LOS ANGELES -- Actor Robert Blake posted $1.5 million bail and was released from jail Friday to await trial on charges of murdering his wife.
"Give me a cigarette," Blake, 69, said to his defense investigator as he stepped out of the downtown men's jail. He took a drag before briefly commenting to a crush of reporters and photographers.
"I never thought I'd make 11 months in a cement box," he said, adding "this is God's day, he's never let me down."
Blake drove off with defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. to an undisclosed location.
The actor was arrested in April and kept in custody without bail because prosecutors filed a so-called special circumstance allegation of lying in wait that would usually preclude bond.
Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash unexpectedly set bail Thursday at the end of a preliminary hearing in which the actor was ordered to stand trial for the killing of Bonny Lee Bakley.
The judge said Blake would have to stay at one residence, have electronic monitoring and surrender his passport. Prosecutors opposed bail but said they would not appeal Nash's ruling.
Bakley, 44, was slain May 4, 2001, after dining with her husband at Vitello's restaurant, Blake's longtime hangout in his Studio City neighborhood. The shooter fired a bullet into her brain and another into her upper body as she sat in their car.
Blake claims he found his wife shot after he went back into the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he carried for protection and had accidentally left behind during dinner.
Prosecutors say he shot his wife and charged him with murder, solicitation of murder, conspiracy and lying in wait. They have decided not to seek the death penalty.
Blake says he met Bakley in a jazz club and began having casual sex with her. He married her in late 2000 after tests determined he was the father of a baby girl she'd had. Bakley at first claimed the child was fathered by Christian Brando, son of actor Marlon Brando.
Ultimately, authorities allege, Blake wanted to keep the baby and get rid of his wife. A retired police detective and two former stuntmen testified at the preliminary hearing that Blake solicited her killing.
Blake's handyman-bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, is charged with conspiracy. He has been free on $1 million bail posted by the actor shortly after they were arrested. Both men will be arraigned for trial on March 27. A trial date remains undetermined.<
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