LOS ANGELES — A Brazilian chauffeur who testified that Phil Spector confessed to an actress's shooting endured hours of cross-examination at the music legend's trial Monday as the defense attempted to paint his account as tainted by a poor grasp of English and a desire to avoid being deported.

The witness, Adriano DeSouza, admitted that he once told investigators he was not entirely sure of Spector's words because he was still learning English, and he acknowledged that prosecutors interceded with immigration officials to let him remain in the U.S. to testify.

But he insisted he was telling the truth about his central claim — that Spector emerged from his mansion holding a gun in a bloodstained hand and said, "I think I killed somebody."

"Are you completely sure that is what he said?" defense attorney Bradley Brunon pressed near the end of the second hour of cross-examination.

"Yes," DeSouza replied.

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"Positive?"

"Yes."

"No doubt?"

"No," DeSouza said.

Asked if he was offering testimony favorable to prosecutors to repay their help with his immigration problems, DeSouza answered, "No, sir. I am here because it is the right thing to do."

DeSouza, who will begin his fourth day on the witness stand Tuesday, is one of the prosecution's most important witnesses. The 37-year-old was the only other person at Spector's suburban estate Feb. 3, 2003 when Lana Clarkson, 40, died.

Spector, 67, maintains the actress killed herself.

The defense has made no secret of their desire to discredit DeSouza, and Brunon offered jurors a litany of reasons to doubt his story.

The lawyer elicited that the driver was tired, having been awake for 24 hours straight, that he was in shock after seeing Clarkson's body, that he had difficulty understanding his famous boss when he was drunk and that a large fountain may have interfered with DeSouza's hearing.

The defense's main focus, however, was the issue of his immigration status and his certainty about the words Spector allegedly spoke.

Brunon highlighted one exchange between DeSouza and a detective in a tape-recorded interview conducted the day after Clarkson's death. In one page of the transcript shown jurors, the detective asked if the chauffeur is certain that he heard Spector say, "I think I killed somebody."

He replied, "I think so. I think — I'm not sure. It's my English that — " before being cut off by the investigator.

DeSouza has said he studied English from junior high through college, but was not fluent when he arrived in the U.S. in 1999.

"You weren't exactly sure what was said, that that was what you told them," Brunon said.

"Yes," DeSouza agreed.

Brunon also showed DeSouza a partial transcript of an interview with other police officers, in which he said Spector used the word "shot" instead of "killed."

The lawyer also grilled him about his testimony that he saw a small amount of blood on Spector's hand. Brunon pointed to a transcript of an interview the night of the shooting, in which DeSouza was asked if he had seen blood.

"Maybe on his hand, but I'm not sure," DeSouza replied then.

"How did you become more sure later when you were not sure at the time you saw it?" the lawyer asked.

"I don't know, sir," DeSouza answered.