Nanny details pact and betrayals that followed an alleged murder conspiracy

A pinkie swear was not enough to preserve the complicated relationship between a woman and her nanny once they had both been arrested for murder.
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In the days before Karen Tobie and Lynne Blake were taken into custody for the murder of Tobie's husband, John Cataneo, Tobie consulted a lawyer while Blake considered confessing to police.

"I thought she was trying to push this all off on me," Blake testified Wednesday.

On Oct. 6, 2004, several months after the murder, the two women wrapped pinkies and swore to keep their mouths shut, according to Blake.
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The next day, police put a secret recording device in Lynne Blake's bra.

"Don't chicken out. We don't say anything," Tobie told her friend and child's nanny in a recording played for jurors. "Do not fall into this s---, Lynne, because this will be our downfall."

Cataneo was shot four times outside his duplex apartment on the night of June 30, 2004. Tobie and the alleged gunman, Tysjohaun Cooper, are now on trial for his murder and face the death penalty if convicted.
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Blake pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for her testimony and will be sentenced later.

Cataneo paid for Lynne Blake's car and the apartment next door to his so she could drive Karen Tobie on errands and take care of the couple's 2-year-old son. Blake became the family's chauffeur, nanny and friend.

On Oct. 5, 2004, police told Blake that Tobie's lawyer was suggesting they investigate the nanny to solve Cataneo's murder. They also showed Blake what looked like a copy of Tobie's driver's license, although Tobie had told Blake she didn't drive. Blake became enraged and physically confronted her friend later that day.
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"I hit her in the chest," Blake said.

"I considered Karen like a daughter," Blake testified. "We did everything together."

According to Blake, Tobie and Cataneo's marriage began to sour on Feb. 14, 2004, when the plumber failed to buy his wife a bracelet he had promised for
Valentine's Day.
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Cataneo said he was going to take the couple's son to a family reunion in Georgia in early July and not come back, said Blake.

The plumber became abusive after February, according to Tobie, who told her friend that Cataneo had flung her by her hair.

"Tired of him throwing her around," Tobie decided "it was time for him to die," according to Blake.

Throughout her testimony, Lynne Blake, 58, portrayed herself as Karen Tobie's confidante and sidekick.

When the two women drove around Volusia County looking for a gun, which happened "seven or eight times," she said, the nanny would drive and wait in the car while Tobie hopped out to track down a weapon.
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According to Blake, their search ended with Tysjohaun Cooper, 26, an assistant to John Cataneo. Blake testified that she overheard the two defendants arranging a gun sale on the back porch.

Tobie agreed to pay Cooper $3,000 for the gun, which was the cost of truck-driving school and rent for the two months Cooper needed to get his commercial driver's license.

When Cooper's gun jammed for Tobie during a practice shoot, the wife told Blake, "It will be kind of hard to come up behind him and say, 'Hold on a minute so I can reinsert the clip and kill you.'"

Tobie complained to Cooper about the gun and said she had to look for someone to do the job she couldn't finish.
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Blake testified that she saw Cooper mouth the words, "I'm your man," as he pointed his thumb at his chest. When Tobie came back, she told Blake, "My problems are over."

The two women also talked about John Cataneo's life insurance policy, agreeing that "you can't raise a child on $500,000," according to Blake.

Before Cataneo was murdered, the 58-year-old recalled times she would sit around with Tobie in the duplex and wonder, "Is this going to be the night?"

Lynne Blake's cross-examination by defense lawyers was set to begin Thursday morning.

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