By Lisa Sweetingham
Court TV
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VAN NUYS, California (Court TV) -- Jurors saw graphic photos of dried vomit and the bloody car seat where Bonny Lee Bakley was shot to death during a meticulous cross-examination Tuesday of a forensics expert in actor Robert Blake's murder trial.
As criminalist Michael Mastrocovo of the LAPD's Scientific Investigation Division described how he collected evidence after the 44-year-old's murder, the defense projected a close-up shot of the driver's-side door of Blake's black Dodge Stealth on a screen.
A dried, clear, mucus-like substance splashed from the driver's-side window across the door panel and onto the door handle. It spread across the door in such a way that it appeared as if someone had vomited out the window while the car was in motion.
Mastrocovo said DNA tests revealed that the substance on the car did not come from Bakley.
Several witnesses have testified that while paramedics attempted in vain to save Bakley's life, Blake sat on the curb nearby, crying and vomiting, but never approached his wife.
Prosecutors contend that the actor was so nervous about carrying out his plan to kill his wife after they had dinner at a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001, that he threw up both before and after her death.
The defense asserted during opening statements that the 71-year-old former TV star had trouble with indigestion and was known to vomit after eating. And while the dried substance on the car may have bolsteredthat claim, Mastrocovo testified that he did not try to determine whether it was from Blake, nor the time it may have been deposited.
Witnesses Michael Dufficy and Richard Noel also testified that they saw vomit containing bits of spinach in the trash can in the men's bathroom of Vitello's, the restaurant where Blake enjoyed a meal of pasta with spinach and tomatoes before the shooting.
"I saw it when I was washing my hands," Dufficy testified. "I covered it up with paper towels. I didn't think anyone else needed to see it."
Both men also testified that when Blake walked past their table, he appeared "nervous," "preoccupied," or "agitated." Noel testified that Blake "seemed upset."
Dufficy testified that Blake was "twisting his hair and making faces. It stood out in my mind."
The "Baretta" star, who wore his daily uniform of a black suit and light-blue dress shirt, sat quietly at the defense table, running his right hand through his thick white hair -- a continual habit since the beginning of trial.
During cross-examination, both witnesses conceded that they did not know Blake well enough to say whether he always made strange facial expressions and "played with his hair," but they maintained that his behavior seemed unusual that night.
Painstaking testimony
Jurors were also shown police photos of two shell casings that came from the gun used to kill Bakley. One casing, Mastrocovo testified, was found in the gutter near Bakley's open passenger-side window. The other was discovered in a bloody fold between the seat cushion and the seat back.
Blake is accused of shooting Bakley -- once in the right cheek and once in the shoulder -- sometime after 9:30 p.m. as she sat in his car, parked a block and a half away from Vitello's. He denies any involvement in the murder, and claims he had briefly returned to the restaurant when she was killed.
Jurors appeared restless during much of Tuesday morning's cross-examination, which involved a rehashing of thorough descriptions of how each piece of evidence was recovered.
Juror No. 7, a 45-year-old female in the second row, discreetly stretched; No. 8, the 50-year-old male juror next to her, peered up at the clock; very few jurors appeared to be taking notes.
Defense attorney Gerald Schwartzbach's questioning of Mastrocovo revolved around the same point he has attempted to make with previous police witnesses: that the evidence handling was sloppy.
For instance, Schwartzbach asked Mastrocovo if he used any "pliers-like tools" to preserve latent prints when he first discovered the murder weapon, a 9 mm Walther P-38, which still had one live round of ammo in the chamber.
Photos of Mastrocovo's hand holding the German WWII relic, which had been tossed into a Dumpster some 14 feet from the front of Blake's car, indicate that the witness was wearing thick gloves.
"Did I have any tools?" asked Mastrocovo, who appeared to be getting testy and tired after a second day on the stand.
"Anything?" Schwartzbach reiterated.
Mastrocovo said he did, but he did not use them because his first priority was disabling the loaded weapon. He also scoffed at the defense's suggestion that the Dumpster should have been searched from top to bottom in the spot where it stood at the crime scene, instead of being towed to a landfill where its contents were spilled out.
"I don't understand the logic of picking things off the top, when you are in the perfect location to be shot," he testified.
The gun was ultimately untraceable and no prints could be recovered from it.
Robert Blake is charged with one count of murdering Bakley with the special circ*mstance of lying in wait and two counts of soliciting two former stuntmen to commit murder.
He faces life in prison if convicted.
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