Jurors considering murder charges against actor Robert Blake resumed their deliberations Wednesday.
The panel met for 5½ hours on Tuesday, their second full day of deliberations, without asking any questions or requesting any review of testimony. The case went to the jury Friday after closing arguments.
Blake, 71, is accused of killing his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, who was shot in May 2001 while sitting in a car near Blake’s favorite Italian restaurant in Studio City.
The star of TV’s “Baretta” and the movie “In Cold Blood” is charged with murder, two counts of solicitation of murder and a special circumstance of lying in wait. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
No eyewitnesses, blood or DNA evidence linked Blake to the crime. Defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach called it a weak case that relied largely on the testimony of two witnesses who were once heavy drug users.
Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels argued that Blake killed Bakley because she tricked him into marrying her by getting pregnant. Samuels says Blake was obsessed with protecting the baby from Bakley, who he believed was a con artist.