Bonnie Lee Bakley
The wife of actor Robert Blake (of Baretta fame), Bonnie Lee Bakley was shot to death while she waited in the car for her husband on May 4, 2001. Blake was tried and acquitted but later held liable in a civil suit brought by Bakley’s family.
Proving liability in a civil suit requires a ‘preponderance of the evidence,’ whereas proving criminal guilt in a murder trial requires a determination of ‘guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’ Without Blake’s confession, all we can surmise from this is that while Blake isn’t ‘guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,’ he may have killed his ex-wife.
