After being found guilty at his second trial for the February 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson, legendary producer Phil Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison today by Judge Larry Fidler, the Los Angeles Times reports. The conviction carried a minimum 15 years-to-life sentence, plus an additional four years for criminal use of a firearm. The 69-year-old producer, who sat stone-faced and unblinking as the sentence was read, also won’t be eligible for parole until he’s 88. For Spector, the Clarkson family and the Los Angeles District Attorney Office, the sentencing marked the end of a legal drama that stretched six years and two trials.

(The Rise & Fall of Phil Spector: Photos from his famed studio sessions.)

In addition to the prison sentence, Spector was also ordered to pay the Clarkson family $17,000 to cover Lana’s funeral expenses, with Spector’s lawyer Doron Weinberg handing the check to Donna Clarkson, Lana’s mother. “All of our plans together are destroyed,” Donna Clarkson said in a statement on behalf of the family. “Now, I can only visit her at the cemetery.” (more…)

Photo: Djansezian/Getty
The jury hearing Phil Spector’s murder retrial found the music producer guilty today of charges of second-degree murder in the death of actress Lana Clarkson. Clarkson died of a gunshot wound at Spector’s Los Angeles mansion in February 2003 under dubious circumstances. Spector’s first trial began in April 2007 and concluded in September 2007 when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Deliberations for Spector’s second murder trial stretched 32 hours over nine days. The 69-year-old Spector faces a minimum of 18 years of prison; he’ll be sentenced on May 29th.

Photos: Spector Before the Fall

Spector was arrested on February 3, 2003 after his limo driver called police to report a dead body in the foyer of the producer’s mansion. Spector’s chauffeur testified at the initial trial that Spector said to him, “I think I killed somebody.” Spector met Clarkson at the House of Blues, where she worked as a cocktail waitress, and invited her back to his home for a drink; it was the first time the pair had met. Clarkson was found shot in the mouth with a gun next to her body. Police later testified that Spector was uncooperative at the crime scene and had to be tasered for refusing to obey orders. (more…)

• R. Kelly has avoided arrest by making it back to Chicago in time for a court appearance. Kelly missed court yesterday after getting stuck in Utah snowstorm. As a result of his tardiness, the judge will decide tomorrow whether to disallow Kelly’s special permission to tour while facing child-pornography charges, as well as consider revoking R.’s bail. In addition, a court date for the much-delayed start of Kelly’s trial is anticipated tomorrow.

• Starting January 1st, 2009, Ticketmaster will have a new competitor, as Live Nation will officially throw their multi-corporation hat into the ticket biz. Live Nation’s ticket program will use Eventim, deemed “most technologically sophisticated ticketing platform in the world.”

• Death Cab for Cutie will release their new album sometime in May 2008, according to a video montage from the studio on the band’s Web site. The group’s last album, Plans, came out in 2005.

• Record producer Phil Spector, who narrowly escaped a prison sentence for murder thanks to a mistrial, is suing his ex-lawyer Robert Shapiro to reclaim the $1 million fee he paid Shapiro to briefly represent him. Spector claims Shapiro inadequately prepared the trial and may have been responsible for the prosecution filing charges in the first place.

• The Wu-Tang Clan is coming to your town … if you can recruit 1,499 of your closest friends to “demand” them. Working with the service Eventful Demand, the Wu promise to visit any town/city/grotto that can get 1,500 people to log in and demand their town be played. Couer d’ Alene, Idaho, it’s your move now.

• Four years after releasing an album as their secret side project the Network, Green Day appear to be at it again. This time, the American Idiot trio is reportedly operating under the pseudonym the Foxboro Hot Tubs, a fake Sixties garage-rock band who just this weekend launched their own Web site with a free six-song EP to download. Are the Sixties-tinged Hot Tubs actually Green Day in disguise? Listen to the song “Ruby Room” and it seems pretty evident that Billie Joe Armstrong is handling the singing duties.
• German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, an electronic-music pioneer who was also featured on the cover collage of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s, has died at age seventy-nine. Artists as diverse as Björk, Kraftwerk and Miles Davis cited Stockhausen as an influence.
• Record producer Phil Spector has hired a new lawyer, Doron Weinberg, to lead his legal team after Spector’s previous murder trial ended in mistrial. Weinberg told the court that he requires at least five months to properly prepare himself and read through over 10,000 pages of trial transcripts, meaning the Spector retrial will likely begin in autumn 2008.
• Members of rapper Fabolous’ Street Family Entertainment are being investigated for a string of robberies of professional athletes, according to the New York Police Department. Among the victims are former New York Giant Frank Walker, basketball player Sebastian Telfair and boxer Zab Judah, who was allegedly robbed by the Street Family twice.
• The late Joe Strummer’s wife has discovered drawings, lyrics and recordings by the Clash frontman, and is planning on releasing a book/CD combo of unearthed Strummer material.

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
Phil Spector avoided a lengthy jail sentence … for now. By the final score of 10-2, guilty votes almost convicted Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson, but thankfully for Phil, a unanimous decision could not be reached, so we’re back to square one. Three of the twelve jurors spoke to the media following the mistrial, including the jury foreman, who only made a brief statement to explain what went down during the twelve-day deliberations. All three men said they think Spector is guilty, and noted the two non-guilty votes stemmed from jurors who felt there wasn’t enough reasonable doubt to prove that Lana Clarkson didn’t commit suicide that night in Spector’s mansion. An in-depth psychological report on Clarkson would have helped sway the two renegade jury members, said their fellow juror.

The same juror lambasted Team Spector for putting on a “fake” defense that created scientific theories, paid for high-priced witnesses, and even employed the forensic scientist husband of one of its lawyers. He also criticized the defense for character-assassinating Lana Clarkson. In fact, the juror was pretty unable to mask his disappointment that two of his peers allowed Spector to slip away. As for the prosecution, strip away all female witnesses that claimed Spector pointed a gun at them and the missing evidence, and it’s still evident that Spector was the murderer, the juror remarked. Both jurors, however, said that if the charge was manslaughter, and not second degree murder, that Spector might be wearing an orange jumpsuit in San Quentin by now. Manslaughter is the key word as the prosecution seeks to rebound from this mistrial.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Judge Fidler will meet with the prosecution and defense sometime next week to discuss how the State of California will proceed. District Attorney spokeswoman Sandy Gibbons made it abundantly clear that Spector will face a retrial “immediately.” For the time being, both sides will likely cue up their TiVos, study the hours and hours of Court TV trial footage, and figure out what they need to do to win. So while Spector might have been donning his party wig last night as he celebrated in his faux-mansion, he better make sure all his flamboyant suits are pressed and cleaned, as the curtain will rise on Act Two of this trial in the near future.

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY?
Round one in the Phil Spector murder trial is over. At roughly 2:30 PM EST today, the jury passed a note to Judge Fidler saying that they are still unable to come to a unanimous decision. A hearing was scheduled for 4:30pm EST, giving both Phil Spector and the family of Lana Clarkson adequate time to come to the courthouse. Once there, Juror Ten, the jury foreman, informed the judge that the jury could not come to a verdict. After six cast ballots, the final split was 10-2 (post-show speculation has the ten being for conviction). Judge Fidler then polled each individual juror to see whether or not any of them felt a unanimous decision was at all possible. Each and every juror responded, “No, your honor.” After hearing that, the judge declared a mistrial, and the jury was dismissed. It’s on the prosecution now to decide what the next steps are.

IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR SPECTOR?
Phil Spector will likely have a huge celebratory bash for his defense team tonight.

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
Deliberations, that’s what happened. Granted, there were only forty minutes of deliberations, but after forty-eight hours of being at a standstill, the jury finally reconvened to try to arrive at a unanimous verdict in the Phil Spector murder trial. The majority of the day involved Judge Fidler, the prosecution and Spector’s all-star defense team trying to come to terms with the termination of “Special Instruction 3.” Despite the defense’s arguments that it should remain (it made the burden of proof more difficult for the prosecution), Judge Fidler ultimately decided to banish the instruction in an effort to get the jury back to deliberations. “Treat it as if you had never heard of it,” Fidler told the jury, before simplifying their decision-making by saying to convict if you think “the defendant committed an act with a firearm that caused the death of Lana Clarkson.” By the time all this jargon got ironed out, it was 3:15 PM LA time, and by 4, the day was done.

IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR SPECTOR?
While the possibility of a hung jury is still a reality, this new instruction makes things easier for the prosecution’s case. Out is the murky, paradoxical language of Special Instruction 3, in is the “Convict if you think he killed her” order. It also doesn’t help Spector that, according to an unsubstantiated report in a New York newspaper, the 7-5 split leaned towards “Guilty.”

Photo: AFP/Getty

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
One day after his jury expressed that they were deadlocked 7 to 5, Judge Fidler sat down with the twelve jurors in the Phil Spector murder trial to determine whether or not they could un-hang themselves. Before that, though, Judge Fidler wrestled with the idea of perhaps reintroducing involuntary manslaughter as a possible alternative charge for the jury to consider. Fidler cited a 1999 trial, as well as something Latin called sua sponte, when considering whether the lesser charge could be added as a somewhat less serious option than second-degree murder. Defense lawyer Dennis Riordan reasoned, via speakerphone, that there was no legal precedent for allowing additional charges seven days into deliberation, and Fidler conceded that Riordan was right, and that second-degree murder would continue to be the sole charge. That means no second act for the closing arguments, and less grounds for the defense to ask for an appeal if Spector is convicted.

So with the jury back in their box, Fidler asked if there was anything in the language of the jury instructions that prevented them from coming to a unanimous decision. Some jurors had difficulty understanding the term “reasonable doubt,” but the majority had an issue with “Special Instruction 3,” which reads “It is the prosecution’s contention that the act committed by the defendant that caused the death of Ms. Clarkson was to point a gun at her, which resulted in that gun entering Ms. Clarkson’s mouth while in Mr. Spector’s hand … If you do not find that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed that act, you must return a verdict of not guilty.” The jury was unclear if reasonable doubt had to disprove all of that, or some of that, and if there’s a difference between “doubt” and “reasonable doubt.” By the end of the day, Fidler decided the jury will resume their deliberations Thursday, and the incomprehensible “Special Instruction 3” would be omitted.

IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR SPECTOR?
Good. Every day this jury is deadlocked, Spector moves closer to either a retrial with lesser charges, a mistrial or a complete dismissal of charges. The eradication of “Special Instruction 3” might push some of the jurors still sitting on the fence from one side to the other, but a unanimous verdict looks less likely with each passing hour of deliberation.

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY?
After deliberations that stretched for more than thirty hours over the course of seven days, Phil Spector and his defense, as well as the prosecution were all called to court because the jurors had come to a decision: They’re hung. In a note they passed to the judge, the jury indicated they have “reached an impasse. We do not feel we can reach an unanimous [verdict].” The judge then began questioning each juror individually to figure out whether this jury can eventually come to a guilty or non-guilty verdict, or if this stonewall is permanent. To try to help matters, Judge Fidler is wrestling with the idea of reopening summations to reintroduce a possible manslaughter charge. Currently, the jurors are split 7-5, but which side has majority was not revealed.

IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR SPECTOR?
Good. It’s hard to believe anyone in Camp Spector actually believed the jury would find their client unanimously innocent, so the jury’s impasse comes as a relief to the defense. The hung jury/possible manslaughter charge ensures Spector will either drag the State of California through another lengthy court battle (and correct the errors his team made in this trial), or face lesser charges.  Unfortunately for the defense, Judge Filder denied a motion for an immediate mistrial.

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
Jury deliberations finally began in the Phil Spector murder trial. After one day, the jury still had not come to a decision, but that doesn’t mean the day was without drama. This weekend, an article in the U.K.’s The Mail featured recent quotes from Spector, who was supposed to be under a gag order for the duration of the trial. In his comments, Spector said that the presiding Judge Fidler “doesn’t like me,” and likened the members of the jury to “twelve people who voted for George Bush.” Ouch. That interview, as well as a Court TV interview by Spector’s outspoken twenty-six-year-old wife Rachelle, forced Judge Fidler to implore that no one involved in this case speak to the media until the trial ends. After that announcement, Rachelle Spector jumped from her seat in the audience and yelled at the judge “But I’m not a witness.” Rachelle then had the audacity to talk over Fidler as he was explaining his stance, which caused Fidler get tomato red and threaten to kick Rachelle out of court and hold her for contempt. Spector’s lawyers quickly turned to their client’s wife and whispered, sternly, something along the lines of “Shut the eff up.”

There was some court business to attend to before the jury could deliberate. (more…)

WHAT HAPPENED FRIDAY?
After three days of closing arguments from the prosecution and defense, the jury in the Phil Spector murder trial will finally begin deliberations today in Los Angeles. Friday began with the finale of the defense’s closing argument. After using the entire Thursday session, Spector lawyer Linda Kenney-Baden needed another three hours to try to convince the jurors that there’s reasonable doubt in this case. But while Kenney-Baden was stealthily effective the previous day, Friday found her lethargic and dull. She was at the point of overkill, as jurors started nodding off less than two hours into Kenney-Baden’s monologue, and the foreman cut her off mid-sentence to tell the judge they needed their mid-morning break.

To make matters worse, the defense’s PowerPoint program continued to malfunction. Kenney-Baden’s slow verbal gait hit the brakes for a good four minutes as the defense team struggled to find a list of potential female witnesses the prosecution did not call to the stand. Once the list was found and Kenney-Baden’s point was made, the prosecution leaped up to object, saying the list of potential female witnesses were all witnesses the prosecution wanted to call to the stand but weren’t allowed, and thus the defense had given the jury misinformation. Judge Fidler lambasted the defense, and we continued on our molasses pace.

The highlights of day two of the defense’s closing arguments: (more…)

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
Following what seemed to be a case-crippling closing argument by prosecutor Alan Jackson, Phil Spector defense lawyer Linda Kenney-Baden had the arduous task of presenting the defense’s closing arguments. Kenney-Baden had one task: not to prove innocent, but to prove reasonable doubt. Employing a similar PowerPoint technique as the prosecution, Kenney-Baden started off her argument with a focus on science. It is science, and only science, that could convict Spector in this case, and in this case, science “proves” Lana Clarkson took her own life at Spector’s castle.

Things started off shaky for Kenney-Baden. From the get-go, it was easy to see her argument would be devoid of the charisma and grandiloquence that Alan Jackson packed into the prosecution’s summary. The PowerPoint presentation, Jackson’s MVP yesterday, had the complete opposite effect yesterday. When Kenney-Baden used the program to show the jury a video of how blood spatter spreads, it suddenly froze, halting the momentum. Later, evidence photos were incorrectly ordered, causing the defense to scramble to find the appropriate slide. Plus, the graphics and font were aesthetically cheesy, like the lawyers put junior high schoolers in charge of the design.

Still, she is effective, commanding the jury to take the facts of the case into the deliberation room with them and leave all the assumptions behind. The facts, Kenney-Baden told the jury, are that nothing scientific proves Spector pulled the trigger, in fact they prove the complete opposite. We heard the terms “blood spatter” and “gunshot residue” repeated over and over again, ingraining into the jurors’ minds that both terms support Clarkson shooting herself, and not Spector shooting Clarkson. In fact, Spector would “have to be a contortionist” to have killed Clarkson. Before going on the much-needed lunch break, Kenney-Baden hammers home theories of police and government ineptitude in handling the case, from conduct at the crime scene to mishandling evidence to autopsy procedural errors that all distorted proof that Spector was innocent. (more…)

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
Finally, after four and a half months of testimony, closing arguments began in the murder trial of famed producer Phil Spector. First up: the prosecution. Deputy DA Alan Jackson started things off by hypothetically putting the jurors in the House of Blues parking lot the night Spector coaxed Lana Clarkson to come back to his castle in Alhambra. With a CCTV video still of Clarkson and Spector in the parking lot on the projection screen, Jackson asked the jury what they would tell Clarkson if they were there, in that parking lot, on that night. Jackson speaks unanimously on behalf of the jury when he cups his hands around his mouth and whispers, “Don’t go.” These are the heartstrings that Jackson would play with throughout his closing argument, which lasted the entire day and left no defense rock unturned. With the help of a perfectly synched PowerPoint presentation, Jackson broke down the Spector defense team step by step, calling Spector’s collection of high-powered lawyers and big time witnesses “a checkbook defense.”

At the onset, a jaw-dropping moment: Jackson played the call chauffeur Adriano de Souza made to police after Spector came stumbling out his house, gun in right hand, and proclaimed, “I think I shot somebody.” That phrase is repeated often throughout the series of phone calls that the police fielded that night, all while Spector was back in his mansion washing his hands, tidying up the crime scene, dabbing Clarkson’s face with toilet water, and positioning the gun just so that it looks like a suicide, he argued. (more…)

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
With testimony in the trial officially over, the prosecution and defense huddled up with Judge Fidler to discuss what evidence was fair game to discuss in the closing arguments. It’s the portion of the trial called “jury instructions,” and to mark the occasion, Phil Spector’s defense team introduced a new lawyer, Dennis Riordan, to replace the exiled Bruce Cutler. Riordan is a specialist in the arbitration aspects of jury instruction, and marked his territory instantly by getting Judge Fidler to agree that the prosecution could not paint Spector as a villain just because he owns a gun. Riordan was less successful when he tried to get Spector’s chauffeur Adriano de Souza’s claim that Spector admitted “I think I killed somebody” thrown out, as Fidler allowed that testimony to remain. Something that the prosecution and defense did compromise on, however: Spector will face a single count of second-degree murder, and not an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter.

IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR SPECTOR?
Good. The sole charge of second-degree murder means that the jury must decide whether Spector knowingly/accidentally murdered Lana Clarkson, or Lana Clarkson killed herself. Avoiding an involuntary manslaughter charge is always a good thing. Plus, the addition of Riordan and his legal eagle eyes for jury instruction will help ensure that the prosecution stays within the guidelines during closing arguments.

• Picture of health Courtney Love says she tried to warn Owen Wilson about hanging out with the wrong people in the days leading up to his suicide attempt. The wrong people in question? British comedian Steve Coogan, who’s best known on this side of the Atlantic for his role as Factory Records founder Tony Wilson (who just recently died of complications from kidney cancer) in the film 24 Hour Party People.

• Lil Wayne has been hit with a million-dollar lawsuit following an October 2006 incident at a Morgan State University concert. Tyrique Layne alleges that when Wayne and his posse started throwing money into the crowd — a.k.a. “made it rain” — Layne was trampled in the mini-riot, causing her to have all sorts of pain and mental fatigue.

• Beyoncé and Shakira can add a new nomination to the handful of VMA nods “Beautiful Liar” received; the song is also up for a Latin Grammy.

• Following the departure of his lead attorney Bruce Cutler, Phil Spector has added San Francisco lawyer Dennis Riordan to his legal team. Riordan, who specializes in jury instructions leading up to closing arguments, will oversee that aspect of the case today in court.

• The BBC will screen more than eighty minutes of unseen Bob Dylan footage in the new documentary The Other Side of The Mirror – Dylan At Newport. The doc will feature Dylan performances from three Newport (R.I.) Folk Festivals, from ’63 to ’65. Over the course of the film, audiences will see Dylan shift from his folk roots to the electric guitar.