• Attorney Asks Acquittal for Defendant in Hinman Death

Attorney Asks Acquittal for Defendant in Hinman Death

LOS ANGELES, Apr. 16 – The defense attorney for Robert Kenneth Beausoleil, accused of murdering musician Gary Hinman last summer, urged a Superior Court Jury yesterday to acquit the young man.

Dep. Public Defender Leon Salter told the seven-woman, five-man jury retrying Beausoleil a key prosecution witness told a “pack of lies” in an attempt to “shoot Bobby down.”

Salter referred to the testimony of Miss Mary Brunner, 26, who testified she was with Beausoleil at the Topanga Canyon home of Hinman, 34, when he was killed last July 27.

Although Miss Brunner said she was not an eyewitness to the fatal stabbing, she testified she was in the kitchen when she heard a commotion, went into the living room and found Hinman wounded twice in the chest and Beausoleil with a knife.

Beausoleil, 22, took the stand in his own defense and claimed it was hippie chieftan Charles Manson, 35, who actually killed Hinman.

Salter claimed Miss Brunner, whose child reportedly was fathered by Manson, was admittedly in love with the cult leader.

Dep. Dist. Atty. Burton Katz, however, countered, saying, “If she wanted to lie, Miss Brunner could have said she actually saw Beausoleil stab Hinman.”

Both attorneys ended their closing arguments yesterday afternoon and the jury is expected to begin deliberations today after instructions by trial Judge William B. Keene.

Katz noted that major testimony against Beausoleil came from motorcycle gang leader Danny De Carlo.

Referring to De Carlo facetiously as “a dirty little gremlin,” Katz told jurors “you may not like his looks.”

But Katz contended no one makes up testimony such as De Carlo gave when he said Beausoleil confessed Hinman’s murder to him.

Both prosecution and defense testimony showed Manson, before the stabbing, was enraged because Hinman would not turn over $20,000 to the clan and slashed the victim across the side of the face with a sword.

Katz accused Beausoleil of putting a pillow over Hinman’s face, after the stabbing, to drown his death rattle.

The prosecutor said the murder was one of torture, “premeditated and deliberated. All of these made it murder of the first degree,” Katz told the jury.

In addition, the deputy district attorney said, Beausoleil and other clan members, including Manson, went to Hinman’s home for the purpose of burglary or robbery.

Any murder, Katz said, committed during a felony, such as robbery or burglary, is automatically murder in the first degree.

Earlier, Manson and two members of his “family” were indicted for the murder of Hinman.

Although the County Grand Jury indictment was secret, it was learned it named Manson, Susan Denise Atkins 21, and a male family member.

The name of the third person was kept under wraps since he was the only one of the three who was not in custody when the indictment was returned.

It was learned, however, that shortly after the true bill was brought, sheriff’s investigators went to the Spahn Ranch near Chatsworth, stronghold of the family, to arrest Bruce McGregor Davis, 27.

Davis was not at the ranch and members of Manson’s family claimed they had not seen him in about two weeks.

He currently is free on $10,000 bond in connection with a federal charge of purchasing a firearm under a false name, Jack McMillian.

The district attorney’s office declined to comment on the indictment pending the arrest.

It was understood, however, each person was charged with one count of murder.

Both Manson and Miss Atkins also are co-defendants in the murder case involving the August deaths of actress Sharon Tate and six others.

Miss Atkins additionally hes been charged in a district attorney’s complaint with the murder of Hinman.

Neither the young woman, alleged informer in the Tate case, nor Beausoleil, was ever indicted.

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