Phil Spector found guilty of murder over death of actress

LEGENDARY music producer Phil Spector has been found guilty of second degree murder in the shooting death of an actress at his mansion.

LEGENDARY music producer Phil Spector has been found guilty of second degree murder in the shooting death of an actress at his mansion in Los Angeles five years ago.

Spector, 69, who created the famed “Wall of Sound” recording technique during the 1960s when he worked with some of the biggest names in music, stared glumly as the verdict was read out.

The diminutive producer had arrived at court to hear the verdict in a trademark long jacket bearing a lapel badge reading “Barack Obama Rocks!” and another pin of the Stars and Stripes.

The six-man, six-woman jury began deliberating on March 26 after a five-month court case that followed his first trial in 2007 that ended deadlocked with jurors unable to agree a unanimous verdict.

Prosecutors said Spector had shot dead former B-movie actress Lana Clarkson at his home in the early hours of February 3, 2003 after meeting her only a few hours before at the Hollywood nightclub where she worked.

Defence lawyers said that 40-year-old Clarkson, best-known for her role in Roger Corman's 1985 cult classic The Barbarian Queen but whose career had stalled at the time of her death, killed herself.