AP Photo / Nick UtIf at first you don't succeed, trial, trial again.
Such is the case for Phil Spector, whose retrial on the 2003 murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson heard opening statements in Los Angeles Superior Court this morning.
For the most part, it was grim business as usual for the prosecution, which, much like the first time around, showed horrific crime-scene photos of the actress, rehashed the statement of a chauffeur who allegedly heard Spector confessing to the crime and generally played up the legendary music producer's rep as a hot-tempered womanizer to the seven-man, five-woman jury.
In his opening gambit, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson called Spector "very sinister, very violent and very deadly" when inebriated, as he allegedly was the night of the murder, and said he was a man with a history of pulling guns on the women in his life.
Claiming the 68-year-old was in a "fit of rage" the night of the murder, Jackson told the jury in no uncertain terms that "before he was through with [Clarkson], he put a bullet in her head."
Spector's defense delivers its own opening statement this afternoon.
Last September, the jury in Spector's first trial deadlocked at 10-2, with the majority in favor of convicting the "Wall of Sound" creator. He remains free on $1 million bail.