Spector jury breaks for weekend

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles jury in music producer Phil Spector's trial on charges of killing Lana Clarkson ended its first week of deliberation without reaching a verdict.

Jurors have the weekend off and will return to work on Monday, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Spector is accused of killing Clarkson in his Los Angeles-area mansion in 2003.

Prosecutors argued that Spector has a history of threatening women with guns and contend that he shot Clarkson when she tried to leave his house.

His defense team, however, maintains that Clarkson accidentally shot herself.

Spector faces life in prison if convicted.

The Times noted that it took fewer than four hours for jurors to acquit O.J. Simpson in the killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. But most observers agree it is too soon to declare a deadlock for the Spector jury, which has deliberated more than five times as long.

Other notorious trials, such as those of Robert Blake and Scott Peterson, went well into a second week before a verdict was announced.

Blake was acquitted in the death of Bonnie Lee Bakley. Peterson is on death row for killing his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson.