LOS ANGELES, Apr. 16 – The trial of Manson “family” member Robert Beausoleil for the torture-murder of musician Gary Hinman ended in Los Angeles Wednesday with a day-long battle of oratory which left the defendant sobbing.

The case, which closed after a week and a half of testimony, is expected to go to the jury shortly after 9 a.m. today following jury instructions.

Less than two hours latter – at 11 a.m. – three more of the Manson “family,” including the hippie cult leader, Charles Manson, are to be arraigned in an adjacent courtroom in connection with the murder of Hinman. The secret Grand Jury indictment is believed to have named Manson, Susan Atkins and Bruce Davis, all placed in the Hinman home during the three-day torture-death of the 34-year-old musican.

Public defender Leon Salter, who produced only two defense witnesses, including the defendant himself, compared to 27 paraded to the stand by the prosecution, pounded at the fact that both “star” prosecution witnesses had been “rewarded.”

Mary Brunner, the mother of hippie cult leader Charles Manson’s baby and a particpant in the murder of the musician in his Topanga Canyon home July 27, was given immunity for her testimony.

The second chief prosecution witness, cycle club member Danny DeCarlo, Salter pointed out, had three felony charges against him dismissed after his testimony.

“Isn’t that reason enough for them to lie on the stand?” the longtime public defender charged.

Chiding Deputy Dist. Atty. Burton Katz for his statement that DeCarlo “came out of the recesses of hell to tell you something,” Salter charged:

“When they brought Mary Brunner and Danny DeCarlo here, they did go all the way to hell. They worked like hell to get them to testify. They promised to save them from hell, and they did.”

Salter admitted that his client, who sat with his hands folded in his lap during most of his attorney’s summation, “was there (at the murder house) but at no time aided or abetted in the crime – in fact he was being held captive.”

Bringing up Beausoleil’s youth, often cited by the prosecution in warning jurors not to be “influenced,” Salter pointed out that he has been trying to “protect that youth” for many months.

“If you make a mistake and convict Bobby Beausoleil, this youth that he has — it comes only once — will be gone.”

At this point, the babyfaced defendant, fighting back tears, began to sob, his head bowed. But before he could dry his tears, Kat began his rebuttal with:

“Injustice is easy to bear — but what stings here is justice. Sit loose in the saddle of fate, Mr. Beausoleil, for you made it.”

The 31-year-old prosecutor who had kept the seven-man, five-woman jury as well as courtroom spectators spellbound in his initial summation lauded Beausoleil’s “performance” on the stand as “too smooth.”

“This man is either so innocent…or he’s the most guilty individual in this crime. Don’t convict him on the basis of his youth, don’t acquit him because of his youth. Don’t convict him on the basis of his looks; don’t acquit him because of his looks. Convict him because justice demands it.

DeCarlo, a motorcycle club member who was admonished while on the witness stand to clean up his language, was described by Katz as “the little gremlin that lived in the dirt at the Spahn ranch.”

“He came out of the recesses of hell to tell you some things. He didn’t want to testify because it made him a fink, and in his world that’s not healthy.”

By MARY NEISWENDER