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Posted on 10/04/2002 9:53:49 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The California Supreme Court has ordered Los Angeles' sheriff to explain why actor Robert Blake should not have a bail hearing before going on trial for the May 4, 2001 murder of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley.
The high court ordered the sheriff's department, which runs the county jails and investigated the murder, to show the trial court the evidence supporting a special charge of "lying in wait" against the 69-year-old former star of the "Baretta" crime-fighting TV series. The special charge makes Blake ineligible for bail.
The justices ordered the sheriff's department to show "whether 'the facts are evident or the presumption great"' with respect to Blake's guilt on the lying in wait charge, according the court order issued on Wednesday.
The charges against Blake -- murder, soliciting murder, conspiracy to commit murder and lying in wait -- could land him in prison for the rest of his life. He has been denied bail three times.
A District Attorney's Office spokeswoman said prosecutors do not oppose a bail hearing for Blake, but want it to take place after they present evidence supporting the charges at a preliminary hearing.
Defense attorneys had pushed back the preliminary hearing several times since Blake's arrest in April. Judge Lloyd Nash recently set the hearing for Nov. 13.
"If we had had a preliminary hearing in a timely fashion this would be a moot point but it has been nigh unto impossible to pin the defense down on a date," Sandi Gibbons, a district attorney's office spokeswoman, said.
Blake's attorney Harlan Braun said the order showed that "the Supreme Court wants a bail hearing." He added that Blake hoped he would soon be out on bail and be able to participate fully in his defense.
Prosecutors say Blake shot his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, to death on May 4, 2001, as she sat in his car behind a Los Angeles restaurant where she and the actor had just dined.
Blake said he had left his wife in the car alone so that he could retrieve a gun he left in the restaurant and when he returned, he discovered her dead.
Bakley, 44, was the mother of Blake's 2-year-old daughter Rosie, who now is being cared for by Blake's adult daughter from a previous marriage.
If he's let out, his "defense" will consist of an extended stay in France, where he will be welcomed as a national hero. Perhaps they will move him into the quaint little cottage that Ira Einhorn just vacated.
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