A former girlfriend of Phil Spector told yesterday how he hit her across the head with a revolver and chased her with a pump-action shotgun.
Dorothy Melvin, the former manager of comedienne Joan Rivers, said the music producer held her at gunpoint and ordered her to take off her clothes after downing almost a whole bottle of vodka at his Los Angeles mansion.
He slapped her on the side of the head with his hand holding a snub-nosed revolver after accusing her of trying to steal music mementos from his house, a jury heard.
Then, said Miss Melvin, Spector hit her again and demanded: "I told you to take your ****ing clothes off!"
She eventually managed to escape and fled for her life as he ran after her down his driveway wielding a shotgun, she told Los Angeles Superior Court.
Spector, 67, wearing a dark suit and black, open-necked shirt, sat staring at his former girlfriend as she gave evidence on the second day of his trial for the murder of 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson.
Miss Melvin is the first of four women whom prosecutors say were victims of gun violence perpetrated by the former pop icon which showed a similar pattern to that which ended in the death of Miss Clarkson, who was shot in the mouth at Spector's home four years ago.
The witness, who was personal manager to Joan Rivers for 23 years, said she had casually dated Spector for several years before visiting his home outside Los Angeles in July 1993.
Although he was drinking heavily as he played the piano for her in a living room filled with souvenirs of his career, among them a guitar once owned by John Lennon, Miss Melvin said she was having "a lovely time" before she fell asleep at about midnight.
She awoke on the couch at daybreak, she said, to find Spector pointing a gun at her Mercedes outside the front door.
"I started screaming at him and saying, 'What the **** are you doing?' and he started shouting at me to get back inside the house.
"He was pointing a snub-nosed revolver at me, holding it with both hands. Then he took his right hand that he was holding the gun with and smacked me in the side of the head.
"Something sharp hit my head.
It was then that I knew I was in trouble."
Speaking in a calm voice, she said she went back inside the house. Spector said he had been unable to find her and accused her of trying to steal souvenirs.
The jury heard Spector ordered his guest several times to take off her clothes and go upstairs. "Eventually he got up and backhanded me again with the pistol," she said.
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