Spector Jury To Visit Crime Scene

The jury in the Phil Spector murder case will visit the crime scene n Thursday. They will go to Spector's house in Alhambra, Calif., which is known as "The Castle."

CBS News legal analyst Trent Copeland spoke with Julie Chen on Thursday's The Early Show about this visit's significance for the trial.

The defense asked the judge for a site visit, according to Copeland. "(The defense) really wants to get the jury out of the courtroom where this jury has been bombarded with images of Lana Clarkson, Lana Clarkson's death and Lana Clarkson being shot," Copeland said.

Copeland added that he believes the defense wants to humanize Spector. "(The defense) is hoping to show this jury that he is a guy just like everybody else with a wife, children."

When the jury arrives at Spector's mansion they won't be able to see much. Out of the 33 rooms that the house contains, they will only see three of them. The jury will see the foyer where the shooting occurred, the bathroom where Clarkson removed her fake eyelids and the living room where Spector and Clarkson had drinks together.

From the exterior, the jury will be able to see where the limo driver claimed that he heard shots fired. This driveway area is also the same location where Phil Spector said, "I think I killed somebody."

This site visit will have strict limitations for the jury. "This judge will not allow the jury to conduct their own examinations. They're not going to be allowed to sit in the chair where Lana Clarkson was shot," Copeland said. The attorneys will be prohibited from speaking. The judge will be the only person allowed to address the jury.

The judge also said Wednesday that he would allow a fifth woman to testify that the music producer threatened her with a gun.

Prosecutor Alan Jackson said Devra Robitaille's testimony was warranted in the trial's rebuttal phase because defense attorneys had attacked the veracity of one of the women who testified that Spector had held her at gunpoint. Jackson said that by attacking that woman, the defense implicitly attacked the others, as well.

The prosecution has made the women's testimony the cornerstone of its case against Spector, claiming he showed a pattern of taking women home with him, holding them at gunpoint and refusing to allow them to leave.

They say the pattern was repeated with deadly results when 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson was shot to death in the 67-year-old "Wall of Sound" music producer's home after going home with him for a drink Feb. 3, 2003. Spector's attorneys say Clarkson shot herself in the mouth.

Defense attorney Bradley Brunon argued against the additional witness, saying that prosecutors deliberately held back Robitaille's testimony until near the end of the trial to give it added impact.

After Melissa Grosvenor testified last month that Spector threatened her with a gun, her estranged sister testified that Grosvenor had made up the story so she could take part in a high-profile trial.

"She was bragging about going to be on Court TV," Angela Pileggi Silverstein told jurors.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said allowing Robitaille to testify would indicate that "other witnesses are telling the truth and there is strength in numbers."

"For all those reasons, I find this is appropriate rebuttal and I will allow this witness to testify," the judge said.

Also Wednesday, one defense expert contradicted another's theory that Clarkson sprayed blood from her mouth with her dying gasps.

Prosecutors contend that blood spatter on Spector's jacket got there when he shot Clarkson. The defense says the spatter could have hit him when he stood as far as six feet away.

Dr. Jann Leestma, a neuro-pathologist, said blood would have flowed and there could have been involuntary movements of the body after the gunshot severed Clarkson's spine. But he said a projectile-like spray of blood that would result with force similar to when someone emits a loud "raspberry" was unlikely.

In opening statements, the defense's scientific attorney, Linda Kenney Baden, demonstrated how gases would build up in the mouth from a gunshot, collect in the cheeks and be expelled in a movement similar to a raspberry. Another defense expert, forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz, agreed with the theory and suggested during earlier testimony that Clarkson could have breathed out blood after she was shot through the mouth, spattering it on Spector's jacket.