Repeat Testimony In Spector Trial
Friends of the woman Phil Spector is accused of killing have testified during the music producer's murder trial that the actress was unhappy and had abused prescription drugs and alcohol in the year before she died.
As the trial winds down, Spector's attorneys on Thursday were expected to bring some of them back to the witness stand in a final attempt to persuade jurors that Lana Clarkson was suicidal when she went to Spector's home Feb. 3, 2003, and may have pulled the trigger on the gun that killed her.
The prosecution contends Spector killed her when she tried to leave his home after coming there for a drink.
Last month, defense witness Jennifer Hayes-Riedl testified Clarkson had been mixing alcohol and pain medication. She was due to return to the courtroom to answer more questions.Photos: The Spector Trial
A return appearance also was expected from Clarkson friend Punkin "Pie" Laughlin. She has testified about a party a month before the actress died, at which Clarkson allegedly told Laughlin she was snubbed by movie director Michael Bay.
Laughlin suggested the incident at the party contributed to her depression.
Bay has testified he did not remember seeing Clarkson there, was not approached by her and did not "disrespect" her.
On Wednesday, defense witness Tanara Henson, who saw Clarkson at the party, testified Clarkson's demeanor changed from happy at the start of the evening to distressed later on.
Also on Wednesday, a specialist in neuropathology summoned by prosecutors disputed a defense forensic pathologist's argument that Clarkson could have exhaled blood onto Phil Spector's jacket with her dying breaths after being shot through the spine.
Dr. John Andrews, a Los Angeles County deputy medical examiner, was called upon to challenge the theory sprung last week by renowned forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden that Clarkson could have breathed for three or four minutes after she was shot.
The defense has used its forensic experts throughout the trial to explain how the blood could have gotten on the music producer's jacket if he hadn't shot her.
The prosecution contends the tiny bits of spattered blood on the jacket show Spector was within two or three feet of Clarkson when the trigger was pulled.
Andrews' appearance on the witness stand was perhaps the last round of a battle of scientific experts that has consumed much of the five-month trial. After his testimony, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson rested the prosecution's rebuttal case, and the defense began its rebuttal.