LOS ANGELES — With her appeals exhausted and jail looming, a former lawyer for Phil Spector ended her dramatic, month-long refusal to testify against the music legend at his murder trial Thursday.

Sara Caplan, who had maintained that ethical obligations prevented her from taking the stand against her former client, reversed her position a day after the state Supreme Court rejected her appeal of contempt of court charges and sided with a judge who had promised to put her behind bars if she did not testify.

The judge, Larry Fidler of Los Angeles County Superior Court, summoned her into the courtroom where Spector's trial is unfolding, recapped the high court's decision and said, "I need to ask you: Are you prepared now to testify?"

Standing before a gallery packed with people waiting to see if she would be placed in handcuffs, Caplan hesitated and then replied, "Yes, your honor."

She spent 30 minutes on the witness stand, recounting, at times grudgingly, what prosecutors say was the destruction or concealment of crime-scene evidence by Dr. Henry Lee, the famed forensic scientist working for the defense. (VIDEO)

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As she had in two prior hearings, Caplan said Lee collected a small white object, now unaccounted for, from the room where an actress was killed. But in her third retelling of the incident at Spector's mansion, Caplan offered additional information that will undoubtedly hurt the prosecution.

Under questioning by a lawyer for Spector, she said the item Lee placed in a vial was too big to be a chip from Lana Clarkson's acrylic thumbnail, as prosecutors suggest.

"You are sure that what you saw was much larger than that missing piece of fingernail?" the attorney asked Caplan.

"I am sure," she replied.

Prosecutors have argued that Lee disposed of a nail fragment that could have conclusively proved that the 40-year-old Clarkson was a victim of homicide, not suicide.

Caplan, however, said that while she could not say what the object was, it was an inch long, the size of an "entire fingernail," and not the fragment missing from Clarkson's thumbnail.

Lee has denied the allegations and said Caplan is mistaken. He is on the defense witness list, but has recently voiced anger at his treatment during the case and said he does not think he will testify.

As her legal battle played out over the last month, Caplan has often become emotional in the courtroom, weeping when she first refused to testify and wiping away tears when she was found in contempt. But on the witness stand, bitterness seemed to have replaced her sadness. She glared at Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson as he questioned her and gave brief, occasionally testy answers.

When Jackson asked her of Lee's vial, "Was it clear? Could you see through it?" she snapped, "I know what clear means."

Outside the courthouse, Caplan said she felt she had to testify because the Supreme Court rejection of her appeal made Fidler's order binding.

"I had no further recourse within my resources, so I was obligated to testify because it was a valid court order," she said.

She expressed concern about the impact on Lee, saying, "I certainly never intended to be stuck in a position of having to impugn the credibility of one of the most amazing professional criminalists in the world."

About the white item, she said, "It could have been something someone dragged in on their foot."

The controversy over Lee has developed in hearings outside the jury's presence, and the judge acknowledged that jurors may be confused about the significance of what they were hearing. He told them that the matter would become clearer as the trial proceeds.

At least one panelist, however, noted the presence of additional reporters and spectators in court for her testimony. The man used his index finger to count out the number in the crowd.

Club promoter 'Punkin Pie' said she was close to Clarkson.

Also Thursday, jurors began hearing testimony from a club promoter who described Clarkson as "my very best friend in the whole wide world." Punkin Irene Elizabeth Laughlin, who goes by the name "Punkin Pie," said she and the actress were "soul mates."

Called to the stand by the defense, Laughlin is expected to testify that Clarkson was depressed at the time of her death.

Spector, 67, contends Clarkson shot herself Feb. 3, 2003. The prosecution maintains he killed her after she rebuffed his romantic advances.

He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Testimony resumes Monday morning. The trial is being streamed live at Court TV Extra.