Murder Trial 2

In his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson said Spector had a history of threatening women with guns when he was drunk. Jackson demonstrated how Spector allegedly pressed the barrel of a gun to the face of Dianne Ogden when she tried to leave his home after a 1988 dinner date.

Defense attorney Bruce Cutler told jurors in his opening statement that authorities rushed to judgment of Spector. "They had murder on their minds," he said.

Spector listened to court proceedings April 26, 2007, the first day of testimony in his trial. He faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.

The first witness, Dorothy Melvin, a former manager for comedian Joan Rivers, testified that Spector menaced her with a snub-nosed handgun in 1993 when they were dating. Melvin said during the same incident, he confronted her with a shotgun.

The trial was suspended April 30, 2007, after lead defense attorney Bruce Cutler became ill. His co-counsel Roger Rosen, seen here with Spector and lawyer Linda Kenney-Baden, said Cutler's illness was diabetes-related.

Dr. Henry Lee's interview with Court TV the day after the trial began prompted prosecutors to allege the noted criminalist had held back experiment results. In the interview, Lee said tests showed that blood spatter could travel 72 inches, 3 feet longer than prosecutors contend. The defense later said Lee had not performed new experiments and was referring to general research in the blood spatter field.

Former attorney for Spector, Leslie Abramson, attended a hearing concerning the possible concealing of crime scene evidence by the defense team. Abramson, pictured here with current defense team member Bradley Brunon, was replaced as Spector's attorney in 2004.

Former law clerk Gregory Diamond testified at a special hearing that he saw defense pathologist Dr. Michael Baden recover a small white piece of evidence during a defense search of Spector's foyer. Diamond said Baden called the object a tooth fragment.

Dr. Michael Baden denied that he had ever picked up a small white fragment in Spector's home and said he would not have been able to identify it as a tooth if he had.

Onetime defense investigator Bill Pavelic testified at a May 3, 2007 hearing that he never saw anyone on Spector's legal team recover evidence during a search of Spector's home.

Attorney Sara Caplan, who worked on Spector's defense in 2003, said at the hearing that she saw Lee use tweezers to place a small white piece of evidence the size of a fingernail in a clear vial. She said she did not know what became of the item.

Defense investigator Stanley White said at the hearing that Lee found something that resembled a fingernail in the foyer. He said Lee initially believed it was a piece of human tissue.

Dianne Ogden, who dated Spector in the 1980s, demonstrated to jurors how Spector pressed a handgun to her face during a 1989 incident. Ogden said Spector tried to rape her at gunpoint.

Lead defense attorney Bruce Cutler became loud and animated during his May 7, 2007 cross-examination of Ogden.

Judge Larry Fidler reprimanded Cutler, sternly warning him twice to "lower his tone."

Dr. Lynne Herold, a criminalist for the sheriff's department, said she searched for the missing piece of nail in all the evidence brought to the crime lab, but came up empty. She said the nail could be significant in determining if Clarkson took her own life.

Stephanie Jennings, who dated Spector in the mid-1990s, told jurors that Spector held her in a hotel room in Manhattan at gunpoint after she refused his order to join him in his suite.

Spector's high school friend Rommie Davis said that she sensed "something was terribly wrong" when she dined with him the night Clarkson died. She said Spector brushed off her warning that mixing his medication with alcohol was "a lethal combination."

Another woman who spent time with Spector that evening, Kathy Sullivan, testified that he was in fine spirits, but sent her home in his chauffeured Mercedes after she refused to order another drink.

Spector's back-up chauffeur, Adriano DeSouza, demonstrates how his boss held a small black handgun on Feb. 3, 2003. The driver said Spector emerged from the rear door of his mansion with the weapon and said, "I think I killed somebody."

Dr. Henry Lee testifies at a special hearing May 16, 2007, addressing allegations that he hid or destroyed evidence from the death scene. At the close of the six-day hearing on May 23, 2007, Judge Fidler ruled that Lee had recovered a small white piece of evidence from Spector's foyer and that the evidence was never turned over to prosecutors, as required by law.