LOS ANGELES — Police have arrested actor Robert Blake, the tough-talking cop in the old "Baretta" TV series, alleging he shot his wife to death nearly a year ago because he felt "trapped" in his marriage.
Blake was arrested Thursday night at a home in Hidden Hills, a gated suburban community he had moved to shortly after the death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.
Police said they would seek charges of murder and solicitation of murder, and noted that Blake, 68, could face the death penalty if convicted.
Bakley, 44, was killed a block from a Studio City restaurant where she and Blake had just dined. They were married about five months before the May 4 slaying, after DNA tests proved he fathered her baby daughter, Rosie.
Police also arrested Blake's bodyguard and chauffeur, Earle Caldwell, on Thursday. They said they would seek to have him charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Blake was taken to the downtown Los Angeles County jail, where he was held in the hospital section to segregate him from the general inmate population, said Deputy Roberta Granek, a Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. He was not ill, she said.
At a news conference hours after the arrests, police said they believe Blake shot Bakley in the head minutes after the couple left the restaurant.
"We believe the motive is Robert Blake had contempt for Bonny Bakley," said police Capt. Jim Tatreau. "He felt he was trapped in a marriage that he wanted no part of and, quite frankly, the situation was not to his liking at all."
Tatreau confirmed earlier reports that police recovered the murder weapon, a World War II-era German-made handgun, from a trash bin about a day after the killing.