Robert Blake murder case gets underway in LA

LOS ANGELES - About 3 1/2 years after the wife of tough guy actor Robert Blake was murdered, prosecutors finally made their case on Monday to show he killed her out of hatred, while his lawyers vow to prove Blake innocent by showing that Bonny Lee Bakley had many enemies.

Both sides give their opening statements in court before a seven-man, five-woman jury picked earlier this month.

The case has moved at a snail's pace since Bakley was found shot to death in Blake's car parked around the corner from an Italian restaurant where the couple had dined on May 4, 2001.

Blake told police he had gone back to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had left there and when he returned, found his 44-year-old wife, the mother of the couple's then infant daughter, dead.

Worried about creating a fiasco similar to the one that engulfed the O.J. Simpson murder trial about a decade ago, police spent more than a year investigating before charging the 71-year-old star of the 1970 TV series "Baretta" with murder.

But they admit their case is based largely on circumstantial evidence - and Blake's defenders are expected to show that Bakley was a professional con-woman who bilked men out of money with "lonely hearts" letters.

Blake's own publicly stated explanation for the killing was that she was murdered by one of the many men she had wronged in her past.

In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, Blake said, "In my heart I believe that some man maybe 10, 15, maybe 20 years ago - because she used to get married to them ... I think she destroyed a lot of lives and I think one life she destroyed saw her on television ... because we got engaged and it was all in the newspapers."

But police arrested Blake in April 2002 and said he was the man who had felt wronged by Bakley.

According to prosecution court papers, Bakley had forced Blake into marriage a few months earlier after their daughter was born. He hated Bakley and feared how she would bring up their child, the documents showed.

According to the court papers, Blake felt Bakley was "a bitch" and "scum of the earth" whom he wanted "out of his life."

Among key prosecution witnesses are two stuntmen who claim that Blake tried to get them to kill Bakley.

Gary McLarty testified last year that Blake offered him US$10,000, while Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton said no specific amount was discussed.

Defense lawyers are expected to attack their credibility.

If convicted, Blake faces up to life in prison.

- REUTERS