Spector Jury Makes a House Call

The jury assigned to Phil Spector's murder trial tried to get a fresh perspective on what dozens of lawyers and witnesses have been telling them for the past three months.

Twelve jurors, six alternates, attorneys from both sides, the trial judge and one reporter made a court-sponsored trek to Spector's Alhambra mansion Thursday to see with their own eyes the spot where Lana Clarkson died more than four years ago.

A handful of the jurors also sat in the chair where the actress' slumped body was discovered.

After checking in as usual at the Los Angeles courthouse, the jurors were driven in a series of vans to Alhambra, about 15 miles northeast of L.A.. The caravan arrived at Spector's home at about 10:10 a.m.

Police set up roadblocks on Spector's street and diverted traffic to ease the crunch of looky-loos. Still, the Paris Hilton syndrome was in effect, with helicopters circling and members of the media swarming the area.

The Wall of Sound creator and his 27-year-old wife, Rachelle, were both on hand to greet the expected visitors to the hilltop residence, which boasts a sign calling it the Pyrenees Castle. Both were casually dressed and stood with their arms interlocked.

The sojourn was arranged by the defense so the jury could get a better look at the layout of the hallway where Clarkson died on Feb. 3, 2003, from a gunshot to her mouth.

Spector's camp is maintaining that, based on blood spatter found on his jacket, the famed music producer was standing at least six feet away from Clarkson when the gun went off and, therefore, couldn't have shot her, as the prosecution says. The defense is arguing that the 40-year-old Clarkson, depressed over the state of her career and her judgment affected by alcohol and pills, shot herself.

Five male jurors sat in the chair where Clarkson was presumably sitting when she died to try and re-create the position in which she was found.

The jurors were escorted in groups of six through the foyer, into the bathroom where blood was found, out through the back door of Spector's home and to the driveway, where chauffeur Adriana De Souza claims to have been snoozing in the car when he was awakened by a loud popping noise. A gun-toting Spector then came outside and said, "I think I killed somebody," De Souza has testified.

The jurors listened to the outdoor fountain that the defense has argued was too loud to allow De Souza to clearly process what Spector said that night.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler denied access to the upstairs half of the house and refused the jury's request to sit in a Crown Victoria belonging to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, shut the home's back door and simulate a gunshot noise to replicate what De Souza says he heard.

The visit lasted about an hour, after which everyone was shuttled back to the courthouse.

Outside the presence of the jury, defense attorney Roger Rosen objected one last time to the prosecution's intent to call to the stand an ex-girlfriend of Spector's to testify that he threatened her with a gun on two occasions in the 1970s and 1980s.

Fidler said he was going to allow the testimony, as it "shows a continuing pattern that now goes even longer." If Debra Robitaille takes the stand, she will be the fifth woman to testify about Spector's apparent tendency to brandish guns in the presence of his female acquaintances.

The prosecution is not expected to call Robitaille until the defense officially rests its case, which it said it planned to do after the visit to Spector's home.

The judge told the court that testimony should conclude sometime next week, followed by jury instructions, which should take a day or two, and then closing arguments.

Fidler also said he's contemplating giving the jury a week off at some point, so they can spend time with their kids before school starts again.

The trial began Apr. 25.

On Wednesday, a Chicago neuropathologist testified for the defense that the position of Clarkson's body was consistent with a suicide.

Dr. Jan Leestma said he had watched videos made by people who filmed their own deaths and that Clarkson's outstretched legs resembled other positions he had seen.

Under cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson, however, Leestma admitted that he couldn't say for sure whether Clarkson had killed herself or not.