Prosecutor accuses Spector at start of trial (Roundup)

Apr 26, 2007, 1:24 GMT

Phil Spector (C) conference with his attorney Roger Rosen (L) on the first day of opening statements in Spector\'s murder trial, 25 April 2007 at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles, California. The trial of the pioneering record producer comes more than four years after actress Lana Clarkson was found shot to death at Spector’s home. EPA/GABRIEL BOUYS/POOL

Los Angeles - Legendary music producer Phil Spector was a sinister man who had threatened numerous other women with guns before killing actress Lana Clarkson four years ago, the prosecutor said Wednesday at the start of Spector's murder trial.

Spector, 67, famous for his 'Wall of Sound' recording techniques in the 1960s, is accused of fatally shooting Clarkson, 40, on February 3, 2003 at his hilltop mansion.

The two met earlier in the evening when Spector visited a night club where Clarkson worked as a hostess. Prosecutors allege that after drinking heavily, Spector shot her when she tried to leave his house.

'The evidence is going to paint a picture of a man who on February 3, 2003, put a loaded pistol in Lana Clarkson's mouth - inside her mouth - and shot her to death,' prosecutor Alan Jackson told the jury of nine men and three women.

'Lana Clarkson ... was simply the last in a long line of women who fell victim to Philip Spector over the years,' Jackson said. 'This pattern repeats itself over and over and over again.'

Jackson's opening argument centred on Spector's history of threats against women who spurned his sexual advances. He told how a chauffeur who drove the pair to Spector's mansion reported hearing a gunshot and seeing Spector emerge from the house holding a gun and declaring, 'I think I killed somebody.'

Spector later said the shooting was an 'accidental suicide' by Clarkson.

The case is attracting widespread attention because of Spector's celebrity and Judge Larry Fidler's decision to allow cameras to broadcast live from the courtroom.

Spector appeared tense as opening arguments began, wearing a cream suit and purple shirt, and with his famously frizzy head of hair smoothed out into a page-boy haircut.