So, in the eyes of the American judicial system, in the early hours of February 3rd 2003 iconic music producer Phil Spector pushed a gun inside the mouth of former b-movie actress Lana Clarkson and shot her dead. He then walked outside his Beverly Hills mansion, taking the blood dripping gun with him, where he told his chauffeur, sitting in a car on the driveway, "I think I killed someone".
This is all a slightly over dramatic way of telling you that yesterday the second jury to consider the murder allegations against Phil Spector reached a verdict, and convicted the legendary producer of murder. He was remanded in custody, and now awaits sentencing on 29 May, when he will be given between fifteen years and life in prison which, given Spector is now 68, could amount to the same thing anyway.
As much previously reported, Spector maintains that Clarkson shot herself after accompanying him back to his LA home after the pair met at the West Hollywood branch of the House of Blues, where the former actress worked. Two sets of defence lawyers argued that forensic evidence proved Spector's claims, while they presented various documents and witnesses that suggested Clarkson was very depressed and maybe suicidal before going home with Spector that night in 2003, and was therefore capable of ending it all in a moment of depression-fuelled madness.
As for the chauffeur's testimony that his boss had said "I think I killed someone" minutes after Clarkson had died, the defence argued the Brazlian driver, a non-native English speaker, just misheard as the producer spoke over the noisy fountain in the driveway.But the prosecution's case - based in the main on a string of former Spector girlfriends who each had stories of times when the producer had pulled guns on them in a threatening manner - seemed to be more convincing as far as the jurors were concerned. Nevertheless, in Spector's first trial two jurors dissented and insisted they couldn't say, beyond reasonable doubt, that the producer was holding the gun that killed Clarkson, resulting in a mistrial overall. The second jury, however, and despite being offered the lesser crime of involuntary manslaughter, returned a verdict of second degree murder after thirty hours of deliberations.
A frail looking Spector, dressed in a black suit and bright red tie, reportedly made no obvious response as the guilty verdict was delivered, though his wife since 2006, Rachelle, sobbed beside him.
The producer's lawyer, Doron Weinberg, said the jury had behaved with "complete integrity and complete honesty", but then promptly picked holes in their judgement. He said the prosecution had "flooded" the trial with "improper and prejudicial evidence" which had prevented jurors from reaching a "fair conclusion". He added that he was "very very certain" that under what he called "the proper legal standard" his client had not been proven guilty. That meant, Weinberg predicted, the verdict would likely be set aside on appeal. Spector's intentions regarding appeal are not yet known, though he is expected to do so.
However, one of the jurors, in one of those strangely American post-verdict jury press conferences, argued the jury had got the "complete picture" of what happened that night a Spector's home from the evidence presented, and that she and her fellow jurors had "gone through all the information and that's what the conclusion was".
Weinberg requested that his client remain free until sentencing on 29 May, but Judge Larry Fidler refused, putting the producer straight into custody. The severity of Spector's sentence, and the time scale for his appeal, remain to be seen.