The "Piece Of Shit" Defense

Phil Spector disparaged dead actress found in his "castle"

MARCH 20--With jury selection underway in his Los Angeles murder trial, Phil Spector will soon be faced with the potentially damaging words he uttered hours after actress Lana Clarkson died in the record producer's mansion.

Spector, who recently ironed some of the crazy out of his fright-wig hairdo, was tape recorded as he spoke with Detective Esther Pineda of the Alhambra Police Department about the February 2003 death of actress Lana Clarkson, who died of a gunshot wound. As seen in the below excerpt from the interview transcript, Spector, who was in custody, began to fly off the handle after Pineda told him he was being charge with murdering the 40-year-old Clarkson.

After requesting to speak with lawyer Robert Shapiro and two business associates, a frustrated Spector, 67, seemed to snap. "I'm gonna make you fucking people pay for this. This is bullshit," said Spector. He then claimed that Clarkson, whom he met at the House of Blues nightclub, was a "piece of shit" who came into his home and committed suicide. "I don't know what her fucking problem was, but she certainly had no right to come to my fucking castle, blow her fucking head open," he added.

Spector's driver, however, told cops that he was parked outside the record mogul's home on the morning of Clarkson's death when he heard a "distinct loud noise." Moments later, driver Adriano DeSouza recalled, Spector emerged from his home's back door holding a handgun. He quoted his boss as saying, "I think I just killed someone."