Phil Spector Trial: Lawyers, Guns and Money

By Stone Martindale May 11, 2007, 14:13 GMT

Rommie Davis testifies during music producer Phil Spector\'s murder trial at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles, California, 10 May 2007. Davis went to High School with Spector at Fairfax High School EPA/JAMIE RECTOR - POOL

Day six of the Phil Spector trial was a less sensational but still interesting as a friend of Phil Spector testified Thursday that the music producer "was not his usual self" during a dinner date hours before actress Lana Clarkson's death at his mansion.

Rommie Davis testified she was concerned about him because he was drinking and taking medication, calling it a "lethal combination."        

Lead Prosecutor Alan Jackson

After their dinner, authorities say Spector met Clarkson, a hostess at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and asked her to accompany him to his home.

Spector

Clarkson turned up dead early February 3, 2003, by a gunshot through her mouth. Spector's defense team claims she shot herself.

Davis testified she and Spector, who were high school classmates, dined out all three nights of the weekend leading up to the night of Clarkson's death and Spector's behavior was a concern, according to CourtTV.

Spector's noted heavy drinking at each eatery they visited on Friday, Saturday and Sunday was the first time he had consumed alcohol during the their five-month relationship, according to her testimony.

"I was very concerned about him," she said.                 

Defense lawyers and Spector

On February 2, 2003, she testified on the broadcast aired on CourtTV that she told Spector he should not be drinking - but he ordered two daiquiris before dinner.

"He was not his usual self," she said. "He was not interested in what I had to say. ... In all the time I went out with him, he was great fun to be with. ... This weekend, the behavior was totally different."

Davis claimed Spector was never seen with a gun but she recalled that he once told her "politely" that he carried a gun in the trunk of his car.

On cross-examination, Davis said she couldn't tell whether he was drunk and that she never saw him in possession of a gun and that he had never threatened her.

She said Spector brought her home by 11:15 p.m.

The testimony set the stage for a detailed account of events in the hours before Spector arrived at the House of Blues, where he met Clarkson.

The defense lawyers tried to undermine the credibility of one of the four women who previously testified to being threatened with guns by Spector in the years before Clarkson's death.

Melissa Grosvenor told the similar story of Spector being charming one minute and suddenly being terrorized with a gun when she tried to leave him.

Defense attorney Roger Rosen sought to attack her story and suggested one of her sisters had heard a different version of the story from her.

Rosen

Grosvenor claimed her sister is a drug addict and is taking money from directly from Spector.

Rosen also sought to emphasize that Grosvenor didn't know if a gun she claims Spector pointed between her eyes was loaded. She acknowledged she did not know.

But when he sought to point out that the gun wasn't fired, Grosvenor shot back to the stupid question, "I wouldn't be sitting here if it was."

Prosecutors revisited the previous testimony by Stephanie Jennings, a music industry photographer who described a gun-toting Spector holding her hostage at a New York hotel and him later threatening her when she stood him up

The jury got to hear profane voice mail messages were left on Jennings' answering machine in which Spector threatened to make sure she wouldn't work again.

Spector, 67, rose to fame in the 1960s and '70s, producing major artists with his unique "Wall of Sound" recording technique.