Dr Louis Pena - you know, Louis, that coroner you like - has said that he reckons the death of actress Lana Clarkson at the home of Phil Spector on that fateful night back in 2003 was homicide. That conclusion is based on bruising on Clarkson's tongue, arm and wrist, all of which suggests, to Louis at least, that someone was forcing the gun that killed her into her mouth. The someone, you have to assume, is Spector.
Pena was testifying at the ongoing Spector murder trial yesterday as the prosecution, as expected, turned their attention to forensics and the crime scene, having completed the bit of their case where they tried to demonstrate that the legendary producer is a bit nutty. Pena says that he believes the bruising suggests that Clarkson did not, as the Spector camp claim, shoot herself. He told the court: "The bruise is very unique and is consistent with blunt-force trauma - something struck the tongue". He also added that he didn't believe Clarkson would have deliberately committed suicide. While she was taking two drugs often given for depression, he said she had been prescribed them for her chronic headaches. She had done nothing prior to the shooting to suggest suicidal tendencies, and died "with a purse on one shoulder in a stranger's home" which, he said, "is not typical of someone taking her own life". He concluded: "I found her to be a hopeful person from the notes I read".
Pena also provided some pretty grim details of what happened at Spector's home that night from a medical point of view, telling the jury that the shot went straight through her head and severed her spine, resulting, unsurprisingly, in instant death. The recoil from the shot also shattered Clarkson's top front teeth, blowing them out of her mouth. As I say, pretty grim. The description was accompanied by graphic photos of the damage done to Clarkson's face and the inside of her mouth.
Spector's defence, of course, claim that although Clarkson may not have deliberately committed suicide she was definitely holding the gun at the time of the death, and presumably pulled the trigger by mistake.