AP Special CorrespondentLOS ANGELES (AP) -- Prosecutors filed murder charges Monday against actor Robert Blake in the shooting death of his wife that could bring the death penalty.

In addition to murder, Blake was charged with solicitation of murder, conspiracy and the special circumstance of lying in wait. Under California law, a special circumstance can make it a capital case.

Blake's bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, was shot to death May 4, 2001, as she sat in her husband's car outside a restaurant where the couple had just dined. The couple had a daughter who will turn 2 in June.

Blake, 68, star of the 1970s detective series "Baretta," and Caldwell were arrested Thursday.

Prosecutors said Blake "personally and intentionally" fired the handgun that killed Bakley, and the four-count complaint specified 18 "overt acts."

According to the complaint, Blake drove Bakley to dinner at Vitello's restaurant, parking his car behind a trash bin a block away from the eatery.

When the couple returned to the car after dinner, Bakley sat in the passenger seat. Prosecutors say Blake "lowered the windows, got out of the car" holding the keys and shot his wife twice with a 9mm handgun.

He allegedly tossed the gun into a nearby Dumpster.

Prosecutors said the plot began in March 2001, two months before the slaying. Blake allegedly considered having Bakley killed and buried in a desert area but decided it could be done outside Vitello's.

The case is likely to include details on Bakley's past.

Jurors are likely to hear that she trolled the bars of North Hollywood looking for a celebrity companion, and that she left a trail of ex-husbands and other men who claimed they had been conned out of large sums of money.

Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, has said there were scores of people with motives to kill Bakley. Police contend one man had the most potent motive -- Robert Blake.

"We believe the motive is Robert Blake had contempt for Bonny Bakley," police Capt. Jim Tatreau said before charges were filed. "He felt he was trapped in a marriage that he wanted no part of and, quite frankly, the situation was not to his liking at all."