Los Angeles – An actress shot to death at Phil Spector’s hilltop castle was the last of several women victimized by the legendary music producer in a decades-long series of alcohol-fueled confrontations, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday as they began hearing the case.
The defense countered that Lana Clarkson’s death on Feb. 3, 2003, was an accident and characterized Spector as an old-fashioned romantic.
Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson outlined what he called a pattern of behavior in which Spector would become very drunk, take a woman to one of his residences, refuse to let her leave and then threaten her with a gun when she refused to stay.
The prosecutor showed a photo of Clarkson slumped in a chair, face covered with blood.
Defense attorney Bruce Cutler told jurors that investigators leaped to the conclusion that it was a murder.
Spector, 67, whose “Wall of Sound” transformed rock ‘n’ roll in the 1960s, lives in a rambling castlelike mansion in suburban Alhambra. It was there that he took Clarkson, who wound up dead in the foyer with a gunshot through her mouth.
Jackson told the jury that Spector had gone out on the town for an evening with female friends and had many drinks at a series of restaurants before arriving at the House of Blues, where he met Clarkson, 40, who was working in the club’s elite Foundation Room.
She had a role in the Roger Corman 1980s cult film “Barbarian Queen.”
The prosecutor presented video surveillance footage from a House of Blues camera that showed Clarkson leaving with Spector when the bar closed.
“She was found dead two hours and 55 minutes later,” he said.
A chauffeur who drove the pair to Spector’s mansion has told of hearing a gunshot and seeing Spector emerge from the house holding a gun and declaring, “I think I killed somebody.” Spector later said he believed the shooting was an “accidental suicide” by Clarkson.
“Lana Clarkson was the last of a long line of women victimized by Phillip Spector over the years,” the prosecutor said.
It took about eight months for authorities to charge Spector with murder. They are proceeding on a theory of “implied malice,” alleging he did not intend to kill Clarkson but caused her death by reckless behavior and taking an extreme risk.
If convicted of second-degree murder, Spector could face 15 years to life in prison.
