After seven days of deliberation, jurors in the murder trial of legendary music producer Phil Spector on Tuesday said they were at an impasse with no prospect of a breakthrough, media reports said.

In a dramatic development at a packed Los Angeles Superior Court, the jury is said to be split 7 to 5 on the record producer's fate, being unable to come to a decision on whether Spector murdered actress Lana Clarkson back in 2003. There is no indication regarding which way they were leaning.

"At this time we don't believe that anything else will change the positions of the jurors based on the facts of the case," the jury foreman told Judge Larry Paul Fidler on the seventh day of deliberations.

Fidler said jurors may be asked to consider convicting Spector on involuntary manslaughter charges. He had earlier ruled that jurors would only be able to consider a second degree murder charge.

Spector, if convicted, faces life behind bars for the shooting death of Clarkson, who was 40 at the time of her murder; Spector is charged with second-degree murder in killing the actress on Feb. 3, 2003, just hours after the two had met the first time at West Hollywood, California's House of Blues, where Clarkson was employed as a hostess.

Spector's lawyers argued that Clarkson was depressed over a recent breakup, grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and took her own life.

But prosecutors allege that Spector shot Clarkson in the head as she attempted to leave his home.

District attorney Alan Jackson said during the trial Spector had a "rich history of violence" against women, often flying into drunken, gun-toting rages whenever they tried to leave his company.

Spector's driver also testified he heard a loud noise and saw the producer leave the castle holding a revolver, saying, "I think I killed somebody."

Spector, 67, has won two Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, but he stayed out of the public eye for two decades before his 2003 arrest.

Spector's trial is one of the highest profile celebrity cases to be heard in California over the past two decades, following the child molestation trial of Michael Jackson and the murder trials of television actor Robert Blake and American football legend O.J. Simpson, who were all acquitted.

(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2007)