AFTER WEEKS of complex scientific testimony, in which forensic experts held forth on the intricacies of human anatomy, the aerodynamics of blood and the microscopic properties of fabric, the prosecution in Phil Spector’s murder retrial rested its case on Thursday with a lay witness and an appeal to common sense.
A suicidal woman, the final government witness suggested, did not buy new shoes.
This testimony came from Donna Clarkson, whose actress daughter Lana Clarkson (40) suffered a fatal bullet wound in the foyer of the music producer’s southern California mansion six years ago.
Her account of shopping with her daughter a day before her death capped nine weeks of prosecution testimony and was an attempt to answer the defence contention that her daughter died by her own hand.
In a soft voice, Ms Clarkson recounted helping her daughter select eight pairs of shoes appropriate for the actress’s new job as a hostess at the House of Blues.
Spector, famed for his work with acts such as The Beatles and Tina Turner, is standing trial for the second time for the 2003 shooting. He and Clarkson met three hours before her death when she escorted him to a table in the House of Blues VIP section. She later agreed to accompany him home for a drink.
The first trial in 2007 ended when jurors deadlocked 10-2 in favour of conviction. Spector (68) faces a minimum of 18 years in prison if found guilty of second-degree murder.
The retrial has proceeded largely without the “hoopla” that attended the first proceeding. There are no television cameras and far fewer spectators in Judge Larry Paul Fidler’s courtroom.
Spector still arrives each morning in his sartorial splendour but his presence creates less of a stir in the courthouse.
Since it began in the Superior Court on October 29th, the case has progressed through distinct stages, starting with the accounts of five women who claimed Spector terrorised them with guns under circumstances similar to Clarkson’s death.
Their testimony was followed by witnesses who recalled Spector’s behaviour the night Clarkson died, including a chauffeur who said that immediately after the shot rang out, Spector emerged from the house with a gun in his hand, a confession on his lips.
“I think I killed somebody,” the driver quoted him as saying.
A month of forensic testimony culminated earlier this week with a forensic expert telling jurors that blood spots on Spector’s dinner jacket and Clarkson’s slip dress placed the defendant within three feet of her face when the gun went off.
The choice of Clarkson’s mother as the last witness before Spector opens his defence underscores the central role of the actor’s mental state in the trial.
A tall blonde with ice-blue eyes, Clarkson achieved cult fame starring in 1985 film The Barbarian Queen, but mainstream success eluded her.
The defence has portrayed her as a psychologically fragile woman brought low by her flagging prospects in Hollywood, the approach of middle age and romantic and financial misfortunes.
However, the prosecution has presented Clarkson as a resourceful optimist who remained determined about her future.
Donna Clarkson has been a constant presence at both trials, sitting in the front row with lawyers who will press a civil suit against Spector when the criminal matter is over. In the half hour she spent in the witness chair, she never lost her composure, but her voice quivered and her eyes reddened as she told jurors that her daughter’s last words to her were “I love you.”
She acknowledged that the actress was strained financially. She said she had given her money to pay for head shots and picked up the $155 tab for the new shoes.
Spector’s lawyer Doron Weinberg told jurors in his opening statement that Clarkson’s death may have been a spur-of-the-moment act of self-destruction rather than a thought-out decision to end her life.
Outside court, he said interpreting Clarkson’s shoe purchase as an argument against suicide reflected a “fundamental misconception” that all people who kill themselves “set some date in the future . . . and then cancel all other activities.
“There is a category of suicide that is impulsive and unplanned,” he said.