Phil Spector the wild-eyed murderer will die in prison

STARING into the police camera after his conviction for murder, a wild-eyed Phil Spector faces up to the reality of spending the rest of his life - and death - behind bars.

This photograph of the music producer, found guilty of shooting the actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion six years ago, was released by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department today. The police photo, taken shortly after his conviction, shows Spector, 69, looking dazed and confused.

Spector, who will be sentenced next month, is likely to be jailed for a minimum of 18 years. A jury took 30 hours to find the producer, one of the most influential figures in the history of rock and pop, guilty of second-degree murder. This carries a penalty of 15 years to life in prison but the use of a gun will add at least another three years.

Spector, the inventor of the "Wall of Sound" who worked with acts such as the Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner, the Righteous Brothers and the Ronettes, showed little or no emotion when the jury returned its verdict.

His mouth gaped slightly before returning to the stoic expression that had served him during the long trial. In contrast, his new wife Rachelle, 41 years his junior, sobbed as the decision was announced.

Ms Clarkson, 40, star of the 1985 cult film Barbarian Queen, died of a shot fired into her mouth as she sat in a chair in the foyer of Spector's mansion in 2003. She met Spector hours earlier at her job as a nightclub hostess.

Prosecutors argued Spector had a history of threatening women with guns when they tried to leave his presence, while the defence claimed she committed suicide.

Spector's lawyer Doron Weinberg said today his client would appeal against the conviction. Mr Weinberg said he believed the case was swayed by the judge's erroneous rulings, particularly one that allowed five women from Spector's past to testify of his habit of threatening them with a gun.

"We believe analytically there is absolutely no legal basis for the admissibility of that evidence," said Mr Weinberg, adding that Spector knew he risked being found guilty - an earlier trial in 2007was abandoned after the jury could not agree. "Mr Spector is a realistic man," said Mr Weinberg, who added that the producer's reaction to the verdict was to ask, "what was next."

But following the conviction, deputy district attorney Alan Jackson said "justice... was unserved until today. Today is when the Clarkson family get their justice."

The defence had depicted Ms Clarkson as psychologically fragile and pathetically obsessed with fame, and suggested she shot herself in a spur-of-the-moment suicide.

Her mother, Donna, and sister, Fawn, declined to comment after the verdict, but John Taylor, a lawyer handling Donna Clarkson's civil suit against Spector, said: "The family is pleased that the jury rejected the distortion and trashing of Lana Clarkson's life."

At a news conference, the jury forewoman, 48, who works as a paralegal, cried as she described how the panel made its choice. "It just is a painful decision," she said.

The forewoman, who refused to be identified, said the panel was swayed by the "totality" of evidence laid out during five months of testimony.

She said the scientific evidence had not been a telling factor after both prosecutors and the defence insisted bloodstains and other evidence supported their version of the shooting. She said they had also been unsure about Ms Clarkson's mental state.