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Living in a Warmer Insanity
Super Moderator
Location: Yucatan, Mexico
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Phil Spector found guilty
Quote:
LOS ANGELES — Phil Spector, the rock music impresario behind such hits such as “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” and “Be My Baby,” was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of an actress at his mansion in 2003, after a night of drinking.
Mr. Spector, 69, faces a possible 25 years to life in prison. The jury reached its decision after deliberating whether one of the recording industry’s best-known producers shot the woman in a fit of anger or, as his lawyers argued, merely witnessed the woman’s suicide.
Mr. Spector, who was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, is famous for his “Wall of Sound” lush orchestrations heard on an array of hits in the 1960s and 1970s with groups like the Ronettes. He has worked with the Beatles, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones and others but had receded from the public stage in recent years and was known as much for eccentric behavior — he has been often photographed wearing a large fright wig — as his talent.
The verdict came more than six years after the actress, Lana Clarkson, 40, was found shot to death in the foyer of Mr. Spector’s mansion in suburban Alhambra on Feb. 3, 2003.
A previous trial was ended September 2007, when a jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction.
The decision was a victory for Los Angeles prosecutors who have endured high-profile defeats in celebrity murder trials, including the acquittals of O.J. Simpson and the actor Robert Blake.
Mr. Spector, who had been free on $1 million bail, was accused of shooting to death Ms. Clarkson, an aspiring actress best-known for a starring role in the 1985 cult hit “Barbarian Queen” and a bit part in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” in 1982.
She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip when Mr. Spector visited the nightclub, struck up a conversation and eventually took her out drinking.
They ended up at his Alhambra mansion, known as “the Castle,” but when she spurned his advances and tried to leave he put a gun in her mouth and fired, prosecutors said.
They argued that this fit a long pattern of Mr. Spector’s drinking and threatening women with guns over several years, and they presented testimony from several of them.
Mr. Spector, they said, essentially confessed when he emerged from the home, gun in hand, and told his limousine driver, “I think I killed somebody.” Mr. Spector retreated into the house and in the prosecution’s view, took steps to cover up the crime.
The defense disputed the case on several fronts, including the account of the limousine driver, Adriano DeSouza.
They noted that he was a Brazilian immigrant not fully proficient in English and said he may have misquoted Mr. Spector, who they suggested may actually have been telling him to “call somebody.” A gurgling fountain nearby and the driver’s fatigue and hunger from working all night may have added to confusion, they told jurors.
The defense suggested that Ms. Clarkson was handling the gun when it discharged. They said she was despondent over her lackluster career and finances and decided to take her own life.
They supported their case with scientific evidence they believed questioned the prosecution’s sequence of events.
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NYT Story here
Wow! A Hollywood type was found guilty of something.
Anyone else surprised? I kind of figured he'd get another mistrial.
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I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo
Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club
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