Jury selection begins for Phil Spector murder trial

Jury selection begins in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday for the murder trial of reclusive music producer Phil Spector.

It has been four years since actress Lana Clarkson was found shot to death in Spector's suburban Los Angeles home.

Spector has been charged with homicide in her deathand pleaded not guilty. He has been free since 2003on bail of $1 million US.

About 300 potential jurors have been summoned for jury selection Monday and Tuesday.

Jury selection will be completed by mid-April, after a recess. The trial could begin by April 30 and is expected to last three months.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler will let the trial be televised when testimony begins.

Spector's New York lawyer, Bruce Cutler, said Spector did not shoot Clarkson and, in an e-mail to friends, Spector claims she committed suicide.

Clarkson, 40, was best known as the star of Roger Corman's cult film Barbarian Queen andwas working as a hostess at the House of Blues when she went home with Spector on the night of Feb. 3, 2003.

She was found dead in a chair in the foyer of his home.

Spector, a music producer in the 1960s and '70s known for a technique called "the wall of sound," has been a recluse for years, hiding in his Beverly Hills mansion.

He produced the Beatles' Let It Be album and George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, and has been cited as an influence by Bruce Springsteen and countless other artists.

Spector also produced such rock classics as Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby, You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling and River Deep-Mountain High, sharing the writing credit for some songs.

He often dresses theatrically in high-heeled boots, frock coats and outlandish wigs.

Spector's musical legacy may be unknown to younger prospective jurors, though defence lawyers may prefer a jury who see him as a celebrity.

"The defence may want music fans who have an appreciation for Phil Spector's mark on music history," said Loyola Law School Professor Laurie Levenson."But there won't be many of those in the jury pool, not even in Tinseltown."