Blake civil trial jury still deliberating..

[Steff]

I didn't even realize this was given to the jury (last Friday). Frankly.. I don't see how they can find him responsible. Unlike the OJ case.. there was absolutely positively nothing tying him to her murder. And the "stuntmen" accusations have been shot down.

 

 

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/13107006.htm

 

 

Jury has Blake testimony read back, retires without verdict

Associated Press

 

BURBANK, Calif. - The jury deliberating in a wrongful death lawsuit against "Baretta" star Robert Blake spent several hours Monday listening to a readback of Blake's trial testimony, then retired for the night without reaching a verdict on whether Blake is liable for the death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

 

The nine-man, three-woman jury, which heard two months of testimony, spent its first full day in deliberations since receiving the case Friday. Jurors asked to hear again some of Blake's eight days of testimony. They also asked to examine a box of clothing, some of it taken from Blake's home after his wife was slain.

 

Blake, 72, was acquitted of murder in March after a criminal trial, but the lawsuit brought on behalf of Bakley's four children seeks to hold him civilly responsible and to win monetary damages.

 

Verdicts in civil cases require agreement by nine of the 12 jurors rather than a unanimous decision.

 

Blake married Bakley in 2000 after tests showed that he was the father of her baby, Rosie.

 

On May 4, 2001, Bakley was found fatally shot in Blake's car parked on a street near Vitello's restaurant where the couple had dined. Blake said he left his wife in the car outside while he returned to the eatery to retrieve a gun he left on the seat of their booth. When he came back to the car, he said, Bakley had been shot.

 

Much of the evidence in the civil trial was a replay of the criminal case except for Blake's testimony, which was new. He did not testify in criminal court.

 

Plaintiffs attorney Eric Dubin claimed Blake tried to hire two former Hollywood stuntmen to kill his wife and when that failed Blake killed her himself. A similar theory in the criminal case failed for a lack of physical evidence or credible witnesses. In the civil trial, Blake testified he did not kill Bakley and wanted to make a life with her and their daughter.

 

Defense attorney Peter Ezzell offered jurors alternative theories on others who might have killed Bakley, a woman with a past that included scamming men for money with nude pictures of herself and promises of sex.