LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Phil Spector’s former girlfriend testified in the celebrated rock producer’s murder trial on Thursday that he once threatened her with a revolver and shotgun after a night of heavy drinking, leaving her terrified and sobbing.

Dorothy Melvin, the first witness in Spector’s trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson more than four years ago, was called by prosecutors to bolster their contention that he had a history of pulling guns on women.

Melvin told jurors that during a vodka-soaked confrontation with Spector in 1993, he brandished both a revolver and a shotgun, struck her twice in the head and tried to make her strip at gunpoint.

“I was sobbing and I said: ‘Why are you doing this Phillip? Why are you doing this?’” Melvin, a former manager for comic Joan Rivers who took the witness stand clutching a Bible, told jurors about the incident. “I was crying. I was terrified.”

But during her cross-examination by Spector’s attorneys, Melvin conceded that she never pressed charges and maintained contact with him for a decade afterward.

Prosecutors say Spector, best known for his innovative “wall-of-sound” recordings, shot the 40-year-old Clarkson dead in the foyer of his mock castle outside Los Angeles as she tried to leave at around 5 a.m. on the night of February 3, 2003.

Melvin, who dated Spector, 67, for several years, said she spent a “lovely” night at the pioneering record producer’s Pasadena home on July 2, 1993 and that he was charming despite consuming nearly an entire bottle of vodka.

But after falling asleep on his couch, Melvin said, she awoke to find Spector pointing a snub-nosed revolver at her Mercedes in the driveway and demanding to know where she had gone. Melvin said that when she started screaming at Spector he ordered her back into the house at gunpoint.

‘THE PUMP OF A SHOTGUN’

“He took his right hand that was holding the revolver and smacked me on the side of the head, and at that point I knew I was in trouble,” she said.

Once inside, Melvin said, Spector accused her of “snooping” and stealing from him and ordered her to strip, back-handing her in the head again when she refused. Melvin said that after she gave Spector her jacket he told her to leave.

But Melvin said she was unable to drive away because the gate to his driveway was closed and she heard footsteps behind her.

“Then I saw Phil coming down the driveway and I heard the pump of a shotgun,” she said. “He was screaming, ‘I told you to get the F out of here.’ And I was screaming, ‘The gate won’t open.’”

Melvin said that after Spector opened the gate she drove out and called the police, who escorted her back to the house to retrieve her purse.

Though Melvin said she ended her dating relationship with Spector after that night and was never again alone with him, she acknowledged under cross-examination that they maintained contact by e-mail and saw each other in person several times during the next decade.

The court day began with Spector’s attorneys telling the jury during their opening statement that Clarkson, star of such films as “Barbarian Queen” and “Amazon Women on the Moon,” had shot herself while under the influence of alcohol and painkillers.

Two defense lawyers said they would use forensic science to prove that Clarkson had been holding the gun when it went off in her mouth.

The trial, being televised live, is scheduled to resume on Monday after a day off on Friday, and is expected to last for up to three months. Defense lawyers have not said if Spector, who has shunned the public eye for decades and has described himself as battling depression and internal “devils,” will testify.