RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

[Ginzburgh]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A jury acquitted tough-guy actor Robert Blake of murder Wednesday in the shooting death of his wife four years ago, a stunning verdict in a case that played out like pulp fiction.

The jury also acquitted Blake of one charge of trying to get someone to kill his wife, but deadlocked on a second solicitation charge.

The 71-year-old star of the 1970s detective drama "Baretta" dropped his head, trembled with emotion, and let out several deep breaths after the verdict was read.

The jury of seven men and five women delivered the verdicts on its ninth day of deliberations, following a trial with a cast a characters that included two Hollywood stuntmen who said Blake tried to get them to bump off his wife.

Blake had faced life in prison; prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Blake was charged with shooting 44-year-old Bonny Lee Bakley in their car outside the actor's favorite Italian restaurant on May 4, 2001, less than six months after their marriage.

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.

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.

"He was tricked by Bonny Lee and he hated her for it," prosecutor Shellie Samuels said in closing arguments. "He got taken by a small-time grifter."

The defense called it a weak case built largely on the testimony of two witnesses who were once heavy drug users.

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.

The four-month trial was part of a wave of celebrity court cases in California that have provided endless fodder for the tabloids and cable networks. The Michael Jackson child molestation trial was starting just as the Blake case was wrapping up, and rock 'n' roll producer Phil Spector will stand trial later this year in Los Angeles for allegedly murdering a B-movie actress.

In another murder case that was seemingly made for the tabloids, Scott Peterson was sent to death row just a few hours before the Blake verdict for killing his pregnant wife and her unborn fetus.

Blake has been in front of the camera from childhood, back when he was sad-eyed little Mickey in the "Our Gang" movie shorts, and was nominated for an Oscar for the 1967 movie "In Cold Blood," in which he portrayed a killer who dies on the gallows.

In "Baretta," Blake played a tough-talking, street-smart detective whose catchphrase was "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

Those acting successes seemed well in the past by the time a divorced and lonely Blake met Bakley at a jazz club five years ago. They had sex in his truck that night, and she was soon carrying Blake's child. They were wed in 2000 in a no-frills ceremony at which the bride wore an electronic monitoring bracelet because she was still on probation for fraud.

Prosecutors said Blake killed his wife after failing to persuade a street thug-turned-minister and two stuntmen from his "Baretta" days to do the job. One of the stuntmen said Blake talked about having Bakley "snuffed" and mentioned locations for the killing, including the Grand Canyon.

Also, a former detective who worked for Blake as a private investigator testified that the actor proposed to kidnap Bakley, force her to have an abortion and, if that did not work, "whack her."

The defense portrayed the stuntmen as drug users prone to hallucinations and delusions.

The police "convicted Mr. Blake on the night of the murder, and then they conducted an incompetent investigation," defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach said.

Blake told authorities that he walked his wife to the car after dinner, then discovered he had left his gun back in the booth at Vitello's Restaurant. He went back to get it, then returned to the car and found his wife shot, he said.

But some witnesses testified that Blake did not appear to be sincere as he wept and moaned over the slaying that night. One witness said the actor appeared to be "turning it on and off."

Blake did not testify. But his lawyer showed the jury a videotape of a jailhouse interview with Barbara Walters in which he denied killing his wife.

"It's all about Rosie. It's always been about Rosie," Blake said. "The greatest gift in the world, and I'm going to try to mess it up by being selfish?"

Rosie, now 4, is being raised by Blake's adult daughter.

[Lyion]

There were too many geezers on the Jury who couldn't convict Baretta.

[Ginzburgh]

He was friggen awesome in Lost Highway.

[Diekan]

Can we just nuke the great socialist republic of california off the globe? it'd make life so much simplier for the rest of us normal people.

[Langston]

Can we just nuke the great socialist republic of california off the globe? it'd make life so much simplier for the rest of us normal people.

I'm waiting for this promised event of it breaking off and falling into the ocean. I'm hoping that somehow it drags Canada out to sea with it... but I understand that the possibility of that is somewhat remote.

A boy can dream, though.

[Rust]

Can we just nuke the great socialist republic of california off the globe? it'd make life so much simplier for the rest of us normal people.

I'm waiting for this promised event of it breaking off and falling into the ocean. I'm hoping that somehow it drags Canada out to sea with it... but I understand that the possibility of that is somewhat remote.

A boy can dream, though.

More like California is stupid prosecutor heaven. Either the cops are racists, or they can't actually get credible witnesses, or any real evidence in celebrity cases. You wait, Jacko will walk - the DA there is gonna look like a chump.

--R.

[Martrae]

Scott Peterson got San Quentin and the death penalty, at least.

[Langston]

More like California is stupid prosecutor heaven. Either the cops are racists, or they can't actually get credible witnesses, or any real evidence in celebrity cases. You wait, Jacko will walk - the DA there is gonna look like a chump.

--R.

My comment had nothing to do with the justice system.

[Rust]

More like California is stupid prosecutor heaven. Either the cops are racists, or they can't actually get credible witnesses, or any real evidence in celebrity cases. You wait, Jacko will walk - the DA there is gonna look like a chump.

--R.

My comment had nothing to do with the justice system.

The thread did, as did my reply.

--R.

[Lyion]

It's like anything else in America. You get what you pay for.

[Langston]

My comment had nothing to do with the justice system.

The thread did, as did my reply.

--R.

Then don't quote me in an assumption that you know what I'm talking about.

[Rust]

My comment had nothing to do with the justice system.

The thread did, as did my reply.

--R.

Then don't quote me in an assumption that you know what I'm talking about.

That would make two of us then.

--R.

[Phlegm]

OJ... Robert Blake.... soon Michael Jackson.... if you are a star, you pretty much have nothing to worry about.

[Ginzburgh]

I think MJ will get off too.

[DangerPaul]

that is what he always bet on when a 13 year old boy stayed at Neverland Ranch

[Langston]

That would make two of us then.

--R.

Uhhh... yeah. Right.

[Captain Insano]

If the cops in this state weren't trying to throw innocent people in the slammer for any little miss-step, the real criminals might actually get the trials and sentences they deserve. The courts system and law enforcement in California is absolutely fucktarded.

[Malluas]

the prob here in CA is the police and prosecuters somehow fuck up.. whether they miss evidence, somehow have some contraversal person on their witness list... whatever it is.. they can't put stars that are guilty in jail.

MJ will probably settle outta court somehow.... but who knows how thats gonna go.. legally Peterson didn't have enough evidence to convict him... but he was. There is plenty here about MJ and this kid so who knows. He will walk probably cause he will play the hospital, the kid is evil card so many times, the jury will just want the trial over.