LOS ANGELES, Sept. 5 – The chief prosecutor in the Tate-LaBianca murder case was removed from the 12-week-old trial Friday apparently because of an off-the-cuff remark to newsmen that violated his boss’ “don’t talk to the press” order.

Dist. Atty. Evelle Younger cleared up the mystery of why Deputy Dist. Atty. Aaron Stovitz was not in the Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Friday while the trial was in progress. Stovitz, the district attorney claimed, was needed because his administrative duties as chief of the trials division of the DA’s office, had built up.

It was learned, however, that Younger was angered by Stovitz’ aside to newsmen regarding Tate-LaBianca murder defendant Susan Atkins ailment this week: “She’s better than Sarah Bernhardt.”

The district attorney earlier had issued a strong warning to Slovitz and his co-prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, not to talk about the case to newsmen.

Several members of the press were called into the district attorney’s office and questioned about the remark made Wednesday and used in some press and radio reports.

Stovitz has worked on the case since the massacre murders were discovered in early August of last year.

Still pending against Stovitz is a defense motion that he be cited for contempt of court for violating a court gag order. The action was based on an interview Stovitz had given to an underground magazine, detailing the case against hippie leader Charles Manson and his three girl disciples.

Stovitz will be replaced by Donald Musick, 34, who joined the DA’s office in 1963.

Meanwhile, Bugliosi carried on by himself Friday in questioning seven witnesses — mostly police officers, and mostly about the .22 caliber revolver allegedly used in the Tate slayings.

Steven Weiss, 11, who found the gun in his backyard and had a hard time convincing police it was the murder weapon, brought both laughter and disbelief to the trial.

Weiss told the crowded courtroom he found the weapon on a hill behind his Sherman Oaks home when he was ordered to fix the sprinklers less than a month after the Tate and LaBianca murders.

“I brought it to my dad by picking it up by the tip of the barrel because I wanted to preserve the fingerprints,” the sixth grader testified. “I was careful not to touch the rest of the gun.”

But the police officer who responded to the boy’s call wasn’t as careful, the youth said.

“He touched it with both hands…all over the gun,” Steven said demonstrating with his hands. The courtroom burst into laughter.

Disbelief set in when the boy said the officer didn’t know how to unload the gun and had to be shown. The officer then took two live cartridges and seven shell casings from the gun, fingering them all, the young witness said.

Three and a half months later — in mid-December — the boy said he again called the Van Nuys police to remind them that they had the gun and it fit newspaper descriptions of the gun used in the Tate killings, Aug. 9, 1969.

“We told them they had this gun and we thought it might be connected with the murder,” the boy testified.

It was only at this point that police matched the gun with bullets found in the victims and at the scene of the Tate murders.

The gun apparently had been thrown over an embankment into the boy’s yard about a mile and a half from where clothing, allegedly used in the murders, was found.

Firearms expert Sgt. William J. Lee testified that only the bullet found in the shirt of Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring could positively be identified as being fired from the weapon.

Bullets and fragments of bullets found in the bodies of Polish playboy Voityck Frykowski and 18-year-old Steven Parent had “insufficient striations” to make a positive comparison, Lee said. However, he added, he found “nothing to rule out the possibility that they could have come from the gun.”

The testimony of 18-year-old Michael Hendricks, who admitted he was sent to a mental hospital for psychiatric examination because he had a “hang-up with guns” was challenged by defense attorneys.

The youth, dressed in prison garb, was questioned out of the presence of the jury in an attempt by the defense to prevent him from testifying.

Judge Charles Older ruled Hendricks “competent to testify,” however, the court session ended before he could testify with the jury present.

By MARY NEISWENDER