Ex-employee testifies at Spector murder trial

The musician said Spector pulled a gun on her in 1974.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former employee testified in Phil Spector’s murder trial Tuesday that the music producer once threatened her at gunpoint when she tried to leave his house, a scenario similar to that described by four other women called earlier by the prosecution.

Devra Robitaille took the stand moments after Spector’s lawyers announced they were conditionally resting their case and that the music producer would not testify.

Robitaille was called as a witness in the prosecution’s rebuttal case, a move opposed by the defense but allowed by the judge.

Spector, 67, is accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson on Feb. 3, 2003, a few hours after she went home with him from her job as a nightclub hostess. Her body was slumped in a chair in the foyer of his house. The defense maintains she was depressed and shot herself.

Robitaille, a musician, told of meeting Spector around 1974 and becoming administrator of his company, Warner Spector Records. She said they became friends and eventually had a romantic relationship.

What happened

One night, she attended a soirée at his home with many celebrities, and Spector was drinking a lot, she said.

When the party ended, Robitaille said, she told Spector she was going home.

“He said no and locked the door,” she testified.

“I remember standing in the lobby with a door in front of me and when I turned there was a gun pointed at my temple. ... It was like a long-barreled shotgun. ... It was touching my temple. Cold,” she said.

“He said ‘If you leave I’ll blow your (expletive) head off.’ ... He was screaming at me at that point,” she said.

Robitaille said Spector repeated the threat several times.

How episode concluded

Robitaille, who is British and speaks with an accent, was asked by Deputy District Attorney Pat Dixon what she did in response.

“I became very British ... and said ‘Stop that. Put that down. I’m leaving. Stop mucking about,’” she said.

She said he put the gun down, unlocked the door and let her out.

Their romantic relationship ended, she said, but she continued working for Spector for another year before returning to England.

Spector’s defense rested subject to review of records and introduction of exhibits. The judge said it was possible the defense could call a few more witnesses, but he told the jury that testimony is expected to end this week.

Spector created the “Wall of Sound” recording technique which transformed rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s. Clarkson appeared in the 1980s cult film “Barbarian Queen.”