Blake lawyer: Police 'desperate' to make case

Blake, after his arrest on Thursday

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- An attorney for actor Robert Blake said Friday that police seemed "desperate" to put a case together and suggested the district attorney could decide not to press charges.

Blake, 68, was arrested Thursday in connection with the death of wife Bonny Lee Bakley, who was found shot in the head last May outside a restaurant where the couple had just eaten.

"It's conceivable that the D.A. could find that there is not enough evidence," attorney Harland Braun said. "It would be unusual, but this is an unusual case."

An attorney for the Bakley family ridiculed that suggestion.

"That's an absurdity, and Harland knows it," Cary Goldstein said.

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Police said they plan to present their case to the district attorney's office Monday morning, and Blake is expected to be arraigned Monday afternoon. He is being held without bail in the Los Angeles County Jail.

Police have said they would ask prosecutors to charge the actor with one count of murder with special circumstances and two counts of solicitation of murder in the killing of Bakley, his wife of six months. A murder charge could bring the death penalty.

Police also arrested Blake's bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, Thursday on conspiracy charges. He is being held on $1 million bail.

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.

Goldstein said he expected Caldwell would testify against Blake, but said he did not think the testimony was crucial to the prosecution's case.

Police searched Blake's house in the gated Hidden Hills subdivision Friday, as well as Caldwell's Burbank home and a third location they did not disclose.

"During these searches additional evidence was recovered, including papers, computers and weapons. Detectives will request that all documents related to this investigation be sealed in order to protect the integrity of this investigation," said Cmdr. Gary J. Brennan of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Shortly after the arrest Thursday, police said Blake's motive was "contempt" for Bakley.

Braun said Blake never denied having a motive.

"What she did to his life was horrific. Basically she turned his life upside down, got him involved in a marriage he did not want to be involved in because he loved Rosie," Braun said. (Rosie is the daughter of Blake and Bakley.) "So motive has never really been an issue. There are a lot of people who have a motive to kill Bonnie Bakley and I wouldn't say Robert Blake did not have a motive."

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks said Thursday that physical as well as "compelling and significant" circumstantial evidence implicated the actor, who played a pugnacious detective in the 1970s television series "Baretta."

Police said Blake had sought to hire hit men to kill his wife, but when that proved unsuccessful, he committed the crime himself.

Police Capt. Jim Tatreau made clear Thursday that police believe Blake, who began his career as a child actor in the "Our Gang" series, pulled the trigger.

"Robert Blake shot Bonnie Bakley," he said, adding that the gun was retrieved from a trash bin a day or so after the killing.

Blake, who played a killer in the movie "In Cold Blood," had told police his wife was in the car after the two dined in a Studio City restaurant May 4. He said he went back into the restaurant to retrieve his gun, which he had left inside, and when he returned to the car he found his wife shot in the head.

Joe Restivo, a co-owner of the restaurant, Vitello's, told CNN at the time that Blake didn't appear to have retrieved anything. He came in, drank two glasses of water and left, Restivo said, adding that Blake appeared flustered.

Blake was transferred to the old hospital ward of the Men's Central Jail Friday morning, but sheriff's department officials said the move is a common security and safety consideration for high-profile inmates, and not a result of any medical condition. He is being held away from other inmates in a 10-by-10-foot cell.

Blake hugs his daughter Rosie during her mother's funeral on May 25, 2001.

Braun, who visited Blake at the jail, said his client was in good spirits but was worried about his family, including two grown children and the daughter from his marriage to Bakley. Rosie is being taken care of by his older daughter.

"He's very concerned about his youngest daughter, Rosie," Braun said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "His main concern about her is that the Bakley family will try to gain custody and raise her in what he considers an immoral and improper environment."

Bakley's sister, Margerry Bakley, told King she did not plan to seek custody of the child.

"I believe she's safe and I believe she's happy where she's at. I would like to know personally my niece and build a relationship with her," she said. "I have no intention of snatching that child from the only home and the only family she knows and loves."

CNN Correspondents Thelma Gutierrez and Frank Buckley contributed to this report.