LOS ANGELES — Tiny crimson spots on a white evening jacket place Phil Spector within three feet of an actress's fatal shooting, a sheriff's department criminalist told jurors at the music legend's murder trial Thursday.

Dr. Lynne Herold, the final witness in the prosecution's case in chief, said the location of "mist-like" drops of blood on the sleeves and lapels of Spector's jacket indicate he was standing next to Lana Clarkson with both arms extended when the gun discharged in her mouth. (VIDEO)

"In other words, two to three feet from Ms. Clarkson's face?" asked Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson.

"Yes," Herold said.

Clarkson died in a chair in Spector's foyer on Feb. 3, 2003, when a .38-caliber revolver went off in her mouth. Spector's attorneys have said she killed herself. The prosecution maintains Spector murdered her after she expressed a desire to leave his mansion. He faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

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The distance that blood "back spatter" can be thrown from a gunshot wound is a hotly debated issue at the trial. Dr. Henry Lee, an expert for the defense, is expected to testify that blood can travel six to seven feet, making it possible for Spector to have been standing across the room when Clarkson was shot.

To underscore Herold's testimony that Spector was much closer, Jackson stood next to her as she sat on the witness stand and stretched his arms out towards her head. She agreed that his position approximated Spector's at the time the gun went off.

Herold told jurors that blood had been "moved or removed" from the Colt revolver between its discharge and the time police recovered it from the carpet under Clarkson's left hand.

"Could that be a product of someone ... wiping the gun down?" asked Jackson.

"That is one possible mechanism," she said.

She said Spector may also have placed the weapon is his pants pocket, which was stained with Clarkson's blood.

On cross-examination, a lawyer for Spector suggested that Herold was inexperienced in analyzing bloodstain patterns. Attorney Linda Baden-Kenney noted Herold's responsibilities at the crime lab were diverse, ranging from examining hairs, fibers and shoeprints to determining the contents of a deceased person's stomach.

Herold, however, insisted she was well-practiced in blood pattern analysis. She said she employed such examinations in about 100 cases during the course of her 25-year career.

She acknowledged, however, that Clarkson's case was the first time she had been asked to interpret stains from an intra-oral gunshot wound, the type the actress suffered.

Baden-Kenney said that such wounds, which occur when a bullet entering the mouth lodges in the head, resulted in more powerful explosions of gases and, therefore, blood spatter that travels further distances.

Herold said she was unaware of the studies Baden-Kenney cited and termed the additional pressure "irrelevant" to the interpretation of bloodstains. (VIDEO)

Spector, 67, watched the testimony without expression. He appeared relaxed during a break from the proceeding, joking with a lawyer and walking the courtroom hall with his wife, Rachelle.

Herold's cross-examination is to continue Monday. The trial is being streamed live on Court TV Extra.