One of four women who may testify, Philadelphia photographer Stephanie Jennings, told the grand jury that when she refused an invitation to go to his hotel suite during a 1995 trip to New York, Spector blocked the door and brandished a handgun until she called police.
On its side, the defense has testimony that the gun likely went off inside Clarkson's mouth. A lurid theory about sex games, fueled by Spector's widely quoted "kissed the gun" comment, may also become a pivot point.
When asked whether the gun was part of the couple's foreplay, one of Spector's attorneys, Bruce Cutler, replied: "I've read it, I've heard it.... If that's what happened, it's a tragic waste of life, isn't it? Most importantly, it is not a crime."
Prosecutors have not done well in recent years against celebrity defendants, including Robert Blake and Michael Jackson, and USC law professor Jean Rosenbluth noted that the defense has in this case not yet shown its hand. Cutler, a New Yorker and mobster John Gotti's longtime lawyer, may sway the jury with his theatrical flair, she said.
"He's a showman. It's what he's hired to do," she said. "We haven't seen all evidence. Who knows what will happen?"
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler is allowing cameras in the courtroom, ensuring that the case, with its tawdry trappings, pop psychology and celebrity tinder, will generate a bonfire of media attention. At the center will be Spector, once an essential figure in American pop music who in recent years has come off more as a diminutive Howard Hughes type with Cuban heels and elaborate wigs.
"Everyone will watch the trial," Spector's old friend Levine said. "How can you not? I just hope that his appearance won't hurt him. I hope he doesn't wear one of those terrible wigs that make him look so strange."
Spector's music career will be a backbeat to the trial, and, according to the defendant, it was even a strange soundtrack for Clarkson's death that fateful February night: According to a police officer, Spector said Clarkson was singing two of his signature hits just before she shot herself. One was the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron," the other the Righteous Brothers' classic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."
That police officer, Derek Gilliam, also testified that Spector repeatedly pantomimed the shooting, using his index finger and thumb.
