Monday, September 27, 2004
former beatles producer phil spector charged with murder:
Phil Spector Charged With Murder
(AP, 09/27/2004 1:44 PM)
By Linda Deutsch
Record producer Phil Spector was charged in an indictment unsealed Monday with murder in the shooting death of a B-movie actress at his mansion last year.
Spector, 64, leaned on the arm of his attorney as the indictment in the slaying of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson was read, but showed no emotion. He was allowed to remains free on $1 million bail.
He spoke only briefly in court, answering, "Yes, your honor," to Judge David S. Lesley's questions. Lesley set Dec. 16 as the earliest possible trial date.
Spector, creator of rock music's "Wall of Sound" recording technique in the 1960s, suggested in an interview with Esquire magazine that Clarkson shot herself.
The judge agreed to keep the trial in Los Angeles rather than move it to Pasadena, closer to Spector's home in Alhambra. Attorneys for both sides expressed concern about the crush of reporters expected to attend it, and the courtrooms in Los Angeles are bigger.
Clarkson starred in Roger Corman's cult film classic "Barbarian Queen." She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip and went home from there with Spector the night she was killed.
