Bakley Daughter Says Blake Issued Threats

Bonny Lee Bakley’s daughter testified Thursday that Robert Blake emotionally abused her mother, and she described Bakley’s panic when the actor took their infant daughter.

Holly Gawron, 24, described what she said were several threatening phone calls that the “Baretta” star made to her mother in Little Rock, Ark., in June 1999, just after the birth of Blake and Bakley’s daughter, Rosie.

Gawron said that once, when she answered the phone, the actor mistook her for Bakley, repeatedly swearing at her before warning, “You don’t know who you are messing with.”

Blake, 71, allegedly solicited stuntmen Gary McLarty and Ronald Hambleton to kill his wife. When they refused, police say, he fatally shot Bakley, 44, after the couple dined at a Studio City restaurant May 4, 2001.

Gawron also testified about her and Bakley’s trip to Los Angeles in September 2000 to file kidnapping charges with police after Blake refused to return the baby.

“She was panicking,” Gawron said. “She wanted to get her baby back.”

Within days, Bakley dropped the kidnapping charges, and Blake agreed to marry her.

Bakley was killed five days after she moved into a guest house behind Blake’s Studio City home.

During cross-examination, defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach noted that Gawron might benefit financially from Blake’s conviction because she has joined in a civil lawsuit against him over Bakley’s death.

Jurors also heard Thursday from Blake’s ex-wife, Sondra Kerr, who testified about running into the actor and congratulating him on his marriage to Bakley and the birth of their daughter.

“The baby is real but the marriage isn’t,” she said Blake told her. “The marriage is all smoke and mirrors.”

In other testimony, lead Det. Ronald Y. Ito described the investigation and search of Blake’s property that yielded two 9-millimeter handguns, 97 “remanufactured bullets” and letters from Bakley.

Ito said police ruled out half a dozen suspects who may have had reason to kill Bakley, who had been convicted of fraud and ran a mail-order pornography business.

Laying the groundwork for key testimony, Ito said that, during interviews with McLarty, the stuntman was coherent and did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The defense is expected to attack McLarty and Hambleton, who are likely to take the stand next week, as chronic drug abusers with impaired memories.