It was back in April that Phil Spector was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of actress Lana Clarkson after only 30 hours of jury deliberation. Now he's been sentenced to the maximum 19 years to life. - Source

A date for the opening statements in the murder retrial of famed music producer Phil Spector has been set. - Source

Legendary producer Phil Spector is being held on one million dollars bail in LA this afternoon after being arrested for first degree murder. Phil was taken into custody early in the morning at his LA area home after police found an as-yet-unidentified woman dead on the scene.

Spector is just back from England where he had recorded four tracks with Starsailor at Abbey Road Studios in London for their upcoming sophomore album. "The greatest thing we've done so far was work with Phil. I think we took a lot away from that. It was like two worlds colliding. He's learned a lot from us about how studios work these days and we learned from him about older techniques." Starsailor's James Walsh recently told the NME.

Spector has been the subject of violent rumors in the past when he supposedly pulled a gun on The Ramones until they agreed to add horns to a track he was producing. Spector has worked with many of the biggest names in music history, amongst those The Ramones, John Lennon, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Righteous Brothers

, The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and more.

There has been an ongoing battle between PHIL SPECTOR and his one time proteges THE RONETTES. New York's highest appeals court ruled in Spector's favor on Friday, negating an earlier decision that Phil must pay the trio 3 million USD in back royalties. The Ronettes (Ronnie Bennett, Estelle Bennet and Nedra Talley) have been in court since 1998 seeking additional payment for the 28 songs they recorded for the Phillies label from 1963 - 1967. Under the original contract the group received a one time payment of 14,482 USD.
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