Finally Nailing A Thug Celebrity

Convicting celebrities is nearly impossible, no matter how grievous the crime:

A Los Angeles jury convicted Phil Spector of second-degree murder Monday, making the legendary record producer who worked with the Beatles and a host of other pop stars the first celebrity found guilty of murder on Hollywood's home turf in at least 40 years.

The verdict read in a tense, standing-room-only courtroom came six years and two trials after police found Lana Clarkson, a statuesque blond actress, shot to death in a chair in Spector's 30-room Alhambra mansion.

...The verdict of second-degree murder -- the most severe option offered to jurors -- with the use of a firearm means the 69-year-old Spector faces a mandatory life prison term when he is sentenced May 29. He must serve at least 18 years before being eligible for parole.

The verdict was a cause for rejoicing in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, where high-profile defeats in the murder trials of O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake still sting.

..."Celebrity cases are always a little different," said Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who called the Blake jurors "incredibly stupid" after the actor's 2005 acquittal. "Sometimes the laws of gravity as we know them don't work in celebrity cases."

...Spector's attorney immediately said he would appeal. The lawyer asked that Spector remain free on $1-million bail until the sentence was imposed, but a prosecutor protested, citing Spector's history of menacing people with guns and his incentive to flee the jurisdiction.

...The verdict was an endorsement of the prosecutors' theory that Spector pulled a snub-nosed .38 Special revolver on Clarkson when she tried to leave his residence after several hours of drinking. During the trial, jurors heard from five women who said the producer drew weapons on them when he was drunk.

Weinberg said the judge's decision to allow those women to testify about events stretching back three decades would be among the grounds for appeal.

"We believe analytically there is absolutely no legal basis for the admissibility of that evidence," the lawyer said.

...Spector burst onto the music scene in 1958 when he recorded the hit "To Know Him Is to Love Him" with classmates from Fairfax High School. The title came from an inscription on the gravestone of Spector's father, who had committed suicide. He moved into producing and developed a new technique, known as the "Wall of Sound," in which tracks were layered over one another to produce a lush, symphonic effect that changed pop music.

He went on to work with musical acts including Tina Turner, the Ronettes, Darlene Love, the Beatles, the Ramones and Celine Dion.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. In later years, he has worked less and less, reportedly because of disputes with record companies and musicians about the pace of his work and his volatile temper.