Facing the music

(In court)
Alan Jackson (prosecutor): The evidence is going to paint a picture of a man who on February 3, 2003 put a loaded pistol in Lana Clarkson's mouth, inside her mouth and shot her to death.

More than four years after the death of Lana Clarkson, the case against Phil Spector -- charged with second-degree murder, facing 15 to life -- began in downtown Los Angeles. It's not exactly Hollywood, but Hollywood and music insiders would take the stand on both sides of the case.

Prosecutor Alan Jackson set the scene, took the jury through the events on the eve of that deadly Monday morning.

The jury saw the surveillance video with Lana Clarkson walking Phil Spector to his car a little after 2 a.m. Spector's driver picked up the story.

DeSouza: He invited her to go to The Castle.
Prosecutor: And what was her response?
DeSouza: First was no.

Adriano DeSouza was a substitute driver. From now on, DeSouza would be the only person alive to see Lana Clarkson with Phil Spector.

DeSouza: She said that she was going uh, she was going just for a drink.
Prosecutor: What did Mr. Spector say?
DeSouza: Uh, don't talk to the driver.

DeSouza says he dropped them off at the house. And fell asleep in the car.

Alan Jackson: And out of nowhere "POW." One shot.

And then…

DeSouza: I got out of the car, and he was at the door. At the time he had the gun in his hand.
Prosecutor: What did he say?
DeSouza: He said "I think I killed somebody."

"I think I killed somebody."

But did he?

(In court)
Clerk: Please state and spell your first and last name for the record.
Lillienfeld: Mark Lillienfeld.

When police arrived at Spector's castle, said the lead homicide detective, they found Lana Clarkson, dead, a purse on her arm, sitting by the back door.

They also found the gun.

(In court, referring to photos on projector)
Lillienfeld: To the right of her left leg, there is the butt of a gun, next to her left ankle.

The detective found the holster for that gun in a nearby, slightly open drawer.

And upstairs, he said, he found a cup full of bullets which matched the bullets in the gun.

They found 14 phones but only one 911 call -- from the driver.

Lana's blood was on the door latch, on a rag in the bathroom, in Phil Spector's pants' left pocket. Inside.  And it was smeared on her face.

A forensic scientist gave an explanation.

Lynne Herold: You wouldn't have a smear unless there was some activity that caused it.
Alan Jackson (prosecutor): So somebody manipulated not only her face and neck but manipulated the blood on her face and neck?
Lynne Herold: Yes.

Did Phil Spector pick up that rag, wipe her face, clean the gun, and plant it under Lana's left leg to imply suicide?

Alan Jackson: So how did it get under her leg? After he wiped the gun down, Phillip Spector attempted to set a stage for the crime scene. He put the gun under her left leg. She didn't do it, and he was the only other person in the room.

Did Spector fire the gun? He was wearing a white jacket that night on which investigators found tiny bits of blood -- a misty splatter. Meaning, said the forensic scientist, Spector was close enough to have held the gun in Lana's mouth.

Lynne Herold: Given its size it falls into the category of the mist-like back-spatter that typically cannot go farther than two to three feet.

Forensic testimony droned on for 16 days. The defendant himself was hard-pressed to stay awake.

But it was Spector's own notorious past that underscored the prosecution.

Prosecutor: The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that the defendant has a pattern.

And so now came a parade of women who testified that their stories could well have ended just as Lana Clarkson's did.

Ogden: I'm saying OK Phillip now I'm going to leave, I have to go now.

It was 1989. Dianne Ogden, a music industry insider who had been close to Spector, remembered a visit to one of his homes.

Ogden: And I put my purse on my arm. And I'm saying buh-bye…

Her purse on her arm. Like Lana.  Spector, she said, refused to let her leave.

Ogden: He was screaming at me. He was screaming the f-word. You're not f-ing leaving … He had a gun to my face, a pistol of some sort. I wouldn't look at it. I couldn't, you know. I was afraid to touch it, I was afraid it would go off. I wasn't sure if it was loaded, and he had it here (moving her finger like a gun over her face) here, he put it all over me.

Melissa Grovsnor: He walked right up to me and held the gun right to my face. With just inches between my eyes--

It was 1992. Melissa Grovsnor.

Grovsnor: --and said if you try to leave I'm going to kill you.

Dorothy Melvin: He took his right hand that was holding the revolver and smacked me in the side of the head and said I told you to get the f- back in the house.

1993. Dorothy Melvin.

Melvin: I was sobbing and I said why are you doing this Phil? Why are you doing this?

At his house on a date.

Melvin: Eventually he got up and he back handed me with the pistol again and said I told you to take your f-ing clothes off.

Stephanie Jennings: Phil was requesting that I go over to his room.

1995. Rock and roll photographer Stephanie Jennings at a New York hotel.

Jennings: 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.

Robitaille: I remember standing in the lobby and as I turned, there was a gun, pointed at my temple (puts her fingers to her head), actually touching my temple.

Devra Robitaille, as far back as 1976.

Robitaille: He said if you leave I'll blow your f-ing head off.

But, powerful though the women's testimony was, could anyone show evidence that Spector's drunken antics actually intended harm to women?

Prosecutor: Thank you, your honor. We call Vince Tannazzo.

Actually, claimed the prosecutor, someone could.

An ex-New York cop was about to tell a story from the early '90s about the night he was working security and had to throw a drunken Phil Spector -- who had brandished a gun -- out of a celebrity party.

Tannazzo: I proceeded to elevator to go up to Joan Rivers' apartment and before I got to the elevator I un-holstered my gun and put it in my suit jacket pocket.

And why did the prosecutor want Tannazzo to testify? Because of what the ex-cop claims Spector said on the way out of that party: that women -- he used a different term…

Tannazzo: "...these fucking cunts." And he said "They all deserve a bullet in their fucking heads."
Prosecutor: They all deserve a bullet in their head?
Tannazzo: Yes.

The case against Spector looked very dire.

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