By Anthony Bruno

(Continued)

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Pena also commented on the presence of blood on the gun.  Blood, he said, had been "wiped away in several areas of the gun.  That tells me someone manipulated the gun." Pena testified that blood had been found inside the left front pocket of the pants Spector had been wearing on the night Clarkson died, saying that a bloody hand or gun might have been put into the pocket.  As to whose blood it was, Pena said, "All the blood is hers," referring to Clarkson.

When asked about finding Clarkson's body with her leopard-skin purse hanging from her shoulder, the deputy coroner expressed doubt that the bag would have remained there after a gunshot to the face.  "It's difficult for someone to take a weapon and shoot herself with the purse staying on her shoulder," he testified.  "It should be off."

Lana Clarkson

On cross-examination, defense attorney Christopher Plourd explored the question of Clarkson's state of mind, which Dr. Pena had characterized as hopeful.  Plourd quoted passages from e-mail messages written by Clarkson: "'I'm giving up the dream and therefore the struggle.'"  And, '"Things are pretty bad.  I won't go into detail, but I'm on the verge of losing it all.'"

Alan Jackson

Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson sought to put those passages into context, reading longer sections of those e-mails to show that Clarkson was actually referring to giving up her goal of making it as a actress in Hollywood, not ending her life. 

Later in a separate hearing outside the presence of the jury, the defense asked the court's permission to present other writings found on Clarkson's computer in which she talked about excessive drug and alcohol consumption as well as hearing voices.  The prosecution argued that these writings could be unreliable and should not be admitted because Clarkson had been taking a creative writing course and those files could in fact be her fiction assignments.

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