Judge Blocks Robert Blake's Alternate Theory

Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp has ruled that Robert Blake's defense attorneys cannot present to jurors any theory that others, including Marlon Brando's late son Christian, conspired to kill Bonny Lee Bakley.

"I've found there was no link, direct or circumstantial, with Mr. Brando," she said. "It's pure speculation."

The judge barred Blake's attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach from making any effort in trying to link the prosecution's star witness, Ronald (Duffy) Hambleton, to anyone else in a conspiracy to kill Blake's wife. The defense wanted to present the jury with an alternate theory that Christian Brando conspired to kill Bakley because she had wrongly lead him to believe that he was the father of her child, which was really Blake's.

Schwartzbach told Judge Schempp her ruling to bar evidence of a motive by Hambleton to lie was a reversible error on appeal. "But that doesn't mean very much to a 71-year-old man," he said, referring to Blake.

See A report: Judge Rules Out Key Blake Defense Theory

Background: The Robert Blake Case
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