Blake’s Lawyers Say No Link to Weapon

Robert Blake’s lawyers filed a thick pile of motions Thursday seeking approval to tell jurors about nearly three years of police forensic investigations they say failed to establish a link between the actor and the gun that killed his wife.

The unusually detailed legal papers tell how prosecutors traveled the country to consult with experts but were unable to prove their theory that Blake used motor oil from his car to obliterate fingerprints on the murder weapon. All tests concluded that the oil on the gun was not motor oil, the documents said.

The defense also said investigators were unsuccessful in their attempts to prove the actor hid the gun under the hood of his car. They said investigators conducted tests using a duplicate of Blake’s 1991 Dodge Stealth sports car, several hood linings, a second hood and a portable vehicle canopy.

The prosecution, in motions filed last week, argued that the failed tests were irrelevant “negative evidence” that proved nothing and should be excluded as evidence.

Blake, the former star of TV’s “Baretta” series, is charged with murdering his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Bakley, on May 4, 2001. She was found shot to death in their car outside a restaurant. Blake said he left her alone in the car when he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he carried for protection and had accidentally left behind.

Blake’s attorneys said in their motion that the prosecution work they want to use as evidence shows that “despite an extraordinary expenditure of funds and manpower resources, and an equally extraordinary number of forensic tests, the prosecution has been utterly unable to link Mr. Blake to the murder weapon in this case.”

The defense also objected to prosecution efforts to minimize the past of Blake’s wife, her involvement in selling pornographic pictures of herself and her past convictions for fraud. Attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. said he wants to cross-examine witnesses who will allude to her past.