The morning of Lana Clarkson’s death began with her telling Phil Spector: “I’m sorry, sir, you’re not on the list.” It was 2am on a Monday. The place was the aptly-named House of Blues — a bar and music venue partly owned by the actor Dan Ackroyd on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The bar’s CCTV camera captured Clarkson in fuzzy detail wearing the outfit in which she would end her life: a short black shirt and fitted blazer, blonde hair swept back over the shoulders.

Three hours later, after the B-movie actress and waitress had been told by her manager to treat the celebrity record producer she had failed to recognise at the door “like gold”, and then accepted an invitation to have a drink with him back at his “castle”, the emergency services recieved a phone call from Spector’s terrified driver.

The eerie recording of the call was played to a Los Angeles court today as Spector’s trial on murder charges finally began, four years after Clarkson’s death.

“I think my boss killed somebody,” said the Hispanic driver, who was sitting in his Mercedes in the castle’s driveway. “He have a lady on the floor and he have a gun in . . . in his hand. He’s inside the castle. I saw him with the gun.”

In his opening statement, watched by millions on TV and the internet, Alan Jackson, the main prosecutor, a photogenic 41-year-old Texan, presented this version of the events before Clarkson’s death in 2003, alleging that the 67-year-old Sixties pop icon “put a loaded pistol in Lana Clarkson’s mouth — inside her mouth — and shot her to death”.

The jury of nine men and three women were then shown a photograph of Clarkson slumped in a chair, her face covered in blood.

Pacing before the jury — while Spector sat in a white suit and wide-collared purple shirt, his head slumped, hands clasped on his lap — Mr Jackson described the defendant as a man who, “when confronted with the right circumstances, turns sinister and deadly”.

Mr Jackson added: “To understand why Philip Spector would have done what he did, you’re going to be introduced to the defendant’s very rich history of violence, a history of violence against women, a history of violence involving guns. You’re going to be introduced to the real Philip Spector.” Mr Jackson said he would call as witnesses several of Spector’s former girlfriends, all of whom would tell stories dating back to the 1970s of being threatened at gunpoint by the music producer, usually after they tried to leave his house.

At times, Mr Jackson’s language was more suited to a crime bestseller than a lawyer’s opening statement, a reflection perhaps of the fact that the trial is televised: the first time such a prominent trial has been broadcast since the 1995 O.J. Simpson case.

Unconfirmed rumours that Yoko Ono and the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards will testify has only heightened interest in the trial. Early this morning, about 50 reporters from all over the world, jostled for the few available seats in court. Outside, photographers and camera crews stood guard. It is so far unclear if Spector will testify, or if like Michael Jackson at his child molestation trial, he will remain silent throughout.

Jurors include a prominent TV producer for Dateline NBC, who has covered many other celebrity trials, and a New Line Cinema executive — perhaps making it a certainty that the case will be adapted for screen. Other jurors include an assistant to the Los Angeles deputy mayor and a mechanic.

Bruce Cutler, the defence lawyer, was expected to reject the prosecution’s argument in his own opening statement, scheduled for today. The defence is expected to argue that Clarkson’s death was “an accidental suicide”, echoing Spector’s now-infamous comment to Esquire magazine that that she “kissed the gun”.

Long before Clarkson’s death, Spector was known for his drunken gunplay: he allegedly once fired a weapon during the recording of a John Lennon album, and was also said to have forced the punk band the Ramones to listen to him play Baby, I Love You on the piano at gunpoint, until he grew tired at 4.30am.

It took an eight-month investigation before authorities charged Spector with murder. They are thought to be proceeding on a theory of “implied malice” — alleging that Spector did not intend to kill Clarkson, 40, whose movie roles had once appeared in movies such as Amazon Women on the Moon and Barbarian Queen, but caused her death by reckless behaviour.

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