The Illuminated Donkey

Witness says Robert Blake's cry for help seemed insincere.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Robert Blake's murder trial resumed Tuesday after a holiday recess with a witness testifying that the actor's cries for help for his bleeding wife seemed insincere.

Mary Beth Rennie, a hospital administrator, recounted how she and her boyfriend, a doctor, hid by a tree and did not intervene when they heard Blake yelling. Rennie said she and Dr. James Michael McCoy held back because Blake's behavior seemed "odd" and "forced."

"It didn't seem genuine or real," she said.