Robert Blake a Witness in Wife's Murder Case
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. We begin tonight with the latest Hollywood mystery: Who killed actor Robert Blake's wife? This past weekend, Bonny Bakley was shot in the head shortly after the couple had dinner at a restaurant in Los Angeles. Police so far have searched Blake's home, but no suspect has been named. Tonight, Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, talked with CNN's Charles Feldman in L.A. Here now is part of that exclusive interview.</s>CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let me ask you first of all, how Mr. Blake is faring under these very trying circumstances?</s>HARLAND BRAUN, ROBERT BLAKE'S ATTORNEY: It's difficult. He had a high blood pressure the other night, we took him to the hospital. He's back, staying with friends. He's been discussing the case with my investigator, Scott Ross, and me. And he's getting night's sleeps now, He's sleeping well.</s>FELDMAN: Is he distraught in a sense that most husbands would when a wife is killed? They didn't live together, after all.</s>BRAUN: Well, this was an unusual relationship. He married her because she gave birth to his daughter, and he felt an obligation to his child to marry the mother. It was very old-fashioned. It wasn't an easy relationship. They didn't even live in the same house. She wasn't in Los Angeles a good part of time. But they were getting along better, so call it more like a friend being killed.</s>FELDMAN: When you say it wasn't an easy relationship, what do you mean by that? What's your understanding of what that means?</s>BRAUN: Well, because she obviously was out to get pregnant by a celebrity. She thought it was Christian Brando at first, and then it turned out to be Mr. Blake. He obviously felt that he was tricked into a situation like this, that he then had obligations that he didn't voluntarily assume towards the child, and that he was very vulnerable because she could take the child away any time she wanted to.</s>FELDMAN: There are people who would take everything you've just said -- her history, the relationship that she had with him, a rocky one, their living, or non-living arrangement -- and say: that's a pretty good motive, is it not, for him to kill her.</s>BRAUN: You know, a lot of people have motives. A lot of people dislike each other, and obviously this wasn't a loving relationship. In fact it could have been acrimonious at times. That doesn't mean you kill someone.</s>FELDMAN: How do you think the LAPD at this time view your client?</s>BRAUN: I would think that they have a chart. And the problem is, is they have -- they always look at possible suspects. So, the last person with them, a person who's married to him or a boyfriend, a person who's had an acrimony with them. So they obviously looked at Robert as a potential suspect, initially. Then when they come up with no evidence that he was the perpetrator, they have to look elsewhere.</s>FELDMAN: What did the police -- because they searched his house, of course. You say they didn't take the documentation that you were asking him to focus on. What did they take?</s>BRAUN: They searched both houses and they didn't take any of this. They took a couple of his guns, they took some miscellaneous bills -- not very much, for an eight-hour search. I was sort of surprised they didn't take more. Before the search occurred, I met with the investigators and I said, "When you go and do the search, here's what you look for in addition to the regular stuff. You should look for letters she has. You should look at her letters that she sends to people. You should look at her business practices. You should look at anything about her past business because that may give you a clue that there's someone else."</s>FELDMAN: Do you think that they still view him very much as at least one suspect?</s>BRAUN: I think what they realize now is that they call him a witness. That means, because -- given his proximity to all these events, physical proximity, and their investigation, they have no evidence that he's the perpetrator. So they basically said at this time he's a witness. Now, they always keep an open mind, but they were not going to come up with anything else. What this case is probably going to happen, unfortunately, it's going to be one of those unsolved mysteries in Hollywood.</s>HEMMER: Again, attorney Harland Braun with CNN's Charles Feldman earlier today. An autopsy has been completed, however, the LAPD has sealed it until further analysis is done. Also, toxicology results could take another six weeks before they are completed as well.