Spector's past to figure in trial

Phil Spector never denied he wagged a pistol at a member of the Ramones or fired off a shot during a studio session with John Lennon. The music industry loves edgy characters, especially when they churn out chart-topping hits as the influential music producer once did. But now, with his murder trial approaching, his reputation for drunken gunplay is coming back like a vicious ricochet.

"He always had that habit of showing off guns when he was drinking; it's what he did, it was his thing," said Larry Levine, the recording engineer who sat next to Spector in the studio for years. "And now, well, all of that is going to be part of this trial. I don't know what happened on that night, but the jury will have to figure it out."

"That night" was the predawn hours of Feb. 3, 2003, when 40-year-old Lana Clarkson, a tall, blond actress, died from a gunshot to the mouth at Spector's quirky "castle" in Alhambra. Both a hired driver for Spector and the first police officer on the scene have said the dazed producer told them he thought he had killed someone. Spector, however, has maintained that Clarkson committed suicide, telling Esquire magazine: "She kissed the gun."

Prospective jurors report to court Monday for a lengthy selection process scheduled to run into April. When arguments begin, the prosecution is expected to tell those chosen that Spector, a man with a history of rage against women, met an attractive bar hostess during a night of drinking, persuaded her to come home with him and then shot her when his advances did not go as planned.

"You know Lana was waiting to leave," prosecutor Douglas W. Sortino told a grand jury in 2004. Noting that Clarkson was found seated near the mansion's front door, Sortino argued, "She's not sitting there saying, 'Oh, I think I'll kill myself.' "

If the defense mirrors Spector's accounts, it will contend that Clarkson, whose middling acting career had gone cold, chose Spector's 33-room faux castle to take her own life in the presence of a music-industry legend. Roger J. Rosen, one of Spector's attorneys, declined to comment on possible strategies but did say, "Suicide is of course a possibility."

The prosecutors have a strong case, legal experts say: Spector's admissions and his alcohol consumption, after years of sobriety; physical evidence; and an important pretrial ruling allowing testimony of prior incidents involving Spector, a woman and a gun.