AL SEIB/AFP/Getty ImagesHe didn't get the maximum sentence, but Phil Spector may be spending the rest of his life behind bars regardless.
The 69-year-old Grammy-winning music producer was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison today for the February 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.
It's the same amount of time Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson was seeking for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member. In addition to the mandatory 15-year sentence his second-degree murder conviction carried, he was also looking at an additional 10 years over a gun use enhancement. However, last week Jackson recommended a consecutive four-year term, bringing Spector's mandatory minimum to 19 years behind bars.
Spector's defense had sought an addition of just three years for the gun use, and was hoping for a minimum of 18 years.
As it is, Spector, who is already planning to appeal the sentence, can count on being behind bars until at least 2028.
Spector was found guilty of second-degree murder of the cult star on Apr. 13 and has been held in police custody since that time. Judge Larry Paul Fidler declined to allow the producer to stay free on bail due to his "pattern of violence" with firearms.
The 40-year-old Clarkson was found slumped dead in the foyer of Spector's Alhambra mansion with a gunshot wound in her mouth. Spector had long claimed she committed suicide, with his lawyer Doron Weinberg maintaining in court papers filed as recently as Wednesday that "he did not kill Lana Clarkson, and he is not responsible for her death."
The guilty verdict was the first conviction but second trial for Spector. The first jury to hear his case deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting him back in 2007.
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