Producer Phil Spector’s murder trial was postponed until September after prosecutors and defense attorneys said yesterday (March 22) they would be busy until then on other cases.
Spector had been scheduled to stand trial in April on charges that he shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson in the foyer of his mock castle outside Los Angeles in the early morning hours of February 3, 2003.
The 66-year-old music impresario, who is free on $1 million bail, told a judge that he was willing to put off the trial because his lead attorney, Bruce Cutler, was tied up in a federal court case in New York.
Los Angeles prosecutors Alan Jackson and Patrick Dixon, meanwhile, are expected to go to trial in May in the case of Michael Goodwin, who is charged with the 1988 murder of auto racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife.
Spector is charged with murdering Clarkson hours after they met at the House of Blues rock club on the Sunset Strip. An autopsy report concluded that Clarkson, 40, the star of such B-movies as “Barbarian Queen” and “Amazon Women on the Moon,” died after a revolver was placed into her mouth and fired.
Spector’s lawyers are expected to argue that Clarkson committed suicide, echoing claims the producer made to police at the scene.
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