Authorities allege Spector killed Clarkson, placing a .38 Colt revolver in the woman's mouth and firing a single bullet. The Clarkson family lawsuit goes even further, claiming Spector "grabbed, hit, fought with, restrained and otherwise prevented [Lana Clarkson's] departure from his home."

Spector has maintained his innocence, blaming Clarkson's death on Clarkson and famously saying she "kissed the gun."

"Phil did not cause the death of this woman, he's not criminally responsible, and he's not civilly responsible, either," Spector defense attorney Bruce Cutler told Reuters Thursday.

A grand jury returned a murder indictment against the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee last September. Spector, 64, remains free on $1 million bail. No trial date has been set.

Clarkson's friends and family have rejected any suggestion that the statuesque star of the Barbarbian Queen movies died of a self-inflicted gunshot at Spector's Alhambra, California, estate.

"My answer to 'Did she kill herself?' is 'Of course not,'" Donna Clarkson told ABC News last week.

As for Spector, Donna Clarkson said, "I pray for him that he can tell the truth and save his own soul."

Like Clarkson's inner circle, police have refuted Spector's suicide defense. An officer told the grand jury that Spector himself initially told authorities that he shot Clarkson by accident.

The 40-year-old Clarkson had never met Spector until the night of her death, hooking up with the producer at the House of Blues nightclub on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip, where she worked as a hostess.

Spector is renown for constructing a "Wall of Sound" around several pop hits from the 1950s and 1960s, including "Be My Baby," "Unchained Melody" and the Beatles' Let It Be. But according to a ruling last year by the judge in his murder case, he's not so famous anymore that potential jurors are following the matter's every legal twist and turn.

Clarkson's mother, however, is keeping track of anniversaries.