LOS ANGELES Apr 26, 2007 (AP) Phil Spector's attorneys told jurors Thursday that scientific evidence would prove the music producer did not fatally shoot an actress in his home, while his former girlfriend testified he terrorized her with a gun when they were dating. "We have one unimpeachable witness who has no motive to lie, no memory problems, no language problems, and that witness is science," said Linda Kenney-Baden, an attorney whose specialty is forensic evidence. She suggested DNA would prove that Lana Clarkson loaded the weapon and shot herself, that Spector was not standing close enough to shoot her, that his DNA was not on the gun and that his clothing bore no trace evidence to prove guilt, the defense told jurors.
Spector, 67, whose "Wall of Sound" transformed rock 'n' roll in the 1960s, lives in a castle-like mansion in suburban Alhambra. Clarkson and Spector met at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip, where she was a hostess. The sometime actress agreed to accompany him on a chauffeur-driven ride to his home, where her body, with a gunshot wound through the mouth, was found seated in the foyer early Feb.
3, 2003. Prosecutors are proceeding on a theory of "implied malice," alleging Spector did not intend to kill Clarkson but caused her death by reckless behavior and taking an extreme risk. The first witness, Joan Rivers' former manager, testified Thursday that while dating Spector in the 1990s, the usually charming producer suddenly terrorized her with a gun, hit her on the head twice, ordered her to undress and accused her of stealing.
Dorothy Melvin said that after several years of occasional dating she went to Spector's Pasadena home in 1993 and spent a pleasant evening in which he played the piano, danced with her and showed memorabilia including a John Lennon guitar. But she said he drank heavily and at some point disappeared.
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