Closing Arguments in Phil Spector Retrial

by Jordan Yerman | March 24, 2009 at 07:38 am

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The retrial of Phil Spector will be handed over to the jury, following closing arguments. The legendary music producer is accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson in his Los Angeles home in 2003.

Following a heated closing argument by LA Deputy DA Truc Do, the defense called for another mistrial, which the judge denied. If convicted for second-degree murder, Spector, 69, faces a minimum of 18 years in prison.

In a courtroom with dimmed lights that recalled the dark Alhambra estate where an actress was shot to death six years ago, a prosecutor Monday called Phil Spector a "demonic maniac" with "a history of playing Russian roulette with the lives of women."

Behind the VIP was a very dangerous man, a man who believed that all women . . . deserve a bullet in their head," she said.

Spector, 69, stared expressionless at the defense table as he has for much of the last five months of testimony. His attorney repeatedly objected to what he said were impermissible attacks on the producer's character. At the conclusion of the prosecutor's summation, lawyer Doron Weinberg asked for a mistrial. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler denied the request.

The defense's closing argument was that Ms. Clarkson entered Spector's home and committed suicide.

"This is a circumstantial-evidence case ... no one can tell you, 'This is what happened,'" Doron Weinberg told the jury of six men and six women. But, he said, Spector "did not kill Lana Clarkson, that's what the evidence shows."

The original hearing ended in mistrial.