Spector trial coroner tells of actress injuries
The barrel of a gun may have been forced into actress Lana Clarkson’s mouth, bruising her tongue before the gunshot that killed her, a coroner said today in record producer Phil Spector’s murder trial.
Dr Louis Pena told the court it was the first time he testified about the bruise, which was not mentioned earlier in the case.
The testimony was offered to undermine the defence claim that Clarkson placed the gun in her own mouth and pulled the trigger in an act of suicide.
“The bruise is very unique and is consistent with blunt-force trauma. Something struck the tongue,” Dr Pena told the court.
Asked whether the bruise was made before the shot that killed Clarkson, Dr Pena said it was.
“If the barrel of the gun, a steel weapon, was placed in the mouth with some force, could that have caused the bruising on the tongue?” asked prosecuting lawyer Alan Jackson.
“Yes,” said Dr Pena.
Spector, 67, denies murdering Clarkson, 40, on February 3, 2003, after she agreed to accompany him to his suburban mansion from her job as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.
Jurors were shown graphic, sometimes shocking, photos of the damage done to Clarkson’s face and the inside of her mouth.
At least one juror looked away from the large display on a big screen, and for the first time Clarkson’s mother and sister were not present in the courtroom.
Dr Pena gave a powerful description of the moment that the actress died. He said the gun was in her mouth and the recoil from the shot shattered her top front teeth.
Dr Pena also testified that there were bruises on Clarkson’s right arm and wrist and described two of the bruises as “significant.”
Spector rose to fame in the 1960s with what became known as the “Wall of Sound” recording technique that changed pop music.
Clarkson was best known for her role in Roger Corman’s 1985 cult film Barbarian Queen.
