Phil Spector Trial: Defendant Thinks He Killed Somebody

Yesterday at the Phil Spector murder trial, perhaps the most damaging witness to the defense took the stand. But as it goes in the Spectorium, that wasn't the only news of the day, thanks to a newly-unearthed video of the rock producer from 2005. In the video, set to air tonight on syndication stalwart Inside Edition, a loony Spector angrily diatribes against the female witnesses for the prosecution that he predicted would come out and claim that he "put a gun to their head" to coerce them into having sex with him. He also says that Lana Clarkson, the woman found dead at Spector's faux-castle, "may have accidentally taken her own life." While Spector tries to form a compelling argument against the charges of murder, yesterday's trial testimony tells a completely different story.

Spector's chauffeur Adriano De Souza took the stand yesterday to recall the drunken events leading up to the murder. De Souza testified that Clarkson agreed to go to Spector's house "only for a drink," after which De Souza was to take Clarkson home. As he waited in the car, De Souza heard a loud "Pow." After a few moments, Spector emerged from the house. While most of our drunken nights end with a simple walk of shame, Spector's ended when he approached De Souza at 5am and told him "I think I killed somebody." It was then that the chauffeur saw Clarkson's lifeless body lying in the foyer. Evidently, in the process of sobering up, Spector's story changed from "I think I killed somebody" to "she may have been eating the gun with her dancing," or so says this new video. Either way, Spector may be better served changing from the self-inflicted wound theory to an insanity plea. We'll keep you updated as the trial progresses toward its anticipated late-July closing.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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