LOS ANGELES - Two stuntmen who worked on the "Baretta" television series with Robert Blake are expected to testify that he tried to hire them to kill his wife, Blake's lawyer said yesterday.

Gary McLarty and Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton will probably be key witnesses in Blake's murder trial, according to attorney Harland Braun and another source close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The problem with these witnesses is, if this is true, why didn't they call the police?" Braun asked. "Often, these kinds of witnesses have some problem in their history or they want to jump on a big case to be in the spotlight."

In 1991, McLarty killed a houseguest in a shooting that was ruled justifiable self-defense. Authorities said the victim, Donald Deppe, 50, was an ex-convict with a history of violent assaults and had threatened McLarty.

Braun is familiar with McLarty from another high-profile Hollywood case: the 1982 deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two children in an accident on a "Twilight Zone" movie set.

McLarty, the stunt coordinator for the film, was a witness in the ensuing involuntary manslaughter trial. Braun was a defense attorney.

Prosecutors have said Blake asked two other people to kill Bonny Lee Bakley last year before doing it himself. They have not identified the two and Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, declined to comment yesterday on the names of the witnesses.

Blake was formally charged Monday with shooting Bakley, 44, to death after a dinner outing last May. Prosecutors said the 68-year-old Blake and his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, plotted the slaying for about four months.

Besides murder, Blake is charged with solicitation of murder, conspiracy and the special circumstance of lying in wait, which gives prosecutors the option of seeking a death sentence. That decision has not been announced in Blake's case.

Caldwell, 46, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Both men pleaded innocent.

According to the source close to the case, Hambleton approached Blake last year and asked if they could get together and do a movie. He was part of a group called Stunts Unlimited and wanted to do an action movie.

Blake told Hambleton he could not get involved in a movie deal because he was distracted by his involvement with Bakley and the birth of their child, the source said.