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Prosecutors won't seek death penalty against Blake

Blake pleaded not guilty to murder, solicitation and conspiracy charges.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Prosecutors won't seek the death penalty against actor Robert Blake if he is found guilty of murdering his wife, the district attorney's office said Thursday.

Instead, prosecutors will seek a sentence of life in prison, the office said.

Blake, 68, and his bodyguard have been charged in the shooting death of Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001.

The criminal complaint accuses Blake of pulling the trigger himself after giving up on several plots to hire a killer.

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The actor pleaded not guilty on Monday to four counts against him, including a first-degree murder charge with a special circumstance of "lying in wait" that allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

On the night of the killing, Blake told police he had left his wife of six months in the car to return to Vitello's restaurant to retrieve his gun, which he had accidentally left inside. When he got back to the car, he discovered his wife had been shot, he told investigators.

Commissioner Michael Duffy set a May 1 date to discuss bail and set a preliminary hearing date.

Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, believes two stuntmen will be key witnesses against his client.

But Braun said Blake never hired Gary McLarty and Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton to kill his wife, contrary to what the two men told prosecutors. The attorney also said the two stuntmen are seeking publicity in the high-profile case and should not be believed.

"A lot of this is just people he'd hang around with, he'd tell them about how this woman is ruining his life and what a difficult situation it is, and he said some of these guys would make comments to him like, 'Why don't you kill the bitch' or something like that," Braun said.

Blake, according to Braun, never took those comments seriously and dismissed the conversations as "bravado."

Braun said he learned about the statements through search warrants and more than 35,000 pages of evidence.

In addition to first-degree murder, Blake is charged with two counts of solicitation of murder and one of conspiring with his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, 46. Caldwell also pleaded not guilty at the arraignment.

Blake has been held without bail and isolated from other prisoners since his arrest Thursday. Caldwell has been held under $1 million bail.

Bakley's sister, Margerry Bakley, is expected to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Blake on Monday, her attorney Cary Goldstein told CNN. The family has until May 4 -- a year after Bakley's death -- to file the motion.