Court Assigns New Attorney for Manson
Thursday, April 23rd, 1970
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 23 – Attorney Richard A. Walton was appointed yesterday to defend cult leader Charles Manson against murder and conspiracy charges stemming from the fatal stabbing of musician Gary Hinman.
Superior Judge George M. Dell appointed the lawyer, then ordered Manson, 35, and codefendant Susan Denise Atkins, 21, to return to his courtroom April 29 to enter pleas.
Walton, a prominent criminal trial lawyer, was appointed despite Manson’s objections.
Judge Dell formally denied the clan leader’s move to represent himself.
Manson and Miss Atkins are charged with murder and conspiracy to commit robbery and murder stemming from the stabbing last July 27 of Hinman, 34.
The judge granted the delay in entering pleas because neither Walton nor Miss Atkins’ attorney, Daye Shinn, have yet read the transcript of the proceedings before the County Grand Jury which indicted them last April 14.
A third codefendant, Bruce Davis, 27, is still being sought by authorities.
Robert Kenneth Beausoleil, 22, a sometimes member of Manson’s family of hippies, has been convicted of fatally stabbing Hinman. A Superior Court jury yesterday condemned him to death in the chamber.
Beausoleil, during his recent retrial, testified he went to Hinman’s Topanga Canyon home on Manson’s orders to get $20,000 from the musician.
He claimed it was Manson who stabbed Hinman twice in the chest.
Manson and Miss Atkins also are accused of the murders last August of actress Sharon Tate and six others.
They, along with three codefendants, are scheduled to go to trial in the Tate murder case June 15. A sixth codefendant in the Tate case is expected to turn state’s evidence.
Davis was not indicted in the connection with the Tate case.
At one point in the proceedings, Manson asked Judge Dell to appoint Atty. I. A. Kanarek to represent him.
The Judge said he had “no intention” of appointing Kanarek.
Judge Dell said he had the “highest reg
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