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LAPD chief calls Bakley killing a 'whodunit'
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks said Wednesday that officers will depend on evidence and clues to solve the killing of Bonny Lee Bakley, though "there are very few clues ..." "It's a 'whodunit,'" Parks said. He said police do not have enough evidence to point to a suspect in the May 4 shooting death of Bakley, 44, who was married to actor Robert Blake. She was found shot in the head in Blake's car in a parking lot near a Studio City restaurant, where the couple had just dined. Bakley's body was transferred Wednesday from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office to the Armstrong Mortuary in Los Angeles. It will be transported to a funeral home in New Jersey where a private service will be held.
Blake's son, Noah, told CNN's Larry King Live Wednesday that his father is extremely upset about the shooting. He said when he visited his father he found him to be fearful for himself and his family. "He was scared, scared for himself, he was scared for me, scared for my sister, he just had no idea what had happened ... He still is pretty shaken up about this," Noah Blake said. The aspiring actor, Blake's son from a previous marriage, told King he believes his father had no part in the shooting of his wife. He bristled when asked if his father should come forward to address the suspicions surrounding him. "...My dad is innocent, period," Noah said. "He doesn't need to prove that, he's not obligated, nor is he obliged to address a thousand trillion rumors." Later on the program -- which hosted a panel of seven guests, including Bakley's half brother and singer Jerry Lee Lewis' sister, who was a friend of Bakley's -- a former lawyer of Bakley's suggested that Blake could be a suspect. "Did he murder Bonny? I don't know, but certainly he's a very, very likely suspect," said Cary Goldstein. He also said the lawyers surrounding the actor and the entire situation was becoming a "theater of the absurd." "What they're doing now is building a dream team, this is O.J. (Simpson) again, right down to the Kato Kaelin character," Goldstein said, referring to the addition of defense attorney Barry Levin to Blake's representation, and the published interviews with Earle Caldwell, Blake's bodyguard. Blake, 67, told police on the night of the shooting that he was inside the restaurant when his wife was shot, retrieving his own gun that he had carried at Bakley's request. He said he returned to find his wounded wife in the car. Joe Restivo, a co-owner of the restaurant Vitello's, told CNN the day after the shooting that Blake appeared to have retrieved nothing from the restaurant, but that he did come in, drink two glasses of water and left. Restivo said Blake appeared flustered. Harland Braun, Blake's attorney, said Wednesday on Larry King Live there are witnesses who will corroborate that they saw Blake put down the gun in the restaurant before the couple left. Braun also said he has turned over more "evidence" to the Los Angeles Police Department concerning Bakley's past. He held up a letter he said Bakley received in the 60 days before her death, from a man Braun said Bakley was defrauding. "He warns her in this letter, essentially, that if she's trying to cheat him or defraud him, he's the kind of man who hires a hit man," the lawyer said, adding that he is convinced his client is innocent. Blake has been interviewed as a witness to the crime, and his home has been searched twice by police. Parks said police are still interviewing people, collecting evidence and waiting for the results of several forensic tests carried out in the investigation. He cautioned the media to use common sense in its reporting about the facts and evidence in the killing. "We have to be in a situation that understands the importance of some of this evidence," Parks said. "There may be clues that alert the suspect that we know." The chief said the police would depend on evidence and clues to solve the case, not innuendoes. "Not all the speculation by friends, relatives, prior employees that have some judgment about individuals that may or may not be involved," Parks said. He was referring to comments by Braun, among others, who began raising questions about Bakley's past almost immediately after the slaying, saying it might hold clues to who killed her. Last week, Braun released to the media tape recordings of telephone conversations Bakley had, detailing her interest in celebrities and the Hollywood lifestyle. The lawyer also turned over what he called evidence about Bakley's background to police. Braun defended his tactics, saying police were not doing their job. He has said several times that the couple had a troubled relationship and that Blake had only married Bakley because she became pregnant with his daughter. |
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