Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler declared a mistrial Wednesday in the murder trial of record producer Phil Spector after the jury deliberated for 12 days without reaching a verdict. Spector was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Lana Clarkson, 40. If convicted, he would have faced 15 years to life in prison

"At this time, I will find that the jury is unable to arrive at a verdict and declare a mistrial in this matter," Fidler said.

Judge Larry Paul Fidler issued his ruling after the jury said that it was deadlocked 10-2 on the charges against the legendary record producer. There was no word whether jurors were leaning toward convicting or acquitting Phil Spector. The jury reported a similar deadlock earlier this month, but Fidler sent them back with new instructions.

Phil Spector’s murder trial commenced in April, after several delays over the four years that have elapsed since Clarkson’s death. He maintains he is innocent. His defense team portrayed Clarkson as despondent over her failing acting career and discouraged over her financial woes.

Lana Clarkson is best known for starring in the 1986 cult sci-fi movie “Barbarian Queen.” At the time of her death, she was working as a hostess in the VIP area of the Foundation Room, at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. That is where she and Spector met. In the early hours of Feb. 3, 2003, she was found dead, slumped in a foyer of his Alhambra mansion. She had been shot through the mouth.

Hours later, police were summoned to Spector's mansion. The music producer had wandered into the driveway in the predawn and told his Brazilian-born chauffeur, "I think I killed somebody," according to the driver's testimony.

During the trial, more than 70 witnesses called by the prosecution and defence and over 500 exhibits were introduced into evidence. In August the 12 jurors of the trial and six alternates have visited the scene of the murder of Lana Clarkson

The defense presented scientific evidence that Clarkson had probably pulled the trigger herself, either by accident or in a suicide. They requested a mistrial last week, which Judge Fidler refused.

They have also countered the prosecution’s evidence that Spector’s driver Adriano De Souza heard Spector’s confession of murder with a tape of their own. It shows a fountain placed in Spector’s courtyard where the chauffeur waited for his employer on the night of Feb. 3, 2003. The defense contends that it would have been difficult for De Souza to hear Spector precisely, due to the noise made by the falling water in the fountain. They have also suggested that the Brazilian-born chauffeur may not have a good grasp of English.

Given the fact that Spector’s jacket was found spattered with Clarkson’s blood, the defense maintained the idea that the blood could hit him while he was standing as far as six feet away. The prosecutors claim that he was spattered while he shot her.

Prosecutors said during the trial that even if the gun went off mistakenly, Spector could be convicted of murder because his actions showed a conscious disregard for human life.

The prosecution has portrayed Spector as a man with a pattern of consuming alcohol and then threatening women that reject him sexually. Five women have described similar situations in which Spector threatened them with a gun after being rejected.

Spector is well known in the music industry and has worked with major musicians; the Beatles, the Ronettes, Ike and Tina Turner and Sonny and Cher. Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. He is famed for having created the “Wall of Sound” recording technique in the 1960s.

Rolling Stone magazine has said his work “may be the most personal and stylistically unified series of multi-artist recordings in pop history.”