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Actress's accused killer got gun through brother

By VALERIE KUKLENSKI

LOS ANGELES -- The brother of the obsessed fan accused of killing actress Rebecca Schaeffer testified Wednesday he bought a .357 Magnum for his underage brother 11 days before the actress was shot to death on her doorstep.

Edward Bardo testified he bought the pistol for his brother, Robert, who was then too young to buy a gun.

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'The agreement was when the gun was handled, it would be in my presence and any firing would be with me there,' said Edward, a self- proclaimed Arizona gun enthusiast.

Robert Bardo, 21, is charged with shooting the actress to death in the doorway of her Fairfax apartment on July 18, 1989. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors contend Bardo was completely aware of his actions, but his defense attorney has said evaluation of Bardo's mental state at the time of the shooting will be a key part of his defense.

In the first day of the non-jury trial before Superior Court Judge Dino Fulgoni, Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark portrayed Bardo as intelligent and lucid in the days and months before he allegedly shot Schaeffer.

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Edward Bardo said within a few hours after Robert left for Los Angeles, he checked the closet where the gun was stored and discovered it was missing.

In earlier testimony, Fulgoni heard from the security chief of Warner Bros. studios in Burbank and a production executive on Schaeffer's TV series, 'My Sister Sam.' Both testified about Bardo's repeated telephone calls and other attempts to contact Schaeffer while the series was in production and after it was cancelled in January 1988.

John F. Egger, Warner Bros.' security chief, said Bardo began calling the studio in 1987 seeking the actress.

Egger said Bardo came to the lot June 2, 1987, carrying a huge bouquet of flowers and a 5-foot teddy bear he intended to give to Schaeffer. Guards from the front gate escorted Bardo to Egger's office.

'I said now what is this all about, and he proceeded to tell me how much he loved Rebecca Schaeffer and he just wanted to give her the teddy bear and the flowers,' Egger said. 'He didn't understand why we wouldn't let him see her.'

Egger said in the context of roughly 100 'star-gazing' fans he has turned away from the lot, '(Bardo) was one of the most lucid and intelligent types of people that I've dealt with.'

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A Tucson private detective whom Bardo hired to locate Schaeffer's home address testified there was nothing in Bardo's behavior that prompted him to have second thoughts about divulging the information.

For a fee, the investigator said he gave Bardo Schaeffer's home address, which he obtained from the Department of Motor Vehicles, which has since restricted access to such information.

The trial is being heard without a jury at Bardo's request in exchange for the prosecution's agreement not to seek the death penalty.

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