IN A closing argument in the murder retrial of music producer Phil Spector, a prosecutor on Monday called him a “demonic maniac” with “a history of playing Russian roulette with the lives of women”.
“By the grace of God, five other women got the empty chamber and lived to tell,” deputy district attorney Truc Do said, referring to a string of former love interests who testified at Spector’s retrial about harrowing encounters with him.
Actress Lana Clarkson, shot to death in a chair in Spector’s foyer in 2003, “just happened to be the sixth woman, who got the bullet”, she said.
In a two-hour closing argument supplemented by an elaborate audiovisual presentation, Ms Do portrayed the music producer as a spoiled and sadistic celebrity who tormented women with impunity because he resided in an elite “world where money and fame buys you the VIP treatment”.
Spector (69) stared without expression at the defence table, as he had for much of the five months of testimony. His attorney repeatedly objected to what he said were impermissible attacks on his character. At the conclusion of the prosecutor’s summation, lawyer Doron Weinberg asked for a mistrial. Superior court Judge Larry Paul Fidler declined the request.
The defence was to present its closing argument yesterday. Jurors will probably start deliberating charges against Spector by the end of the week. They must decide whether he acted criminally in the shooting of Clarkson (40).
His defence contends she was depressed about career setbacks and financial problems and shot herself. Prosecutors maintain a drunk Spector pulled a gun on her, as he allegedly had on other female guests, when she expressed a desire to curtail what he saw as a romantic evening.
Among the evidence Ms Do focused on in her summation was the testimony of a chauffeur who claimed Spector confessed to him immediately after the shooting.
Spector faces a minimum of 18 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. The jurors have the option of convicting him of a lesser charge, involuntary manslaughter, which carries two to four years in prison.
A 2007 trial ended with the panel split 10 to two in favour of conviction. – (LA Times-Washington Post service)