Robert Blake To Marry For Third Time
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) – Actor Robert Blake will take a walk down the aisle a third time, 12 years after a jury acquitted him of murdering his second wife.
The 83-year-old Blake will marry 55-year-old Pamela Hudak, who testified on his behalf during his 2005 trial for the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley, for which he was acquitted.
Blake filled out an application for a marriage license Thursday at the Beverly Hills Courthouse. The two have reportedly known each other for decades and even dated briefly in 1991, something Hudak revealed during her testimony.
On May 4, 2001, Bakley was fatally shot while sitting in a car outside Vitello's Restaurant in Studio City after the couple had gone there for dinner. Blake claimed that as he walked back to the car with his wife after eating dinner, he realized he forgot his gun inside the restaurant, so he went back to get it. He says he returned to the car to find his wife already dead.
Prosecutors claimed Blake hired a hitman and detectives found $10,000 in his dresser drawer. However, Hudak testified that Blake often hid envelopes filled with money.
"And she said in court, 'no, he always had lots of cash around,' defended him," entertainment reporter Jeanne Wolf told CBS2 Friday.
Hudak also testified she lived in Blake's guesthouse in 1995 and 1997.
Wolf covered Blake's trial and says Hudak testified she was with the married couple when Bakely found out she was pregnant.
"She went with him and Bonnie Lee to the gynecologist's office and back in the car she said nobody was happy," Wolf said.
After a three-month murder trial and nine days of jury deliberations, Blake was acquitted of murder. However, a civil jury later found Blake responsible for his wife's death. He was ordered to pay the Bakely family $30 million. Blake has continued to maintain his innocence.
"I can only hope he's going to find solace with her, but boy oh boy, this is going to bring every bit of it up again," Wolf said.
No date has been set for the wedding.
