Jurors in Phil Spector’s murder trial completed a third day of deliberations without a verdict on Wednesday and went home after the judge warned them not to watch a TV program about the case.
The panel is weighing five months of testimony. Spector, 67, is accused of second-degree murder in the shooting of actress Lana Clarkson, 40, in the record producer’s mansion early Feb. 3, 2003.
Clarkson died when a .38-caliber revolver went off inside her mouth several hours after she met Spector at her job as a nightclub hostess and went to his home for a drink. She was seated in a chair of a foyer.
“Although you are under admonition not to watch TV or read newspapers, I have to be very specific,” Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler told the jury. “’Dateline NBC’ is doing a special on this case tonight. You are not to watch the show.”
The judge specifically addressed a juror who is a “Dateline” producer.
Deliberations were to resume at 9 a.m. PT Thursday.