Jurors in the murder trial of Phil Spector last night told the judge that they had reached an impasse in their deliberations, raising the prospect of a mistrial being called as soon as today.

A mistrial would essentially leave the wildly eccentric music producer a free man.

At a hearing at Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Larry Paul Fidler questioned the jurors, who told him that they were split 7 to 5 — a sign of irreconcileable differences. They did not reveal which way the balance tipped: guilty or not guilty.

When asked if they could reach a decision if they were allowed to convict Mr Spector of involuntary manslaughter, instead of the original charge of second-degree murder, only three jurors said yes. Analysts said that this did not bode well for the prosecution.

Mr Spector, 67, is accused of picking up Lana Clarkson, a struggling actress who was working as a cocktail waitress at the House of Blues, on a February night in 2003, taking her home to his Los Angeles “castle”, and shooting her in the face.

The creator of the “Wall of Sound” technique of the Sixties, and a one-time producer for The Beatles, had been known for decades in the music industry for his drunken gunplay.

Nevertheless, there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting — aside from perhaps Mr Spector, who did not testify — and over the six months of the trial prosecutors struggled to prove, using blood spatter analysis, dental fragments and gunshot residue, that Ms Clarkson could not have shot herself or that the gun could not have gone off by accident.

Ms Clarkson’s alleged depression, debt, chronic pain and her personal diary — in which she threatened to kill herself only weeks before the shooting — also worked against the prosecution. She was also found to have forged letters of recommendation from TV executives, possibly in an effort to borrow more money from a wealthy friend.

At just after 3pm yesterday, the jurors were sent home to “recharge” overnight. Mr Spector, meanwhile, had spent the afternoon in a pinstripe suit and red tie, hanging around the court with an entourage of 16 people, including his lawyers, jury consultants, private investigators, interns, relatives and bodyguards.

Ms Clarkson’s mother, Donna Clarkson, was also present, along with one of the alleged victim’s best friends, Nili Hudson.

A mistrial would force the prosecution to decide if it wanted to spend several million more dollars of taxpayers’ money to try a second time to convict Mr Spector. With public opinion against Mr Spector, a mistrial would probably be considered yet another celebrity debacle, the first being the acquittal of O. J. Simpson 12 years ago on double-murder charges.

Many Americans believe that defendants with multimillion dollar defence teams can convince jurors that “beyond reasonable doubt” means beyond all scientific doubt.

Mr Spector has previously claimed that Ms Clarkson, who was 41 when she died, “kissed the gun”. The prosecutors countered by calling as witnesses several of Mr Spector’s former girlfriends, who all said that they had previously been threatened at gunpoint by him.

The jurors will meet again today.

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