Spector prosecutor spars with defense forensics expert

A defense expert endured a daylong cross-examination in the Phil Spector murder trial Thursday, maintaining that actress Lana Clarkson shot herself in the legendary music producer’s home four years ago.

Forensic pathologist Werner Spitz, in his second day of testimony, repeated the defense’s assertion that Spector was standing as far as six feet from Clarkson when she was shot, and thus could not have been holding the handgun, which was fired when the barrel was in her mouth.

Clarkson was found dead, her body slumped in a chair, at Spector’s Alhambra home Feb. 3, 2003. Spector’s attorneys claim that Clarkson was depressed over her faltering acting career and shot herself.

Spector, the 67-year-old producer of hit records for the Beatles, Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner, met Clarkson, 40, that night at the House of Blues nightclub, where she worked as a hostess.

Spitz, the former medical examiner of Wayne County, Mich., said the explosive force of the gunshot in Clarkson’s mouth and the pressure released when her artery was broken sprayed blood from her mouth and nose with a force “like a fireman’s hose.”

Clarkson’s blood was therefore able to fly several feet away to leave the tiny stains on Spector’s white jacket, Spitz said.

He said if Spector had held the gun in Clarkson’s mouth and shot her, his jacket and other clothing would have been speckled with more bloodstains and more gunshot residue, as well as pieces of Clarkson’s tissue.

Prosecutor Alan Jackson pointedly asked Spitz why, if Clarkson’s blood sprayed out at high pressure, it did not end up on the floor, furniture or other areas in its path.

“Where is all the blood if there was a fire hose of blood spraying everything?” Jackson asked.

Spitz said he could not comment on the death scene because his analysis was based on examining photographs of Spector’s and Clarkson’s clothing, and reports prepared by other experts who saw the area firsthand.

“I did not see any material evidence,” he said.

Spitz repeated his reasons for concluding that Clarkson shot herself: Gunshots to the mouth are almost always self-inflicted, he said.

“She had gunpowder on her hands, blood on her hands, tissue on her sleeves,” further evidence of suicide, he said.

Spitz described the bloodstains on Spector’s jacket as “18 little dots.” If Spector had shot the gun in Clarkson’s mouth, Spitz said, there would have been more blood spots on the jacket, in a denser pattern.

Jackson challenged Spitz’s objectivity, as he had the previous day. “Does your receiving $45,000 to $50,000 sway your opinions?” Jackson asked.

Spitz again said his fees did not affect his conclusions, and told Jackson, “I’m so grateful you are concerned about my income,” which drew laughter from the jurors.

The trial will be in recess until Tuesday.

peter.hong@latimes.com