Blake Under 'Cloud': Lawyer

By Stephen M. Silverman

03/26/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

Robert Blake's lawyer conceded for the first time that the former "Baretta" star, 67, was under a "cloud" of suspicion in the May 4 gunshot murder of Blake's wife, Bonny Bakley, 45. On Monday's "Today" show, Blake's bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, said that Blake is "distraught, in mourning, he doesn't look good. He's tired." NBC News reports that Blake is keeping a low profile at the moment and is staying with relatives. Late last week, Judy Howell, who was a friend of the victim, was quoted on ABCNEWS.com as saying, "I have no doubt, no doubt at all with every fiber of my body that he killed her, killed my friend. He killed his child's mother." Both Howell and Bakley's mother allege that Blake abused his wife, that the couple's baby daughter was a source of friction and that Blake wanted to keep Bakley away from the baby and would have killed for the child, ABCNEWS.com goes on to say. Caldwell, on "Today," said it was a "ridiculous assumption to think that (Blake) had anything to do with this." When the show's host Katie Couric asked Caldwell whether or not he thought it "a little strange" that Blake had to go back to the restaurant where he and Bakley had eaten so the actor could retrieve his gun, Caldwell replied, "it is a little strange, but not impossible."