LOS ANGELES, March 19 (UPI) -- The attorney representing the family of actor Robert Blake's late wife has told Los Angeles television stations that police have found new witnesses who supposedly implicated Blake in his wife's death nearly a year ago.
Los Angeles police declined to comment on statements made Tuesday by lawyer Cary Goldstein and denied that an arrest was imminent. Goldstein, however, said he had been told by sources that two new witnesses told detectives that Blake had solicited his wife's murder.
"I am informed by reliable sources that the LAPD has interviewed two individuals who claim to have been solicited by Robert Blake to murder his wife for money," Goldstein said.
Bonny Lee Bakley was shot dead last May 4 while sitting in Blake's parked car shortly after the two had left a restaurant near Blake's Studio City home. Blake told investigators he had left Bakley alone on a quiet street in the vehicle while he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a pistol he had left behind.
Goldstein said his sources disclosed that the two unnamed witnesses had contacted police and had not taken part in the murder of Bakley.
The 44-year-old Bakley and Blake, 67, were married the previous November after a paternity test determined that he had fathered Bakley's daughter, Rosie. The couple reportedly was not close and lived separate lives, which fueled speculation that Blake was anxious to rid himself of Bakley.
Blake's defenders have argued that Bakley's past history of petty frauds, including a "lonely hearts" scam in which she sold nude pictures of herself through the mail, had earned her a number of enemies who might be inclined to kill her.
Police have maintained that their investigation was continuing and that Blake remained a possible suspect.
Blake, a former child actor in the "Our Gang" comedies, starred in the film "In Cold Blood" and the television series "Baretta."
