Phil Spector Murder Trial: The Body as Witness

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Dr. Pena demonstrates bullet path -AP

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UPDATE: The trial of superproducer Phil Spector, accused of murdering actress lana Clarkson, moves inotthe forensics phase, with the first witness, coroner Louis Pena, stating that the injuries found on Ms. Clarkson's body are consistent with a violent attack:

[q
url="http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?storyid=16857&ret=Default.aspx"]"The
bruise is very unique and is consistent with blunt-force trauma.
Something struck the tongue," Pena said. Pena also said that the bruise
was made before Clarkson was shot. "If the barrel of the gun, a steel
weapon, was placed in the mouth with some force, could that have caused
the bruising on the tongue?" asked prosecutor Alan Jackson. Pena
answered "Yes."

Gruesome pictures were also shown to the jury as evidence that the
death of Lena Clarkson was not a suicide. Pena also gave a vivid
description of what the death was probably like. "She's gonna lose
consciousness," Pena said. "She won't be able to move her arms. All the
arm movement up here including out to the fingers, everything's just
gonna go. Wherever she's at she's going down, bottom line. Respiration
... will cease. Heart rate may still go a little bit but not very long,
but it could go. The blood pressure will drop pretty rapidly after
that, after the shot. All brain functions will cease. She'll not talk.
She'll not scream. She won't cry."

[/q]

[q
url="http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=1003506"]After
five weeks of dramatic personal stories about the music producer and
the B-movie actress shot to death in his home, prosecutors are shifting
their focus on Tuesday to science and the critical forensic evidence.

There will be discussions of blood spatter, fibers, gunshot
residue, DNA and the path a bullet took when it killed actress Lana
Clarkson.

A coroner and crime lab technicians are due on the witness stand
beginning Tuesday to explain how such evidence can offer insight into
what happened at Spector’s castle-like mansion on Feb. 3, 2003.

A gunshot that lasted a second will be dissected for days.

"The prosecution has to show that the forensic evidence is
consistent with their theory that Spector pulled the trigger or forced
her to pull the trigger," said Loyola University law professor Laurie
Levenson.

"This is a critical stage because this is where the defense has their focus," she said.

In opening statements, defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden said science would be the silent witness.

"We have one unimpeachable witness who has no motive to lie, no
memory problems, no language problems, and that witness is science,"
said Kenney-Baden, an attorney whose specialty is forensic evidence.
Her husband, Michael Baden, a renowned forensic pathologist, is
expected to testify for the defense.

But first, the prosecution will present its own experts, most from
the police crime lab and coroner’s office. Prosecutors will call no
outside experts, although they could have some waiting to testify in
the rebuttal if necessary.

"Lana Clarkson will have to tell her story through the evidence and
from the grave," prosecutor Alan Jackson said in his opening statement.

[/q]

UPDATE: Intrigue ensues as a fingernail sample was discovered, hidden from the prosecution by an expert witness for the defense.

[q
url="http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/05/23/spector.trial.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories"]The
judge in Phil Spector's murder trial ruled Wednesday that a renowned
forensic expert removed and hid a tiny but potentially important piece
of evidence from the prosecution but will not be held in contempt.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler rejected a prosecution bid to
instruct jurors that Henry Lee is not a credible witness, saying he
would allow them to make that decision themselves.

But he said the prosecution would be allowed to present all evidence
on the issue, including that presented outside the presence of the
jury, to impeach Lee's credibility if he testifies for the defense.

The prosecution contends the item was a piece of fingernail with the
trace of a passing bullet that would show actress Lana Clarkson was
resisting having a gun placed in her mouth. Her right thumb was missing
a piece of acrylic fingernail after her death. The defense claims she
shot herself.

Lee denied taking any such thing from the crime scene when he testified earlier.

The judge said that of all the witnesses who testified over several
weeks in hearings on the issue, the only one that he found completely
credible was attorney Sara Caplan. Caplan said she saw Lee pick up a
white object with a rough edge and place it in a vial during a defense
search of the foyer of Spector's mansion after police were through.

Said Fidler: "If Dr. Lee has this object, he's to produce it forthwith."

But the judge said he had little confidence that would happen, adding, "I'm not going to hold Dr. Lee in contempt."[/q]

UPDATE: Phil Spector ran with the A-list, but the woman he is accused of killing had blanked him, initially denying him entrance to the VIP room at LA's House of Blues. Later that night he took her back to his mansion, where she would later be found dead.

[q
url="http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2007/05/20/2007-05-20_witnesses_seeing_stars_-2.html"]When
Phil Spector wanted to impress the cops who came to probe an alleged
gun assault at his home in 1993, he bragged about his musical fame and
showed off John Lennon's guitar, an officer recalled.

The slain ex-Beatle's name is just one of a dozen or more celebrity
mentions that, like passing fireflies in a dark sky, have lit up the
testimony in the record mogul's murder trial. Pasadena Police Officer
Chris Russ dropped star names to explain why he still recalled the
14-year-old investigation in such great detail.

The alleged victim that night, Dorothy Melvin, was Joan Rivers'
manager at the time, and the comedian's passport was in the purse
Spector took from Melvin and hid under his dining room table, the cop
said. And when the officer and his partner first arrived at the house,
Spector pointed out the cherished Lennon memento on display in the
living room, Russ said.

Talent coordinator Dianne Ogden, the second woman to testify she was
terrorized by a gun-wielding Spector, used famous names to set the
context for her "casual, platonic" relationship with the music magnate.
Once when she arrived for a dinner date with Spector, she found actor
Dennis Hopper waiting at the table.

"Phil's not here yet, so talk to me," she said Hopper told her.

Ogden said she never called cops when Spector pulled guns on her,
but she did tell Paul Shaffer, the bandleader for late-night talk show
host David Letterman.

Other times, stars were part of the lead-up to a key event, as on
the night photographer Stephanie Jennings alleged Spector held her
hostage at gunpoint in New York's Carlyle Hotel. In January 1995, after
Neil Young was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jennings
accompanied Spector to a party at the Waldorf-Astoria, she said.

"Phil was playing piano and singing. ... Paul Shaffer was there ...
Lisa Loeb, Robbie Robertson, Stevie Wonder," she testified, describing
the bash, during which Spector downed vodka and got "extremely drunk,
obnoxious."[/q]

UPDATE: The prosecution has called Stephanie Jennings, a music photographer, to testify against producer Phil Spector, on trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

[q
url="http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=entertainment&id=5289244"]Jennings
said a Spector bodyguard knocked at her door and told her Spector
wanted her to come to his room. She said that after she refused,
Spector showed up.

"He was definitely drunk and he was loud and demanding that I come over to his room," Jennings said.

She said Spector bullied her, yelling and calling her names as she
began to cry. At some point he followed her into the bathroom and
pushed or slapped her. She fell onto the toilet.

"I jumped up and I grabbed him and he fell into the bathtub," she said.

She said he got up without a word, left and then came back to her room with a small gun.

"He pulled a chair and put it in front of the door and said I wasn't going anywhere," Jennings said.

She said she feared she was going to get shot and sat on the bed
crying. Then she picked up the phone but Spector didn't realize she was
calling 911, Jennings said.

"He made the comment that, 'You can call your mom all you want, she can't help you now,"' Jennings said.[/q]

[q
url="http://www.therockradio.com/2007/05/phil-spector-jurors-hear-angry-phone.html"]Jurors
in the murder trial of Phil Spector heard a series of phone messages
left to a former girlfriend nearly 14 years ago, on Monday (May 7th).
Prosecutors in the case against Spector for the 2003 shooting death of
actress Lana Clarkson played several of Spector's messages to Dorothy
Melvin, who at the time was Joan Rivers' manager. The Associated Press
reported that the prosecution is hoping to prove that, prior to
Clarkson's murder in Spector's home, he exhibited "a history of
recklessness with guns."

The calls were from July 2nd, 1993, the day after Melvin had
reported to police that Spector had pulled a gun on her. The six
messages that were played in court show Spector at different points
being apologetic, saying that, "I just want you to know what you did
last night was the right thing. It's what you had to do. It's OK," and
at another point saying, "You never did anything wrong. It was all me
and my inexcusable behavior. I apologize... I'll stay out of your life.
It was not your fault... I wish you luck, dear. You certainly deserve a
lot better than that."

The final two messages had an angry Spector declaring that, "Keep
smiling, Dorothy. I expect a return call. But be careful what you say
to me because nothing you say is worth your life. Goodbye, Dorothy,"
and finally, "You're never going to get out of what you did. I'm going
to get you for what you did and you'll see papers Monday morning." [/q]

UPDATE: The prosecution focused on establishing Spector as menacing, unstable and trigger-happy; the defense pushed a forensic-based strategy, arguing that gunshot residue indicators preclude Spector's proximity ot the victim at the time of her death.

After years of legal foreplay (and the attendant media attention), the murder trial of superproducer Phil Spector is finally ready to begin. Spector's public image is definitely not an asset for the defense here: his prior gun-related acts will no doubt be brought to bear against him.

[q
url="http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070425/D8ONQLKO0.html"]More
than four years after a beautiful actress was shot to death at Phil
Spector's hilltop castle, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday that at
times the music producer is "sinister and deadly."

Spector appeared tense during the televised proceeding as the
prosecution laid out the murder case against him in opening statements.

Prosecutor Alan Jackson said Spector is someone "who, when he's
confronted with the right circumstances, when he's confronted with the
right situations, turns sinister and deadly."

"The evidence is going to paint a picture of a man who on February
3, 2003, put a loaded pistol in Lana Clarkson's mouth - inside her
mouth - and shot her to death."

(AP) Music producer Phil Spector, right, accompanied by his wife, Rachelle Short, arrive with bodyguards...

Full Image

Spector's attorneys were to present their opening remarks later.[/q]

The opening remarks from the defense:

[q
url="http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/26/spector.trial.ap/index.html"]olice
who found actress Lana Clarkson dead in Phil Spector's mansion "had
murder on their mind" and disregarded anything that was inconsistent
with that conclusion, a defense lawyer told jurors at the legendary
music producer's trial Thursday.

Bruce Cutler, a New York attorney best known for his defense of mob
boss John Gotti, resumed his opening statement Thursday morning, a day
after the prosecution portrayed Spector as a longtime victimizer of
women.

Cutler said police "interviewed and acted in such a way that
anything that was consistent, the evidence will show, with their
preconceived notions and theories they embraced. And anything that was
not consistent or inconsistent with that 'murder on their mind' they
ignored."[/q]