• Jurors Deliberating Fate of Four Manson Cultists

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Jurors Deliberating Fate of Four Manson Cultists

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 18 – The jury in the trial of four Manson cultists charged with armed robbery did not reach a verdict during its first day of deliberations yesterday.

The panel of seven women and five men will resume deliberations at 9 a.m. tomorrow. The first day of deliberations ended at 3:45 p.m.

Defense and prosecution attorneys finished closing arguments Friday evening.

Superior Court Judge Arthur L. Alarcon ordered the arguments to proceed late into the evening because the jury is sequestered.

Judge Alarcon sequestered the jury last Wednesday, apparently because two former jurors received threatening anonymous telephone calls. Those jurors were excused and replaced.

On trial are Catherine Share 30, Mary Brunner 29, Kenneth Como 32 and Lawrence Bailey, 23.

They are each accused of the armed robberies in August of 1971 of a Hawthorne surplus store and a Covina beer distributing firm.

Miss Share and Miss Brunner are members of the “family” of convicted killer Charles Manson. Como and Bailey are also linked with the Manson clan

The Hawthorne robbery occurred Aug. 21, 1971, and the robbery of the beer firm, Aug. 13, 1971.

The surplus store was robbed of 140 weapons, but police were summoned before the thieves escaped. The guns were recovered after a shootout.

When the four were first charged with the robbery, the prosecution claimed the guns were to be used to free Manson, who was then on trial for the murders of Gary Hinman and Donald “Shorty” Shea

Manson was ultimately convicted of these murders and earlier of the seven Tate-LaBianca slayings

The Covina firm was robbed of $2,500

The defense last week subpoenaed Manson and at least seven other convicted killers to testify. But defense attorneys and their clients split over whether the witnesses should be called to the stand.

Miss Share was the only witness who testified for the defense. She denied she knew robberies were to occur when she went with the others to the two locations.

The defendants had pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity.

The convicted murderers may still be called to testify during the sanity phase of the trial. There will, however, be no sanity phase unless one or more of the defendants are convicted.

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