US:A surprise witness surfaced in the Phil Spector murder trial on Wednesday, telling the court that he saw a lawyer for the music producer pick up a piece of evidence at the crime scene that was never turned over to prosecutors.
Greg Diamond, testifying in a special hearing held without the jury, said that one day after actress Lana Clarkson was shot to death in 2003, he watched defence lawyer Sarah Kaplan retrieve a small piece of tooth or fingernail that had been overlooked by police in Mr Spector's foyer, not far from the body.
Prosecutors have long accused defence attorneys of withholding just such a piece of evidence, which has never been produced in court, but it was not yet clear what impact Mr Diamond's testimony could have on the trial.
Mr Spector (67) has changed defence teams twice since his arrest and no longer employs attorney Robert Shapiro, who was leading his defence at the time.
A former member of the Spector defence team who Mr Diamond said saw and held the evidence that day, forensic pathologist Dr Michael Baden, denied the witness's account when it was his turn on the witness stand.
Mr Spector is charged with shooting Ms Clarkson (40) to death in the foyer of his home in the foothills outside Los Angeles on February 3rd, 2003.
Testimony has been called off in the sensational case this week because his lead attorney, Bruce Cutler, is ill.
Superior court judge Larry Paul Fidler convened the special hearing because Mr Diamond, a former clerk for Mr Shapiro, had come forward to authorities in the past few weeks with his account.
Mr Diamond was reluctant to testify, repeatedly trying to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or asking for a postponement of the hearing.
Ordered to take the stand by the judge, he told the court that he went to the crime scene with Mr Shapiro, Dr Baden, Ms Kaplan, forensic scientist Henry Lee and other members of the music producer's defence team.
There he saw Ms Kaplan find a small white object and hand it to Dr Baden.
He said the object was then passed around to the rest of the defence team.
"Dr Baden did make mention of what the item was," Mr Diamond said. "He said it was a fragment of a tooth . . . Everyone had seen the item in some capacity."
Dr Baden denied that Ms Kaplan ever found anything at the crime scene or handed him any potential item of evidence.
Prosecutors in 2004 filed a motion demanding that Mr Spector's lawyers turn over a piece of Ms Clarkson's fingernail that they believed had been found by the defence at the crime scene. Mr Spector's attorneys responded at the time that no such evidence existed.
Mr Diamond was expected to resume his testimony yesterday, followed by additional witnesses. It was not immediately clear when the judge would make findings in the matter.