LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The jury in the Phil Spector murder trial will begin deliberations next week after prosecution and defense lawyers wrapped up their closing arguments here Friday.
After five months of testimony involving nearly 80 witnesses, jurors at Los Angeles Superior Court will receive final instructions from Judge Larry Paul Fidler on Monday before retiring to consider their verdict.
Spector, the musical pioneer who created the "Wall of Sound" recording technique responsible for a string of 1960s hits, faces 15 years to life in prison if found guilty of murdering actress Lana Clarkson.
Prosecutors said the 67-year-old shot Clarkson in a drunken rage at his castle-like mansion in February 2003, only hours after meeting her for the first time at a Hollywood nightclub where she worked.
Defense lawyers have said Clarkson, famous for her role in Roger Corman's 1985 cult classic "The Barbarian Queen" but whose career had stalled at the time of her death, killed herself.
During the trial, five women testified that Spector had threatened them with firearms after they attempted to leave him, bolstering the prosecution case that the music legend had a pattern of violent behavior involving guns.
But in completing her closing statement on Friday, defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden urged the jury to disregard the women's testimony, questioning whether it was relevant.
"These incidents occurred 20, 30 years ago, and somehow they supply a motive for Phillip to kill Lana Clarkson on February 3rd?" Kenney-Baden said. "Something that occurs in allegedly 1975 and in the early 80s?"
She said prosecutors called the women to testify "because they want you to hate Phil Spector, and they want you to make a huge leap from saying he's a bad person so he must have killed Lana Clarkson."
Kenney-Baden concluded her longer-than-expected closing statement by re-emphasizing the testimony of expert defense witnesses along with what she said was a lack of scientific evidence implicating Spector.
"The absence of evidence here means the government cannot prove its case," she said
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