It was a frantic call from Adriano DeSouza that brought police to Phil Spector's hilltop castle in the early morning hours of Feb. 3, 2003. "I think my boss killed somebody," said the part-time driver for the legendary producer.
Four years later, DeSouza is an important prosecution witness in Spector's murder trial. He drove Spector and actress Lana Clarkson from the House of Blues in West Hollywood, where she worked as a hostess, to Spector's Alhambra home.
DeSouza testified last week that as he was waiting outside in Spector's black Mercedes-Benz, he heard a loud noise. DeSouza said he got out of the car, faced Spector in the doorway of his home and asked what had happened. DeSouza said his boss, who was holding a revolver in his bloody hand, responded, "I think I killed somebody."
Prosecutors say Spector's alleged reply to DeSouza amounts to a murder confession. "We're in the heart of the prosecution's case," said Loyola Law School professor Laurie L. Levenson, a criminal law expert who has been watching the trial.
But this week, Spector and his lawyers will go after the driver, a native of Brazil, in an attempt to weaken his credibility. The defense, which contends Clarkson shot herself, also calls DeSouza central to the prosecution but says he embodies the weak case against their client. "Their whole case is DeSouza," defense attorney Bruce Cutler said dismissively in his opening statement. Cutler called DeSouza "a substitute driver with a language problem."
Spector's attorneys will try to show that DeSouza misunderstood what Spector said, that he bore a grudge against his boss and that prosecutors helped him remain in the country illegally in return for his testimony.
DeSouza's courtroom debut last week was a strong one, observers say. Immaculately groomed, he wore a stylish three-button suit and carried himself confidently. He looked questioners straight in the eye and spoke clearly in English, his accent no stronger than that of the governor of California.
DeSouza's answers showed that he understood the questions, though he once referred to Spector as "she" and told Spector attorney Bradley Brunon that he did not know the word "garrulous." On Wednesday, the court reporter never stopped DeSouza to ask him to repeat himself, as she did numerous times the same day with noted forensics scientist Henry Lee, a star witness for the defense who is from Taiwan.
