From MyWay/AP:
A jury acquitted tough-guy actor Robert Blake of murder Wednesday in the shooting death of his wife four years ago, bringing a dramatic end to a case that played out like pulp fiction.
The jury also acquitted Blake of one charge of trying to get someone to kill Bonny Lee Bakley, but deadlocked on a second solicitation charge. The jury voted 11-1 in favor of acquittal and the judge dismissed the count.
The 71-year-old star of the 1970s detective drama "Baretta" sobbed uncontrollably at the defense table, embraced his attorney and exhaled heavily as the verdicts sank in.
Blake talked to people on the courthouse steps after:
"This small band of dedicated warriors saved my life," he said.
He also described the financial toll the case had taken on him.
"If you want to know how to go through $10 million in five years, ask me," said Blake, who was free on bail during his trial but under house arrest. "I'm broke. I need a job."
At one point, Blake asked whether anyone in the crowd had something to remove his electronic monitoring bracelet. He then bent down and cut off the ankle device.
The evidence and the victim:
No eyewitnesses, blood or DNA evidence linked Blake to the crime. The murder weapon, found in a trash bin, could not be traced to Blake, and witnesses said the minuscule amounts of gunshot residue found on Blake's hands could have come from a different gun he said he carried for protection.
"They couldn't put the gun in his hand," jury foreman Thomas Nicholson told reporters outside court, adding that the case lacked evidence that could "connect all the links in the chain." Nicholson called one of the stuntmen a "prolific liar."
Prosecutors said Blake believed his wife trapped him into a loveless marriage by getting pregnant. They said Blake soon became smitten with the baby, Rosie, and desperately wanted to keep the child away from Bakley, whom he considered an unfit mother. Rosie, now 4, is being raised by Blake's adult daughter.
Bakley had been married several times, had a record for mail fraud and made a living scamming men out of money with nude pictures of herself and promises of sex.
A shame that Bakley was murdered but it's great to know that Blake was not the killer.
