Spector's past to figure in trial

The trial's start has been repeatedly delayed, in part by Spector's merry-go-round of defense attorneys. Robert Shapiro, who was part of O.J. Simpson's defense team, handled early matters but was replaced by Leslie Abramson and Marcia Morrissey, attorneys for Eric and Lyle Menendez, who in turn gave way to Cutler and his team, which includes attorneys Rosen, Bradley W. Brunon, Linda Kenny-Baden, Christopher Plourd and Robert Blasier, and jury consultant Richard Gabriel.

Up for the prosecution will be Patrick Dixon, head of the district attorney's major crimes unit, Alan Jackson and an unnamed jury consultant.

In the four years since Clarkson's death, a picture of what may have happened has sharpened, with details from autopsy reports, grand jury testimony and a few interviews with Spector.

According to a Spector deposition in 2005, he spent the evening among three longtime celebrity haunts: The Grill on the Alley and Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills, and Dan Tana's in West Hollywood. At Dan Tana's, Spector drank alcohol, surprising the staff, who knew him as a teetotaler.

In his deposition, Spector said he had his driver for the night, Adriano DeSouza, take him and a friend, a waitress named Kathy Sullivan, to the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. Former Judas Priest singer Rob Halford was finishing his set on the club's main stage when Spector and Sullivan arrived, but they skipped the show and went upstairs to the Foundation Room, a plush VIP bar near the dressing rooms.

The driver testified that after 15 minutes, Sullivan returned to the car, accompanied by a tall blond woman introduced as "Lana." The woman was Clarkson, who had been a Foundation Room hostess for about three weeks.

DeSouza drove Sullivan home, then returned. The next time he saw Spector, Clarkson was guiding the drunken appearing producer to his car.

House of Blues records showed Clarkson clocked out at 2:21 a.m. The driver said Clarkson repeatedly declined Spector's invitations to visit his house, but then relented, telling DeSouza that she would stay only for one drink.

Spector's mansion was up the hill from a lawnmower store and a gun shop in Alhambra, a middle-class San Gabriel Valley community where Spector was an unlikely celebrity resident. Spector and Clarkson went inside. About 5 a.m., according to the driver, Spector emerged from the house, holding a gun.

"I think I killed somebody," Spector said, according to the driver.