Blake's Son Defends Father; Funeral Canceled

May 17, 2001 -- The son of actor Robert Blake spoke out about his father's relationship with his slain wife on CNN's Larry King Live Wednesday and asserted that he believes that the actor has nothing to do with the May 4 murder of Bonny Lee Bakley.

Noah Blake told CNN that though he'd never met his 44-year-old stepmother, he knew the couple "hadn't really established what the nature of their relationship was going to be."

Blake, who portrayed a cockatoo-toting TV detective on the '70s series Baretta, married Bakley last November after DNA tests showed he was the father of her daughter, Rose. Bakley had initially believed the child was the daughter of Marlon Brando's son, Christian.

"My dad is innocent, period. He doesn't need to prove that," Noah Blake said on the broadcast. "He is not obligated nor is he obliged to address a thousand trillion rumors."

Media frenzy surrounding Bakley's fatal shooting outside a Studio City, Calif., restaurant has reached a fever pitch. On Wednesday, Blake's attorney said the actor was forced to cancel Bakley's Los Angeles memorial service after paparazzi and media helicopters mobbed the county coroner's office.

Blake's lawyer, Harland W. Braun, told The Associated Press that because of the crowd, the funeral director could not get close enough to the building to bring Bakley's body inside. Blake and his three children had planned to gather at the coroner's office to hold a private service before shipping the body to New Jersey for a funeral, Braun said.

"I've never seen anything like this," Braun noted to the AP. "Emotions in this case are running so high."

Lawyer Slams 'Absurd' TalesA former attorney for the murdered woman agreed that the case has taken a bizarre twist, but only because he thinks Braun and the actor have delivered falsehoods to get the media on their side. "I don't know whether he did it or not, but his story is absurd," Cary Goldstein told CNN.

Goldstein was referring to Blake's explanation to police that he left Bakley alone in his parked Dodge Stealth while he went back to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he claims he carried to protect his wife, who allegedly was afraid she was being stalked.

"Here's a man so worried about the safety of his wife that he carries a gun, but then he leaves her [in the car] next to a dark construction site at night, a block and a half from the restaurant in a bad neighborhood," Goldstein said.

"This is theater of the absurd and what frightens me is that [Blake's lawyers] are starting to sell it," said Goldstein, who now represents Bakley's sister. "Did he murder Bonny? I don't know, but certainly he's a very likely suspect."

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks indicated that the investigation was progressing slowly. "It's a homicide that at least at this time has very few clues," Parks told KFWB radio.

Reuters contributed to this story.