PHIL SPECTOR - PROSECUTOR: 'SPECTOR MURDERED CLARKSON IN PETULANT FIT OF RAGE'

PROSECUTOR: 'SPECTOR MURDERED CLARKSON IN PETULANT FIT OF RAGE'

Music producer PHIL SPECTOR killed actress LANA CLARKSON in the same "petulant fit of rage" he has exhibited with other women over the years, according to the Los Angeles prosecutor who has charged the mogul with her murder.
The star is accused of murdering Clarkson at his Alhambra, California mansion in February, 2003.
A jury reached a deadlock in favour of convicting Spector last year (07), prompting a Los Angeles judge to declare a mistrial.
The retrial began this week (begs27Oct08) with Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson laying out the prosecution's theory about Clarkson's final hours.
In his opening statement on Wednesday (29Oct08), he told the court: "In some petulant fit of rage, he pulled a gun on the unarmed Lana Clarkson as she sat in the foyer of his home and before he was through with her, he put a bullet in her head.
"A history of rage, a pattern of hate, a pattern of abuse against women. She was simply the last in a very long line of women who had suffered abuse over the years."
Jackson then gave a warning to the seven men and five women selected for the jury, telling them: "Pay special attention to the pattern that emerges."
The jury is due to hear testimony from five women who have accused Spector of holding them at gunpoint.
And Jackson made sure the jurors knew just how temperamental Spector could be by playing two explicit voicemail messages he had previously left for two women to the court.
In one message, Spector could be heard saying: "I'll do everything in my f**king power to make sure you never work in Philadelphia."
In a second message, left years earlier, he told the woman: "Be very careful what you say to people because nothing you say to me is worth your life."
The retrial is expected to last several months.