Spector attorney asks jury to seek "truth"

By Dana Ford

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An attorney for Phil Spector told jurors on Thursday that the government's case was nothing but "stories" and asked they find the legendary music producer innocent of murdering a B-movie actress in 2003.

Delivering the closing argument for the defense, attorney Linda Kenney-Baden accused prosecutors of being driven not by facts but by a desire to convict a celebrity.

"The government has again given you stories, rather than science," Kenney-Baden told the nine-man, three-woman jury that showed signs of fatigue as the five-month trial neared its end.

Two jurors closed their eyes at various points during her argument.

Spector, famous for his innovative "wall-of-sound" recording technique and for his work with The Beatles, Tina Turner and Cher, is on trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actress best known for her roles in "Barbarian Queen" and "Amazon Woman on the Moon."

Spector's attorneys say Clarkson shot herself in his foyer on February 3, 2003, just hours after the two met at a nightclub where Clarkson worked as a hostess.

Spector, his hands clutching a handkerchief and shaking slightly, sat stoically in a navy blue suit and did not testify in his own defense. But he has told a magazine interviewer that Clarkson had shot herself for reasons he did not know.

His defense team has tried to paint the actress as depressed and unstable.

Prosecutors say Spector, 67, is guilty of murder for putting a gun in Clarkson's face and either pulling the trigger or accidentally shooting her.

They have told jurors that even if Spector did shoot Clarkson accidentally, he could still be convicted under California's definition of second-degree murder.

"What the government has tried to do is change the facts to fit the theory of their case," Kenney-Baden said. "The conviction of this celebrity was more important than the morality of honesty."

She referred to expert testimonies that dealt with the question of blood spatter on Spector's white, wool jacket, which he wore at the time of Clarkson's death.

The defense maintains that if Spector had killed Clarkson, her blood would have spattered all over him, which it did not.

"Stories don't trump science," Kenney-Baden told the jurors, who are likely to get the case by Friday.