family visit without his written consent and she was given only limited, monitored visits with the child, then 4 months. The document was contingent on the couple marrying by Nov. 20, 2000. It was signed on Oct. 4; they married on Nov. 18. The document was one of many uncovered after Blake's 44-year-old wife was shot to death on May 4. Harland Braun, Blake's attorney, said the agreement offered insights into the unusual living arrangement of the couple. Bakley lived in a bungalow behind Blake's home.

Braun also said his investigation of Bakley has turned up numerous ex-husbands - and he now believes she may have been married as many as 100 times. "The question is whether she ever got divorced," he said. Bakley was shot to death as she waited in Blake's car for him to return from a Studio City restaurant where they had just eaten. The actor told police he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he had been carrying to protect his wife. Police have made no arrests and have sealed all documents in the case.

Few clues in actor's wife's slaying
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police Chief Bernard Parks said Wednesday that investigators have scant clues in the killing of actor Robert Blake's wife. "It's a homicide that at least at this time has very few clues," Parks told KFWB radio, urging the public and media to have patience. "It's going to require an extensive amount of investigation." Asked if Blake was a suspect, Parks said, "No one's been eliminated. It would not be an investigation if we just chose who should be a suspect and who shouldn't." Bonny Lee Bakley, 45, was shot to death May 4 in her husband's car soon after the couple dined at a nearby Studio City restaurant.

O.J. Simpson offers Blake advice
LOS ANGELES (AP) - O.J. Simpson has some advice for actor Robert Blake, whose wife was shot to death this month: Don't watch TV. "I know that watching TV is only going to frustrate him," Simpson told the syndicated TV show "Extra" for a segment scheduled to air Thursday. Simpson also advised Blake against taking a lie detector test and added, "As far as I'm concerned, this man is innocent until a jury comes back and calls him guilty." Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, 45, was shot to death May 4 in her husband's car after the couple dined at a Studio City restaurant. Police have said that no one has been ruled out as a suspect. Blake's son, appearing Wednesday on CNN's "Larry King Live," defended his father and said Bakley "was afraid and wanted him to carry it," Noah Blake said. "My dad is innocent, period," Noah Blake said. "He doesn't need to prove that. He is not obligated nor is he obliged to address a thousand-trillion rumors."

Blake cancels slain wife's service
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Actor Robert Blake called off a family-only service for his slain wife when a media mob descended on the funeral home. "We had a private religious service planned," his attorney, Harland Braun, said Wednesday. "A priest was coming and Robert was going to be there with his three children. But now we're afraid if he showed up there would be a riot." Braun said his investigator at the scene said the funeral director could not get close enough to the building to bring the body of Bonny Lee Bakley inside. "I've never seen anything like this," Braun, who has handled high-profile cases, told The Associated Press. "Emotions in this case are running so high." Cameras, helicopters and reporters went to the funeral home after the Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman announced the body was being released for shipment to New Jersey, where the family also plans to hold a funeral for Bakley. Braun said Blake wanted to have a small, dignified service for her before the body was removed. Braun said he would advise his client not to attend the New Jersey funeral.

Blake adds 2nd top defense lawyer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Actor Robert Blake added a second top criminal defense lawyer to his legal team Tuesday even though he has not been charged in the unsolved killing of his wife. Barry Levin, a former Los Angeles police sergeant who often represents police officers in court, joins prominent attorney Harland Braun who went to work for Blake within hours after Bonny Lee Bakley was shot to death May 4. Braun and Levin teamed up late last year to represent two of four police officers charged with corruption in the city's Rampart police scandal. Levin said he met with Blake on Monday night and "I know in my heart that Robert Blake is innocent." "The longer this goes on, the further away from him they should be investigating," Levin said, suggesting that clues to the identity of the killer may lie in Bakley's past. The 45-year-old woman had a criminal record for possession of false identification and she was known to have run a mail order business, soliciting lonely men to send her money.

Police: Media rumors may taint probe
LOS ANGELES (AP) - As reports surfaced that a gun was found yards away from where the wife of actor Robert Blake was shot to death, police asked journalists to refrain from publishing rumors about the murder investigation. "The media may be unknowingly tainting witnesses or damaging the ability of police to gather firsthand information that is critical to the investigation," police Cmdr. Garrett Zimmon told reporters Monday evening. Earlier in the day, police declined to comment on a report on ABC News' "Good Morning America" that the murder weapon was found in a trash bin near the murder site. The report cited an unidentified source. The Los Angeles Times reported in Tuesday's editions that a truck driver asked by police to haul evidence away May 5 - the day after Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was killed - was told by officers they found a gun in a trash bin.

John Philip Brice said he moved the bin from the murder site to a dump site, and watched as detectives removed items from the bin. "They said the gun had just been freshly oiled and there was a lot of dust stuck to it," Brice told the Times. "They didn't know if they would be able to get the prints off." Police refused to comment Monday on Brice's statements. Blake's lawyer, Harland Braun, said he had expected a weapon to be found "because that is typical of a hit."

Police: No comment on weapon report
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police would not comment Monday on a report that investigators found the gun used to kill actor Robert Blake's wife. "We're not commenting on evidence collected or not collected. We are not investigating this in the media," said Sgt. John Pasquariello, a police spokesman. ABC's "Good Morning America," citing an unidentified source, reported that the gun was found in a trash bin near the shooting site. Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, told The Associated Press he was not surprised by the report because "a hit man always discards a gun." Bonny Lee Bakley, who married Blake four months ago and was the mother of his 11-month-old baby, was shot May 4 as she sat on the passenger side of his parked car after the couple dined at a Studio City restaurant. Police have said no one, including Blake, has been ruled out as a suspect.

Blake at center of real murder
LOS ANGELES (AP) - On TV's "Baretta," Robert Blake was the tough and cocky cop who always knew right from wrong. "I told you, man, nobody kills nobody. That's the rules. I don't know no other way," the detective declared as he busted a killer in an episode of the 1970s drama. Now, with police investigating whether the 67-year-old Blake had a role in his wife's slaying, the question is how much of a gulf exists between the actor and his Emmy-winning screen image, forever associated with a theme song with the line: "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." "He's got a cloud over him," said attorney Harland Braun, who represents Blake. "I mean, isn't that the problem with Hollywood, is what people think you are rather than what you really are? I think he's learning a fast lesson in reality." Bonny Lee Bakley, 45, married Blake four months ago after a paternity test showed he fathered her 11-month-old daughter. Bakley was shot in Blake's car May 4 at a restaurant where the couple had dined.

Police search Blake's home again
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Detectives investigating the shooting death of Robert Blake's wife searched the actor's home for a second time, while Blake's attorney said he would deliver several boxes to police headquarters Thursday. A news release issued by police Wednesday night said a warrant was being executed on Blake's San Fernando Valley home "as a result of additional information received (Tuesday) by the concerned detectives" and that specific items were sought. It didn't elaborate. More than two dozen officers entered Blake's home and a guest house on the property where his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, had lived. Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, told The Associated Press the warrant demanded that anything taken from the home by the actor's attorneys be handed over to police. He said all relevant evidence would be delivered to police headquarters Thursday. "We want LAPD to investigate Robert Blake because the more they investigate, they'll find out he didn't do it," Braun said.

Blake's wife said solicited money
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Form letters seeking money and plane tickets from lonely men were found in the home of actor Robert Blake's wife after she was killed, his lawyer said. Some of the letters, released by Blake attorney Harland Braun, offered the men nude pictures in return. Braun suggested Tuesday the letters may have played a role in Bonny Lee Bakley's death. "I don't have anyone to spend the holidays with, do you? My family lives too far away, could I spend them with you?" reads one letter signed "Miss Leebonny Bakley." Bakley, 45, was shot to death Friday night while sitting in a car near a restaurant where she and Blake had just dined. Police have declined to release any details. Autopsy results remained sealed. Police said Blake, the star of the 1970s television series "Baretta," is not a suspect.

Stranger noted at Blake's house
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A few weeks before Robert Blake's wife was murdered, a stranger began showing up in front of the actor's Studio City home, according to his lawyer and a private investigator. The man was described in his early 20s with a crew cut and would watch the property from a black four-door pickup, said Scott Ross, a private investigator hired by Blake's lawyers. Police refused to comment as homicide detectives continued their investigation of the killing of Bonny Lee Bakley, 45, who was gunned down Friday night while sitting in a car near a restaurant where she and her husband had just dined. Authorities searched a construction site Monday near the shooting scene and an investigator was seen dusting for fingerprints on a blue recycling can. A bag was reportedly removed from the site. Blake, 67, said the shooting happened while he was returning to the restaurant alone to retrieve a handgun that he left behind. The actor was carrying the gun because his wife had said she feared for her life, said Blake's attorney, Harland Braun.

Bakley's half brother Peter Carlyon said his sister had said Blake himself had threatened her recently, telling her during a dispute that she didn't need to worry if life was getting her down because he "already had a bullet with her name on it." "He was making a lot of verbal threats," Carlyon told WMC-TV in Memphis, Tenn. Police had said the 1970s star of the television series "Baretta" was not a suspect. According to Ross, police checked and found no gunpowder residue on Blake's body shortly after the shooting. Results of Bakley's autopsy were sealed at the request of homicide detectives, coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said Monday. Toxicology tests and microscopic tissue studies were pending.