Music producer Phil Spector sentenced to 19 years in jail

May 29, 2009, 20:56 GMT

Washington - Legendary music producer Phil Spector Phil Spector was Friday sentenced to 19 years in jail after his conviction for the 2003 killing of a B-movie actress after a night of heavy drinking.

Spector, 69, was found guilty of second-degree murder of Lana Clarkson, 40, in his Los Angeles mansion in the verdict delivered last month by a 12-person jury.

The record producer showed no reaction as the Los Angeles judge delivered the sentence, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Until he hit the headlines for the 2003 killing of Clarkson, Spector had been best remembered for his pioneering 'Wall of Sound' recording techniques in the 1960s that had seen him work with The Beatles and produce tracks like You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' for the Righteous Brothers' and the Ronettes' classic Be My Baby.

Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

He hit the headlines after meeting Clarkson at a Los Angeles nightclub in February 2003. He was charged in her slaying after she was shot in the mouth with one of his revolvers in the foyer of his castle-like retreat.

Spector's lawyers had claimed she had killed herself in a fit of despondency, and his first case was declared a mistrial when the jury failed to agree on a verdict in 2007.

Prosecutors portrayed Spector as a wildly violent drunk with a long history of threatening women with guns when they rebuffed his advances.