How close is too close?
Judging by the blood spatter on Phil Spector's jacket, a criminalist testified Thursday that the famed music producer had his arms raised and was standing just two or three feet away from Lana Clarkson when the actress was shot Feb. 3, 2003.
Spector's defense team will likely take issue with that conclusion. It has already asserted that, based on the lack of blood on his jacket, he was at least six feet away when Clarkson was killed by a gunshot wound through her mouth. Clarkson shot herself, the defense says.
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department forensics expert Lynne Herold, the prosecution's 34th and final witness, said that, magnified 60 times under a microscope, the "mistlike" bloodstains on Spector's jacket showed that "piece of fabric was within two to three feet of the bloodletting event."
"High-velocity backspatter" left spots on the front, back and left sleeve cuff of the white jacket, Herold testified, adding that it was on Clarkson's right side when the gunshot was fired and "was forward-facing and the arms had to be raised so the spatter could get on the back."
Herold also pointed to bloodstains in the pocket of Spector's pants and on a piece of cloth diaper found in a bathroom near the foyer of his Alhambra mansion, where Clarkson died.
"Something bloody came in contact with the inside of the left pants pocket," Herold said, suggesting the stain could have been made by placing the bloody gun in the pocket and then taking it out.
"There is smeared blood," she testified, referring to pictures of the Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver that has been identified as the weapon that killed Clarkson. "It indicates to me there was some movement. There are places on the gun that would show some of the blood was moved or removed."
Clarkson's blood was found in the tiny recesses of the gun's wooden grip, on parts of the sight at the end of the two-inch barrel and on the cartridge cylinder, but not on any of the weapon's raised surfaces, Herold said.
"Could that be a product of someone wiping the gun off?" Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson asked.
"That is one possible mechanism," she replied.
After the shot was fired, Clarkson "was immediately incapacitated," Jackson said to Herold. "She didn't make this pattern, correct?"
"Correct," Herold agreed. She later described seeing a pattern on the gun similar to the type of marks left after a moist cloth is wiped over a stainless steel surface.
Other criminalists previously testified that no latent fingerprints were found on the gun, a not abnormal occurrence and not necessarily the result of someone wiping the weapon off. But it was said that Spector's DNA, although not found on the weapon, could have been covered up by the bloodstains.
Herold testified yesterday that Spector may have tampered with the alleged crime scene before police arrived—about 45 minutes later, according to the prosecution.
Clarkson was found slumped in a chair in Spector's foyer, her head turned toward her right side. Herold said that it looked as if someone, possibly Spector, had moved Clarkson's head to the left at some point. Also, she said, it looked as if her face had been wiped with a towel.
Herold said that she was unable to determine the position of Clarkson's hands at the time the gun was fired, however.
Just as the county coroner who ruled that Clarkson's death was a homicide had studied a textbook penned by one of the defense's experts, Herold admitted under cross-examination Thursday afternoon that she had taken an advanced course in bloodstain pattern analysis taught by two experts who will be testifying for the defense in the coming weeks.
She did not consult with her former instructors when making her conclusions, Herold said.
Defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden attacked Herold's credibility, saying that her knowledge of blood patterns wasn't extensive enough to form a reasonable opinion.
To which Herold rolled her eyes and said that she had personally studied about 100 bloodstain pattern cases over the past 20 years of her career.
The criminalist died say that large blood droplets can travel longer distances than smaller ones, but repeated that the micro-millimeter-sized drops found on Spector's jacket had traveled no more than two feet.
Kenney Baden also focused on terminology in her cross, emphasizing that a finding that is "consistent with" a particular circumstance is not the same as a proven fact.
"'Consistent with' means that it is a possibility," the lawyer said.
"It depends on when I used it," Herold admitted, adding, "In general, 'consistent with' means allowed by the circumstances, nothing that is excluded by that possibility."