Photo: CDCR/Getty Images
On February 3, 2003, police responded to a 911 call and found lana clarkson40, died of a gunshot wound to the mouth in the lobby of music producer Phil Spector’s mansion in Alhambra, California.
Spector, who pioneered the “Wall of Sound” production technique in the 1960s and worked with numerous top musicians, including the Beatles and Ike and Tina Turner, met Clarkson that same night at The House of Blues in West Hollywood, where she was hosting.
The actress, who had appeared in several B movies, he agreed to come back to his house that night for a drink. The legendary record producer, then 63, had a reputation for carrying guns, being eccentric and domineering.
Spector was arrested and later released on $1 million bond. In September 2004, He was charged with second degree murder.
Jury selection began in March 2007, with opening statements the following month. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Spector shot Clarkson because she resisted his advances.
The prosecution put on the stand a number of women who testified that Spector had threatened them with guns in the past.
Spector’s driver, who had driven his boss and Clarkson back to the mansion that night and was waiting in the car when the gun went off in the housetestified that Spector came out with a gun in his hand and told him, “I think he just killed someone.”
The defense claimed that Clarkson, depressed about her career and struggling with money problems, had been shot, perhaps accidentally. There was no forensic evidence to show that Spector had held the gun, although there was a spurt of blood on his clothing.
The defense argued that the blood pattern showed that Spector was too far away to have shot Clarkson.
Throughout the trial, the music producer sported a variety of dramatic hairstyles and was accompanied to court by bodyguards and his new, much younger wife, whom he married in September 2006.
On September 18, 2007, after deliberating for a week, the jury deadlocked. 7-5. However, Judge Larry Paul Fidler refused to grant an immediate mistrial, instead giving jurors new instructions and ordering them to resume deliberations.
The jury returned on September 26 to report that they were still tied, 10-2,
Shortly after Judge Fidler declared a mistrial in the case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced plans to seek a new trial. Spector was convicted of murder in 2009 and sentenced to 19 years to life.
He died in prison on January 16, 2021, at the age of 81.
Keep reading: