Phil Spector Charged With Murder

[Shawn]

From Billboard

Record producer Phil Spector was charged today (Nov. 20) with murder in the shooting death of a woman at his home last February. Spector, the studio wizard who worked with such stars as the Beatles and Elvis Presley, was expected to be arraigned this afternoon in California.

He has been free on $1 million bail since shortly after the Feb. 3 shooting of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson, a B-movie actress and model.

The producer was arrested for investigation of murder after Clarkson was found dead in the foyer of his Alhambra, Calif., mansion. After more than six months of investigation, authorities concluded Spector shot her.

Spector, 62, has denied he killed Clarkson, suggesting in an Esquire magazine interview that she may have shot herself.

The felony complaint did not specify whether prosecutors will seek a first-degree or second-degree murder conviction. District Attorney's spokesperson Sandi Gibbons said the charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison with a possibility of parole.

Gibbons said the long delay in charges was due to a lengthy sheriff's investigation. "The sheriff didn't turn over the evidence to us until Sept. 18," she said. "We had a tremendous amount of evidence to evaluate and we had to gather additional evidence on our own."

She noted that the prosecutor initially assigned to lead the case, Michael Latin, was appointed to a judgeship in the waning days of the Gov. Gray Davis administration and the prosecution team had to be reconfigured.

[DudeAsInCool]

According to Vanity Fair, when she went to his place with a gun in her pocketbook. Who the hell knows what really happened? Spector is known as a madman around these parts, but one wonders what she was doing packing...