Blake judge preserves camera ban
 |
Robert Blake borrowed a guitar and performed "Over the Rainbow" after Monday's hearing.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
Actor Robert Blake's impromptu performance outside court.
|
|
VAN NUYS, California (CNN) -- The judge in the Robert Blake murder case Monday turned down a motion to reconsider her earlier refusal to allow cameras in the courtroom throughout the upcoming trial.
Members of the news media -- including CNN -- had asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp for gavel-to-gavel coverage in the high-profile case.
Schempp ruled earlier that cameras would be allowed only for opening and closing remarks and the verdict.
Blake, 70, who once starred in the 1970s police detective TV show "Baretta," is charged with killing his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a restaurant where they had dined on May 4, 2001.
During the morning's proceedings, the one-time child star on occasion glared at the prosecution. Afterward, Blake strode from the courthouse, took a guitar from a person on the street and sang a rendition of "Over the Rainbow."
The rejection of cameras in the courtroom was one of a number of motions Schempp ruled on Monday. She also ruled that a witness who was first to arrive on the scene of the shooting can testify about Blake's behavior at the time.
Schempp reserved judgment on whether jurors would be allowed to listen to hearsay testimony from Earle Caldwell, Blake's friend and former handyman, until it can be determined whether Caldwell plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Last October, charges against Caldwell of conspiracy to commit murder in the case were dropped.
The judge also delayed a ruling on whether jurors would be able to hear secretly recorded audiotapes that Bakley made with Blake until Schempp hears the tapes.
She left open the possibility that jurors would be able to hear testimony about alleged episodes of domestic abuse by Blake against his first wife.
During the hearing, prosecutor Shellie Samuels told the court she has beefed up resources devoted to the case to counter the resources the actor is able to bring.
"Extraordinary funds are being spent," Samuels said. Citing the prosecution's failure to obtain a conviction in the O.J. Simpson case, she said, "History has taught us we cannot use our routine funding" against well-heeled defendants.
She called Blake and his defense team "a multimillion-dollar machine."
Blake's defenders have accused the prosecution of focusing on their client because they want to convict a celebrity.
Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. said Samuels' claim that the defense has more resources than the prosecution "utterly ridiculous."
He said prosecutors have used 256 local investigators and 24 federal agents and submitted evidence to four separate DNA laboratories -- figures Samuels did not dispute.
The exchange was sparked by discussion of what to do with "negative" evidence the prosecution has unearthed as part of its testing of evidence.
The police had sent the 9 mm pistol used to kill Bakley, found in a garbage container near the site of the killing, to be tested to see whether Blake may have poured oil on it in an attempt to wash away fingerprints.
The tests came back negative, a fact the defense wanted to be able to show the jury, but the prosecution said the detail proved nothing.
In the end, both sides agreed to tell jurors that no evidence was found linking the oil on the weapon or the weapon itself to Blake.
Schempp also said the jurors would be taken on a nighttime tour of the scene of the killing, which took place in Blake's car about a block from an Italian restaurant where the actor and Bakley had just finished eating an evening meal.
Blake has been under house arrest.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin February 17.
