On the night when Spector met Lana Clarkson at the House of Blues, she was making $9 an hour as a hostess at the upstairs VIP room, according to Richard Munisteri, a lawyer for the nightclub's parent company, who testified Tuesday. Earlier testimony suggested the 40-year-old Clarkson was depressed because her acting career was going nowhere, and she only reluctantly took the job at the club.
Marc Scott Taylor, a private DNA expert, is testifying for the defense what he said was Lana Clarkson's blood. The significance of the blood matching Clarkson is not yet clear -- Taylor has not said where the blood was found. But the defense has spent some time having Taylor describe the way the dried blood was collected by sheriff's criminalists.
Taylor said the sample was sent to him wrapped in a paper Post-It note. In an earlier hearing outside the presence of the jury, famous criminalist Henry Lee was needled by prosecutor Alan Jackson for using a Post-It note to wrap evidence he collected at Spector's home.
Now, Spector attorney Christopher Plourd has asked Taylor to comment on the use of Post-Its. Taylor said the use of Post-Its has been discussed at conferences he attended. They are a good way to handle evidence, he said. "They have not been handled by people, there is no DNA on the sticky surface," he said.
The discussion of Post-Its could signal an upcoming appearance by Lee, whose testimony has been in doubt since Judge Larry Paul Fidler ruled he removed evidence from the crime scene. Perhaps Spector's team is preparing to defend Lee's use of Post-Its before the jury.
Phil Spector appeared in Los Angeles court this morning, sporting a new ‘doo---a darker, fuller wig, reaching his collar in back and covering his ears. His wife, Rachelle, a constant presence during the trial, now into its fourth month, showed sympathy with long hair that duplicated Spector’s brown tint.
“Maybe she had some dye leftover,” one courtroom wit quipped.
After jurors left for the day, Roger Rosen said he and others on the defense team have noticed that a juror appeared visibly disturbed by graphic photos shown during the trial. The juror, a 37-year-old woman, seemed particularly upset when a picture of Clarkson’s tongue, severed during the autopsy, was shown this week.
Rosen said the juror removed her glasses and appeared to wipe tears from her eyes.
He said she also had looked away earlier in the trial when photos of Clarkson’s bloody body were shown.
Rosen said he understood her reaction, but was concerned she might be so bothered she could not thoroughly examine the evidence, which would be unfair to both the defense and prosecution. He asked Fidler to speak to the juror privately to evaluate the degree of her discomfort.
Fidler declined, saying “jurors are not required to be totally unemotional” and the facts “fall far short” of showing her objectivity is compromised.
We won’t know until a verdict is reached how Werner Spitz’s protestations of Spector's innocence are going over with the jury. But it’s clear his jokes have hit their mark.
Under heated cross-examination by Alan Jackson, the prosecutor, for the second day in a row, took a swipe at Spitz’s high fees. “Did you get another $5,000,” Jackson asked, referring to Spitz’s daily rate.
Unruffled, Spitz paused, then said “I’ve got plenty of money, the only thing I don’t have much of is time.” The jury laughed heartily at the septuagenerian pathologist.
Spitz held firm to his position that gunshot residue on Lana Clarkson’s hands, blood and tissue on her clothing and the fact that she was shot in the mouth all point to suicide. Prosecutors say Spector shot the 40-year-old actress when she tried to leave his Alhambra mansion, where she had accompanied him for a nightcap.
Defense pathologist Werner Spitz returns to the stand this morning to defend his position that Lana Clarkson killed herself. Prosecutor Alan Jackson cross-examined Spitz for a bit more than ten minutes yesterday, beginning with a swipe at the doctor's hefty fees -- which Spitz said were $5,000 a day. Jackson's cross-examination also got into whether Spitz truly studied the shooting, or, as Jackson implied, his examination was premised on Spector not firing the weapon.
A grisly photo of Lana Clarkson's severed tongue is being projected in the courtroom. Clarkson's mother and sister, who attend each day of the trial, are not in the courtroom, presumably to avoid seeing such images.
Defense pathologist Werner Spitz said a bruise on Clarkson's tongue was caused by the gun going off in her mouth.
The county medical examiner, testifying for the prosecution, said earlier that the bruise could have been caused by the barrel of the gun being shoved into her mouth, suggesting a struggle.
Judge Larry Paul Fidler has agreed that jurors will visit Phil Spector's Alhambra mansion to view the foyer where Lana Clarkson was found shot through the mouth, slumped in a chair with her purse over her shoulder. The defense also wants the panel to hear the fountain splashing in the driveway, where Spector's driver testified he heard the producer say he thought he had killed someone. Final details are to be worked out.
Stuart James, a leading bloodstain pattern analyst, is in the courtroom for the defense. At the snail's pace witnesses are proceeding, it is unclear he will make it onto the witness stand today. James has been brought in to bolster the defense's position that bloodstains on Spector's jacket show he was standing too far from Lana Clarkson to have held a gun in her mouth and shot her.
Also unclear is whether the presence of James signals the defense may not call Henry Lee, though the defense attorneys insist Lee will testify. Lee's credibility was called into question by testimony he may have removed evidence from the crime scene, a controversy that led to a former defense attorney testifying under threat of jail.
Bruce Cutler, who began the trial as Spector's lead attorney but has been absent from the trial for weeks, developing a television show, has also returned today.
Jurors were excused from the courtroom this morning when former madam Jody Babydol Gibson, wearing a navy blue suit with a skirt only centimeters longer than the jacket, appeared in court with her attormey, Sammy M. Weiss.
The defense had sought to call Gibson, who in a recent book suggested Lana Clarkson had worked as a prostitute for her under the name 'Alana', as a witness. The name "Lana C" appeared in Gibson's "trick book", seized by police after her arrest. Prosecutors contend the entry was doctored.
Fidler had excluded Gibson's testimony, saying thus far it appeared to be irrelevant to the trial. In court Wednesday, Weiss said he believed Gibson would no longer be called as a witness, and asked the judge to relax a gag order barring her from speaking to the media. Weiss said Gibson speaks with the media regularly to promote her book.
Spector attorney Roger Rosen told Fidler the defense does not plan to call Gibson as a witness.
But Fidler told the lawyers and Gibson her testimony could become relevant if Spector himself testifies. "Are you saying Mr. Spector will not testify?" Fidler asked.
"I'm not prepared to make that statement at this time," Rosen replied.
Fidler told Gibson, "You may promote your book, but you may not mention Lana Clarkson in any shape, fashion or form. I am ordering you not to do that."
Gibson said her intention has always been to "respect the court," and left the courtroom with her lawyer. The trial then resumed.
Prosecutor Alan Jackson's cross-examination of Punkin Laughlin, a friend of Lana Clarkson's, has been especially pointed. This morning he began his questioning by asking whether, shortly after Clarkson's death, she told a friend at a wedding that Spector "should fry for what he did to Lana."
Laughlin said that she did not recall the exchange but that it didn't sound like something she would have said.
"You think you might've said it, then lied ?" Jackson asked.
Laughlin kept cool under fire. "No, I'm just saying I don't remember," she said.
Punkin Laughlin, who claims to have been Lana Clarkson's best friend, testified that Clarkson told her, "I don't want to live anymore" about a week before her death. The defense called Laughlin to support its argument that Clarkson was despondent about her faltering acting career and financial problems, which led her to commit suicide. Laughlin now faces cross-examination by prosecutors.
Department 106 is the courtroom where Phil Spector is being tried. It can be an uninviting venue.
It's on the 9th floor of the downtown Los Angeles criminal courts building, where high-security cases are tried. Spectators must go through two checkpoints with metal detectors -- one at the building entrance, one on the 9th floor -- to get to the courtroom.
The four rows of wooden benches in the court are so hard that regular reporters bring pads to cushion the impact of six hours in court. Today, things were even tougher. A water leak turned the main hallway into a mini-obstacle course. Bright yellow signs alerted courtgoers to the hazard, and four large trash cans set out to collect the dripping liquid complicated the regular crush outside the restrooms during breaks.
Prosecutor Alan Jackson is questioning a detective about whether police interrogation tactics, including misleading suspects or secretly tape-recording them, are approved. At one point, Jackson's questions came so fast and furious, defense attorney Roger Rosen interrupted him.
“Objection, he’s going too fast,” Rosen interposed.
After the laughter in the courtroom subsided, Judge Fidler sustained the unusual objection.
The Spector trial got off to a late start because of the Caplan embroglio, then was beset by minor disruptions.
First a news photographer was pulled out of the courtroom after he had been warned about restrictions on shooting.
Then, a spectator's beeper went off as defense attorney Roger Rosen was standing up to speak. Fidler instructed him to pause while the offender left the courtroom. Rosen looked confused, then relieved.
“I thought I had done something wrong,” he told Judge Fidler.
Sara Caplan, the Beverly Hills attorney held in contempt last month for declining to testify before the jury in the Phil Spector murder case, was present in court in Los Angeles this morning after her last minute appeal was denied.
Spectators filled the courtroom in anticipation that Caplan would testify, or be jailed by los Angeles County superior Court Judge Larry Fidler.
The state Supreme Court yesterday turned down her appeal. She was Spector’s lawyer in 2003, when she said she saw a defense forensic expert, Henry Lee, remove evidence from the foyer where Lana Clarkson was shot to death.
Sara Caplan, the Beverly Hills attorney held in contempt last month for declining to testify before the jury in the Phil Spector murder case, agreed this morning to do so.
Superior Court judge Larry Fidler, who had threatened Caplan with contempt, asked if she is prepared to testify.
“Yes I am, your honor,” Caplan responded this morning.
Caplan’s about-face came after the state Supreme Court yesterday turned down her appeal of the contempt order. She was Spector’s lawyer in 2003, when she said she saw a defense forensic expert, Henry Lee, remove evidence from the foyer where Lana Clarkson was shot to death.
The prosecution’s lengthy effort to force Caplan to testify has provided the most intriguing sideshow to the trial, which has dragged on for more than two months. She has wept repeatedly in court appearances.
Jennifer Hayes, a friend of Lana Clarkson's, testified Clarkson drank excessively and liked to take Vicodin. She said Clarkson broke down at her house shortly after starting her job at the House of Blues. "She was sobbing her eyes out. She did not have kids, she did not have money, she did not have food to eat," Hayes said.
But Hayes also said Clarkson never gave up hope, a contradiction pointed out by prosecutor Pat Dixon during cross examination.
She also made a remarkable statement about Punkin Pie Laughlin, another Clarkson friend to testify for the defense. "Pie has no memory," Hayes said. Hayes testified she accompanied Laughlin to an interview with a defense investigator. Laughlin, she said, needed her help to remind her of events during the interview.
Dixon questioned whether it was appropriate for the defense to interview the women together, which could have tainted their answers. Hayes said the investigator never suggested they be interviewed separately.
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear an appeal from an attorney who was ruled in contempt of court for refusing to testify in the Phil Spector murder trial.
Sara Caplan, a former lawyer for Spector, now faces possible jail time.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler ruled Caplan in contempt last month, after she cited attorney-client privilege and her duty of loyalty to her client to argue she could not testify before the jury about defense expert Henry Lee. In May, Caplan, outside the presence of the jury, said she saw Lee pick up a fingernail-sized object from the crime scene in Spector’s home the day after Clarkson’s slaying.
Prosecutors have said they believe the item was a piece of Clarkson’s acrylic thumbnail, blown off when the gun that killed her was fired in her mouth. The broken nail could show Clarkson was holding her hand in front of her face and therefore could not have fired the gun.
Lee, both in testimony before Fidler and in later statements to the news media, has vigorously denied he found such an object. But based largely on Caplan's testimony, Fidler ruled that Lee withheld evidence from prosecutors, and said they could call her as a witness to describe Lee's actions.
Fidler is expected to address the Supreme Court decision Thursday.
Judge Larry Paul Fidler this morning ruled a bodyguard for comedian Joan Rivers could testify before the jury that he heard Phil Spector say all women "deserve to die" and then threaten a woman at a Christmas party in 1989.
"I ought to put a bullet in her head right now," Spector said, according to Vincent Tannazzo, at the party at Rivers' New York apartment.
Fidler earlier ruled against having the jury hear Tannazzo, a former New York police detective, but changed his mind today. The defense had sought to suppress Tannazzo’s testimony, but the judge said that the testimony is more probative than prejudicial, and speaks to Spector’s anger against women.
Tannazzo acted as a bodyguard for Rivers when Spector was dating her manager Dorothy Melvin. At a Christmas party, Tannazzo testified this morning that he escorted a drunken Spector out of the apartment building after the producer allegedly brandished a handgun.
Tannazzo said he frisked Spector after an altercation between the producer and Melvin, and found what he testified was a handgun in Spector’s belt.
Four women, including Melvin, testified earlier in the trial that Spector threatened them with guns. Spector is on trial for fatally shooting Clarkson in the head at his Alhambra mansion in February 2003.
The break last week may have left some court watchers with a holiday hangover. Three spectators wore tropical shirts this morning: one woman was in a shirt with palm trees and a prominent guitar, another had a dark shirt covered with fern fronds, and a third wore a colorful paisley-style blouse.
On the first day of trial in ten days, Phil Spector showed up sporting a new hairdo. Instead of the blondish hairstyle so familiar in the first two months of the rock music producer’s murder trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court, his hair was decidedly more brown.
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