Phil Spector charged with murder

Record producer Phil Spector was today charged with murder over the shooting of a B-movie actress at his mansion last year.

Spector, 64, leaned on the arm of his lawyer as the charge of murdering 40-year-old Lana Clarkson was read out, but showed no emotion.

He was allowed to remain on $1m bail.

Spector spoke only briefly in the Los Angeles court, answering, “Yes, your honour,” to Judge David Lesley’s questions.

The judge set December 16 as the earliest possible trial date.

Spector, creator of rock music’s “Wall of Sound” recording technique in the 1960s, suggested in an interview with Esquire magazine that Clarkson shot herself.

The judge agreed to keep the trial in Los Angeles rather than move it to Pasadena, closer to Spector’s home in Alhambra. Lawyers for both sides expressed concern about the crush of reporters expected to attend, and pointed out that the courtrooms in Los Angeles are bigger.

Clarkson starred in Roger Corman’s cult film classic Barbarian Queen. She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip and went home from there with Spector on the night she was killed.