[1/2] Actor Robert Blake speaks to reporters as he walks to Burbank Courthouse in Burbank, California, U.S. August 29, 2005.
A wrongful death lawsuit subsequently filed against Blake by her estate led to a civil court judgment that the actor was responsible for her slaying.
Blake contended his wife was a victim of her own checkered past, gunned down by an unknown assailant.
Blake's acting work was overshadowed four years later by the Bakley murder, which remains unsolved.
A paternity test showed that the father was Blake, not Christian Brando, son of actor Marlon Brando, who Bakley had been dating simultaneously.