Actor Blake denied bail

American actor Robert Blake, accused of murdering his wife, remains in jail today after a judge denied him bail.

At a court hearing in Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash rejected the actor’s plea to release him on €1.25m bail. A further court hearing was set for May 21.

Blake, 68, had made a personal plea for his release saying he wanted to be able to help his lawyer prepare his defence.

He also said he is so severely dyslexic that he cannot read any of the legal documents but would have to have them read to him.

The judge said he was not ruling out the possibility that Blake could be released on bail later, but said he wants to see the evidence in the case at the preliminary hearing before he makes such a ruling.

Blake is accused of shooting his wife Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, last May.

He was jailed without bail on April 18 on charges of murder, solicitation of murder, conspiracy and the special circumstance of lying in wait. He denies the charges.

His bodyguard and handyman Earle Caldwell, 46, was arrested on the conspiracy count and released after Blake posted bail for him.

Caldwell denies the charge of conspiring with Blake to kill Bakley by providing him with a gun.

Blake, star of the 1970s American television show Baretta, married Bakley in November 2000 five months after she gave birth to their daughter, Rose.

She was shot as she sat in Blake’s car down the street from a Hollywood restaurant where the couple had just dined.

Blake said he had gone back to collect a gun which he said slipped out of his waistband while he was eating and returned to find Bakley dead. But prosecutors accuse him of shooting her.