Blake bodyguard freed on $1 million bail

LOS ANGELES, April 26 (UPI) -- Earle Caldwell, who was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Robert Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, has been released on $1 million bail.

Blake's lawyer, Harland Braun, confirmed Friday that the former "Baretta" star posted Caldwell's bail.

"Under California law," said Braun, "an employer has an obligation to finance the defense of his employee when the employee is charged with crime rising out of his employment. He's also a friend."

Perhaps anticipating skepticism about Blake's motivation for bailing his bodyguard-chauffer out of prison, Braun said no one should try to read anything into the development.

"It's amazing to me that a prosecutor can offer a guy low bail or immunity and no one things anything of it," he said, "but when Blake does what he's supposed to do people are suspicious."

Blake and Caldwell were arrested on April 18. Blake was charged with murder with special circumstances of lying in wait, two counts of solicitation to commit murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Both pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned on Monday.

The special circumstance charge could have made Blake eligible for capital punishment. Los Angeles County prosecutors announced Thursday they had decided not to seek the death penalty, but would seek life in prison without the possibility of parole if Blake is convicted.

Braun said Blake was relieved to hear that.

"Only in the sense that we can concentrate on the main case, rather than death penalty issues," he said. "It gives us more resources, because we don't have to focus on death penalty arguments and appeals."

Braun rejected any suggested that prosecutors decided against seeking the death penalty because it might make it easier for a jury to convict Blake.

"I don't think so," he said. "This was the inevitable decision based on the facts. They didn't have a choice."

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said the quick decision not to seek the death penalty indicates that prosecutors want to take the case to trial quickly.

"We are very anxious to get this case into court as soon as possible,'' she said. "We are ready to go to trial now.''

A hearing is scheduled for May 1 to set a date for a preliminary hearing. Braun said he needs four months to prepare for a preliminary hearing.

"I have 35,000 pages of documents to review -- no index, no marking, some of it has been shuffled up," said Braun.

His office has two investigators organizing the material.

The criminal complaint against Blake alleged that the 68-year-old Emmy-winning actor committed at least 18 overt acts as part of an ongoing campaign to end his wife's life. In one part of the complaint, investigators said that in March 2001 -- two months before Bakley was killed -- Blake asked someone to hide in a van in a desert area and kill Bakley.

The complaint also alleges that Blake drove one person to a spot near Vitello's -- a restaurant in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles -- to look at a possible murder site. Bakley, 44, was shot to death May 4 last year as she sat in Blake's car near the restaurant.

Blake told police he left her in the car while he went back inside the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had left in their booth, and came back to find her shot and dying.

Prosecutors said that Caldwell kept a list of items handy -- at Blake's request -- including two shovels, a small sledge, a crowbar, old rugs, duct tape, Drano, pool acid and lye. They said the list included an instruction: "Get blank gun ready."

Police said they had gathered "significant and compelling" evidence against Blake during their nearly year-long investigation. More evidence will be brought up in open court when prosecutors make their case at a preliminary hearing.

Two veteran Hollywood stuntmen who worked with Blake on "Baretta" claim the actor tried to hire them to kill his wife, according to Braun. He identified Gary McLarty and Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton as the two witnesses who police have said will testify that Blake solicited them to murder Bakley.

However, he questioned their value as prosecution witnesses, wondering aloud why McLarty and Hambleton didn't go to the police right away if they were solicited.