LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A second criminal attorney resigned on Friday from defending actor Robert Blake in his high profile murder trial, saying the "Baretta" star won't stop talking to the media about the case.

The Los Angeles judge presiding over the case gave Jennifer Keller permission to withdraw as Blake's lawyer just two months after allowing attorney Harland Braun to leave the case.

The star of the 1970s TV cop show "Baretta" is charged with fatally shooting his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, in May 2001 behind a Los Angeles-area restaurant where they had just dined.

Blake has been jailed since April. His former bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, is charged with conspiring to kill Bakley, with whom Blake has a 2-year-old daughter named Rose.

If convicted, the 69-year-old actor could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Keller and attorney Thomas Mesereau were appointed in November to replace Braun, who asked to leave the case after Blake granted a jailhouse interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which runs the jails, forbid Blake from giving the interview but Braun left the case anyway. Barbara Walters reportedly has been trying to set up an interview.

Mesereau said he would stay on the case, and would go forward with the preliminary hearing on Feb. 26, as scheduled.

In court papers, Keller complained of "a complete and irremediable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship" because Blake "refuses to accept or follow my advice in areas I consider of utmost importance to the successful handling of his case."

Keller said the situation has gotten so bad that Blake communicates with her by writing notes and has refused to discuss "certain matters ... for fear of a confrontation."

CLASHES OVER MEDIA

Keller told reporters after the hearing that before she agreed to take the case, she had been "assured that Mr. Blake would not be giving any interviews to the media without my advance knowledge and consent."

"That didn't occur," she said. "My advice wasn't taken on that issue and I didn't feel I could continue as counsel."

She wished Blake well and said "after he is acquitted I'm hoping that maybe I'll be able to have a drink with him some time."

Blake has clashed with his attorneys over media management almost since his arrest last year. He has given several telephone interviews to reporters, the last over the holidays.

In a videotaped deposition taken earlier this week in a civil wrongful death case brought by Bakley's family, Blake began rambling about unfavorable news stories that have circulated since his arrest. Mesereau can be heard off-camera telling the actor not to answer any questions.

Mesereau threatened to quit several times during the deposition if Blake answered any questions -- even by giving his birthdate -- for fear the answers could be used against him in the upcoming criminal trial.

Blake lashed back: "I want to know if you can live with the fact that when they wheel me out of here feet first with a tag on my toe that you can say, 'You did the right thing."'

In recent days, Keller expressed frustration with another of Blake's attorneys whom she accused of facilitating media interviews that she and Mesereau had forbidden.

"The criminal lawyers are not in control of this case," she told reporters.