OMEN
09-06-2007, 08:51 PM
A prosecutor has asked jurors to find pioneering rock producer Phil Spector guilty of murdering a B-movie actress in 2003, suggesting the gun may have gone off accidentally while he had it jammed in her face.
Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson, speaking to jurors as closing arguments began in the five-month murder trial, said that even if Spector didn't mean to kill Lana Clarkson, whom he had met at a nightclub just hours earlier, he was guilty of second-degree murder under California law.
"You know in your heart of hearts that he's responsible for her death," Jackson told the nine-man, three-woman jury as Spector, dressed in light gray suit, watched from the defence table in a courtroom packed with reporters.
"If a person knowingly points a loaded firearm at another person and that gun goes off for any reason, that is second degree murder," the prosecutor said.
Defence lawyers sought to prove during the trial that a depressed Clarkson, 40-year-old star of such films as Barbarian Queen and Amazon Women on the Moon, committed suicide in Spector's foyer.
An attorney for Spector was expected to begin defence closing arguments later on Wednesday and Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler told jurors they would likely get the case by Friday.
Spector, best known for his innovative "wall-of-sound" recording technique and work with the Beatles, The Ronettes, Tina Turner and Cher, is accused of shooting Clarkson as she tried to leave his mock castle early on the morning of February 3, 2003.
He did not testify in his own defence during the trial, which began with jury selection in March, but told a magazine interviewer that Clarkson had shot herself for reasons he did not understand.
Prosecutors have not said that they believe Spector shot Clarkson by accident, but Jackson told jurors that they could convict the defendant of murder even if they found the evidence supported that version of events.
Jackson said that such an act would amount to "conscious disregard for human life" – which did not require a finding of intent to kill to be second degree murder under California law.
During the trial, prosecutors called witnesses to testify that Spector, 67, had a history of brandishing guns at women after drinking.
"Now you know the real Phil Spector," Jackson said. "You know who he is, you know what he is, you know what he does."
Reuters
Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson, speaking to jurors as closing arguments began in the five-month murder trial, said that even if Spector didn't mean to kill Lana Clarkson, whom he had met at a nightclub just hours earlier, he was guilty of second-degree murder under California law.
"You know in your heart of hearts that he's responsible for her death," Jackson told the nine-man, three-woman jury as Spector, dressed in light gray suit, watched from the defence table in a courtroom packed with reporters.
"If a person knowingly points a loaded firearm at another person and that gun goes off for any reason, that is second degree murder," the prosecutor said.
Defence lawyers sought to prove during the trial that a depressed Clarkson, 40-year-old star of such films as Barbarian Queen and Amazon Women on the Moon, committed suicide in Spector's foyer.
An attorney for Spector was expected to begin defence closing arguments later on Wednesday and Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler told jurors they would likely get the case by Friday.
Spector, best known for his innovative "wall-of-sound" recording technique and work with the Beatles, The Ronettes, Tina Turner and Cher, is accused of shooting Clarkson as she tried to leave his mock castle early on the morning of February 3, 2003.
He did not testify in his own defence during the trial, which began with jury selection in March, but told a magazine interviewer that Clarkson had shot herself for reasons he did not understand.
Prosecutors have not said that they believe Spector shot Clarkson by accident, but Jackson told jurors that they could convict the defendant of murder even if they found the evidence supported that version of events.
Jackson said that such an act would amount to "conscious disregard for human life" – which did not require a finding of intent to kill to be second degree murder under California law.
During the trial, prosecutors called witnesses to testify that Spector, 67, had a history of brandishing guns at women after drinking.
"Now you know the real Phil Spector," Jackson said. "You know who he is, you know what he is, you know what he does."
Reuters