US:A music industry photographer testified yesterday in Phil Spector's murder trial that the legendary record producer threatened her with a gun and held her hostage in a hotel room, forcing her to call authorities for help.
Stephanie Jennings was the third woman called by the prosecution to show that Spector had a pattern of pulling guns on female companions that led to the shooting of actress Lana Clarkson (40) in the foyer of his suburban Alhambra mansion on February 3rd, 2003. She died of shots fired with the weapon in her mouth.
Spector's defence claims Ms Clarkson shot herself.
Ms Jennings said she developed a long-distance relationship with Spector in 1994. The following year, she joined him for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions in New York, where Spector got her a room on his floor of the Carlisle Hotel.
She described being at a party where Spector became "extremely drunk, obnoxious" and said she went back to her room and went to sleep. Ms Jennings said a Spector bodyguard later knocked at her door and told her Spector wanted her to come to his room. She said that after she refused, Spector showed up.
At some point, he followed her into the bathroom and he slapped or pushed her, Ms Jennings said.
"I ended up falling backwards on the toilet," she said. "I jumped up and I grabbed him and he fell into the bathtub."
She said he got up without a word, left and then came back to her room. "He had his gun with him and he pulled a chair and put it in front of the door and said I wasn't going anywhere," Ms Jennings said.
"How did you feel?" asked Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson.
"That I was about to get shot," she said. "I didn't know what was going to happen. I sat on the bed crying."
The witness said she picked up the phone but Spector did not realise she was calling authorities.She said the hotel manager came with the officers and she was urged to go down to his office and talk.
Ms Jennings said she did not press charges and the manager gave her money to take a train back to her home in Philadelphia.
Spector (67) was a top producer in the 1960s and later oversaw albums by John Lennon and George Harrison.