LOS ANGELES — Rock-music producer Phil Spector was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of a film actress at his mansion six years ago.
A Superior Court jury returned the verdict after an estimated 29 to 30 hours of deliberations. The jury had the option of choosing involuntary manslaughter but did not do so.
Spector, 69, exhibited no reaction to the verdict. His attorney argued that he should remain free on bail pending the May 29 sentencing, but Judge Larry Paul Fidler remanded him to jail immediately. Second-degree murder carries a penalty of 15 years to life in prison.
Spector’s wife, Rachelle, sobbed as the decision was announced.
The 40-year-old Lana Clarkson, star of the 1985 cult film “Barbarian Queen,” died of a gunshot fired into her mouth as she sat in the foyer of Spector’s mansion in 2003. She met Spector hours earlier at her job as a nightclub hostess.
Prosecutors argued Spector had a history of threatening women with guns when they tried to leave his presence. The defense claimed she killed herself.
It was Spector’s second trial. His first jury deadlocked 10-2 favoring conviction in 2007.
During jury selection, only a few panelists remembered Spector’s heyday as the inventor of the “Wall of Sound” recording technique.
