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Killer gun shown in Spector case
06/06/2007 14:47 - (SA)
Los Angeles - The bloody revolver found at the feet of an actress shot to death in Phil Spector's mansion was shown to jurors at the music producer's murder trial.
Los Angeles County sheriff's Detective Mark Lillienfeld donned gloves on Tuesday as he handled the gun still covered with dried blood.
The snub-nosed Colt Cobra revolver was not registered and never definitively linked to Spector, though prosecutors argued he used it to shoot Lana Clarkson in the mouth on February 3 2003.
The defence argues Clarkson shot herself and is likely to suggest that the gun could have belonged to her.
She had accompanied Spector to his Alhambra mansion after meeting him at her job as a hostess at the House of Blues just hours before her death.
Dozens of rounds of ammunition
The detective also showed jurors photographs to point out a holster in an open drawer of a bureau near the spot where Clarkson's body was found slumped in a chair in the ornate foyer of Spector's castle-like mansion.
The holster also fit the gun, Lillienfeld testified.
Lillienfeld also testified about Spector's small arsenal, including two fully loaded blue steel handguns, an unloaded 12-gauge pump shotgun and ammunition tucked away in his home.
The dozens of rounds of ammunition were the same types found in the gun that killed Clarkson, he said.
Spector's briefcase was on a chair next to Clarkson's body, Lillienfeld said, adding it contained some over-the-counter medications and a tinfoil with one Viagra pill and empty spaces for two more.
There was also a DVD player with a movie in it, an old black-and-white called, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.
The prosecution previously called several women from Spector's past to testify that he had threatened them with guns when they picked up their purses and tried to leave his presence.
Suicide ruled out
Prosecutor Pat Dixon had Lillienfeld point out in the photographs a leopard-print purse that hung over the right shoulder of Clarkson's body.
Her right hand rested atop the purse, which sat on the floor.
The coroner who conducted Clarkson's autopsy and ruled her death a homicide testified previously that the presence of the purse on her shoulder was one of the non-medical observations that led him to rule out suicide.
Dixon made extensive use of the bloody pictures of Clarkson's body and each time they were shown he signalled her mother and sister, seated in the front row, to look away.
Defence attorney Bradley Brunon, setting the stage for an effort to show evidence contamination and mishandling, showed the jurors other photos of detectives and investigators surrounding Clarkson's body, most of them barehanded.
Only one of two appeared to wear evidence-handling gloves.
Lillienfeld said he and others didn't wear gloves because they didn't touch anything.
Spector, 67, rose to fame with the hit-making "Wall of Sound" recording technique in the 1960s.
Clarkson was best known for her role in the 1985 movie Barbarian Queen.
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