He played an iconic cop on TV. Did Robert Blake get away with murder?
Robert Blake waited 11 months for murder charges after his wife's killing, with prosecutors claiming he wanted custody of their daughter to shield her from a lifestyle he despised.
Robert Blake, the man who once embodied tough-guy cop Baretta on television, may have slipped the justice system entirely after his wife's 2001 shooting death outside a Studio City restaurant.
Eleven months dragged by before the LAPD finally charged the actor with murder. That glacial pace alone fuels decades of skepticism about whether celebrity, connections, or investigative missteps let a killer walk.
Prosecutors laid out a clear motive: Blake sought full custody of his young daughter, driven by revulsion at his wife's lifestyle, which authorities described as abhorrent. The claim painted a picture of a man willing to eliminate an obstacle rather than share parenting with someone he viewed as unfit.
Yet Blake was acquitted in criminal court. A later civil trial found him liable for the wrongful death, but that verdict carried no prison time and little lasting stain on his legacy. The gap between the slow-building criminal case and its ultimate failure still defines the story.
The case exposed how custody battles laced with moral judgment can spiral into accusations of the ultimate crime. Blake's defense successfully sowed enough doubt to overcome the prosecution's narrative, leaving the central question unresolved in the eyes of many who followed the saga.
What lingers is the uncomfortable possibility that a man accused of orchestrating his wife's murder to secure his daughter ultimately faced no criminal penalty at all.
Original reporting: LA Times.
Original reporting: LA Times, California.
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