Phil Spector Trial: $450 tips, VIP rooms and confessed deeds

By Stone Martindale May 16, 2007, 0:15 GMT

Adriano De Souza, former driver for Phil Spector, demonstrates for the prosecution how Spector was holding the handgun when he emerged from his house the morning Lana Clarkson was killed during Spector\'s murder trial at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles, California on 15 May 2007. EPA/PAUL BUCK

A House of Blues VIP founder's room waitress testified Tuesday that Phil Spector propositioned her before he started pursuing her co-worker, an actress later shot to death in the music producer's mansion.

"He asked if I wanted to go home with him," Sophia Holguin told jurors at Spector's murder trial, televised live on Court TV.

Holguin said these things were "a common question asked" by her patrons in the VIP foundation room section of the House of Blues, and she concocted a made-up story about an early meeting or work obligation.

It was shortly after that Spector asked that Lana Clarkson, who was ending her shift in the same VIP area, to have a drink with him.

Spector and Clarkson, 40, later left the club together. Clarkson was dead before sunrise the next day.

Holguin and two other witnesses who worked in the Foundation Room, the VIP section of the House of Blues, painted the circumstance for Spector and Clarkson's meeting.

The witness testified that Clarkson "did not recognize Spector as a celebrity" or even as a man when he attempted to enter the Foundation Room at closing.

"She called him, 'Miss Spector,' " Holguin testified.

Holguin and another employee, a security trainer, Euphrathes Lalondriz, told jurors he instructed her to treat Spector "golden" and "like Dan Ackroyd," referring to one of the founders of the club.  Holquin said she told Clarkson that Spector was "a multimillionaire" and asked that he be seated in her section.

"I had waited on him before and I knew him to be a good tipper," she testified, "That's the reason I'm there; to make some money."

Holguin was given a $450 tip, which Spector told her to split with the security guards and Lana Clarkson.

Spector ordered Bacardi 151 rum served neat.  She said he was "a little slurrish" and loud. When his companion, Kathy Sullivan, refused to order an alcoholic beverage, he barked, "Just order a f**king drink," the waitress testified.

Sullivan testified earlier that he sent her home after she refused.

"He just seemed angry in general," Holguin said under oath.

The House of Blue's general manager, Arich Berghammer, defended the establishment which served drunk celebrities in the Foundation Room despite laws against it. Said Berghammer: "Well, it is L.A."                   

Arich Berghammer Delivers Witness Testimony

Adriano DeSouza, the limo driver who drove Phil Spector around on the night that ended with Lana Clarkson's death, took the stand afterwards.  DeSouza began testifying around 2:30 p.m.

DeSouza was in the car outside Spector's Alhambra home after dropping off Spector and Clarkson.

DeSouza told the L.A. County Grand Jury that about 5 a.m. on Feb. 3 he heard what he described as a "pop", then saw Spector leaving the house holding a gun.

"I think I killed somebody," he quoted Spector as saying.

The defense is expected to challenge DeSouza's ability to hear anything that morning because of a noisy fountain and because the chauffeur was drowsy after a night of work.

DeSouza said he worked for Spector 13 or 14 times and generally earned about $30 an hour.

He said he picked up Spector's Mercedes to use that night.

DeSouza is Brazilian, entering the United States on a student visa.