Jurors in Phil Spector’s murder trial said today they’re deadlocked, prompting the judge to consider giving the panel a lesser charge to consider.
The jury foreman said his colleagues were split 7-5 but didn’t reveal which way they’re leaning on a second-degree murder charge against Spector.
Judge Larry Paul Fidler ordered the panel of nine men and three women to go home before returning home tomorrow morning.
The judge said he might allow the lawyers to argue for involuntary manslaughter.
“It is a possibility I may give you further instructions tomorrow,” Fidler told jurors. “It’s also a possibility I may have the lawyers re-argue the case to you.” Today was the seventh day of deliberations. Spector, 67, is charged with second-degree murder for the Feb. 3, 2003 slaying of Clarkson, 40.
If Fidler declares a mistrial, Los Angeles DA Steve Cooley would have to decide whether his office should prosecute Spector against.
The famed rock producer who innovated the “Wall of Sound” recording technique, Spector faces 15 years to life behind bars if convicted.
Testimony lasted more than four months and brought 77 witnesses to the stand to weigh evidence in the slaying of the gorgeous, curvy 6-foot blonde.
Clarkson, a struggling actress best known for her work in Roger Corman’s “Barbarian Queen” movies, was working as a hostess at the House of Blueswhen she met VIP Spector hours before dying.
Spector coaxed Clarkson to come back to his mansion in Alhambra, Calif., where they had drinks.
She ended up dead in Spector’s foyer with a single gunshot through her mouth.
Moments after Clarkson’s death, Spector inadvertently gave prosecutors their most powerful evidence.
Spector’s driver Adriano DeSouza testified that the music man walked out of his house – with the .38-caliber Colt Cobra that killed Clarkson in hand and said: “I think I killed somebody.”
The DA cast DeSouza’s testimony as Spector’s murder-scene confession.
If that wasn’t bad enough for Spector, a parade of former female pals marched to the witness stand and told jurors how the miniature maestro waved guns at women when they didn’t do exactly as told.
The defense’s most moving evidence is Spector’s relatively clean, white sports coast he wore the early morning Clarkson was killed.
Only microscopic spots of blood appeared on Spector’s jacket and none on his right sleeve, where defense lawyers claim blood should have been present had their client killed Clarkson.