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Blake pays $1 million bail for release of bodyguard

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

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jailed actor Robert Blake on Friday paid $1 million to gain bail for his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, who was jailed as a conspirator in the killing of the actor's wife, according to Blake's attorney.

Caldwell, 46, was released from the Los Angeles County Jail on Friday, according to the district attorney's office. Attorney Harland Braun said Blake's private investigator posted Caldwell's bail with a $1 million cashier's check.

Blake, 68, is being held without bail on charges of first-degree murder in the death of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, who was shot to death on May 4, 2001, outside a Studio City restaurant where she and Blake had dined together moments earlier.

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Blake is also charged with two counts of solicitation of murder and one of conspiring with Caldwell in the killing.

Caldwell is charged with a single consipracy count in Bakley's death. Both Blake and Caldwell have pleaded not guilty.

In an interview with Reuters, Braun dismissed speculation that Blake may have put up the bail money for Caldwell in a bid to keep him from cooperating with prosecutors.

"That's stupid," Braun said. "Under California law, an employer has an obligation to finance a criminal defense arising out of your employment."

Last week, following Blake's arrest, Braun said Caldwell's attorneys told him police tried to pressure Caldwell into turning against Blake.

"They told him last night that if he would cooperate, he can go home and sleep in his own bed. And Mr. Caldwell says, you know, 'I've been talking to you for 11 months. I have nothing,' " Braun said then.

On Thursday, prosecutors said they will not seek the death penalty against Blake if he is found guilty of murdering his wife. The district attorney's office will seek a sentence of life in prison instead.

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

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.

Blake began his career as a child actor in the "Our Gang" and "Red Ryder" serials. He later starred as one of the killers in the movie rendition of the Truman Capote classic "In Cold Blood" and played the leading roe in the 1970s television detective series "Baretta."

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.

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

Braun said he expects two stuntmen will be key witnesses against his client. But he 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.