LOS ANGELES — A defense pathologist testified Thursday that Lana Clarkson's death was an "impulsive" suicide likely fueled by alcohol use and her depression over her dwindling prospects as an aging actress in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

In his third and final day of testimony, the retired Texas medical examiner said the shooting at Spector's mansion was not a typical suicide that involved planning, but a spur-of-the moment decision Clarkson made after consuming what he has said were a half dozen drinks.

"This is an impulsive action with no thought of the consequences," Di Maio said.

The expert repeatedly said his opinion that the 2003 shooting was self-inflicted was based solely on physical evidence from the death scene, including blood spatter, gunshot and tissue residue and the location of the wound.

But, under an intense cross-examination, he acknowledged including in his report that Clarkson was a candidate for suicide because she had a "hard life" as a middle-aged woman in search of acting roles. (VIDEO)

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"She's a very beautiful girl, but she's 40 years old and there are plenty of 20-year-old girls after the parts she is after," Di Maio said, adding, "That's Hollywood."

Confronted by a prosecutor with a series of headshots taken a month before the shooting, Di Maio admitted that the statuesque blonde was still attractive, but insisted she was at a disadvantage and knew it when she died.

"She is competing against Paris Hilton and things like that," he added.

As he spoke, Clarkson's sister, Fawn, seated in the front row of the courtroom, dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.

Spector, 67, says Clarkson killed herself in his foyer a couple hours after they met in the nightclub where she was working as a hostess. Prosecutors contend he shot her when she tried to leave his palatial home.

In his cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson accused Di Maio of "cherry picking" details of Clarkson's personal history, but ignoring completely Spector's past.

He asked the pathologist about incidents in which Spector allegedly menaced women with guns in the past. The expert said he knew about them, but did not find them relevant to his work.

Jackson pressed him, asking how he could be uninterested in whether the only other person in the room when Clarkson died was "Mother Teresa or Charles Manson."

Di Maio said the pair's back stories were "a wash" when it came to deciphering what he called "the question of this trial: Who fired the gun?"

"There's things against Mr. Spector. There are things against Ms. Clarkson. In the end, you sit there and say you can't decide so you have to go with the physical evidence," he said.

That physical evidence is hotly disputed by prosecutors who say it indicates only that Clarkson had her hands near the gun and was attempting to fight back when it discharged. Of the blood spatter and residue evidence Di Maio relied on, Jackson asked, "All of that can be consistent with Mr. Spector having fired the gun?"

"Yes, if you take each in isolation," the witness conceded.

He said, however, that "the assemblage" of evidence pointed to her firing the gun.

The pathologist contended that if Spector had brandished a gun, Clarkson, who was taller and heavier, would have wrested the weapon from him.

Jackson called it "ridiculous advice" and contrary to the recommendation of police, but Di Maio was insistent. He said he personally had twice disarmed another person by twisting the weapon away from them.

"Rather than stand there and get shot, I would recommend you take the gun away from him," he said.

Several jurors snickered in response.

Near the close of the day, under friendly questioning by a defense attorney, Di Maio dismissed suggestions by Jackson that he was tailoring his testimony to earn his $26,000 paycheck from Spector.

"I mean it's my reputation so I'm not going to do anything for a couple of bucks," the witness said.

The trial will not be in session next week to allow jurors and lawyers an Independence Day break. Testimony resumes July 9.