LOS ANGELES, Jan 29 – Charles Manson struck and shoved his attorney Thursday and was removed from the opening of the penalty phase of the Tate-LaBianca murder trial.

The 36-year-old convicted murderer then continued to yell at Irving A. Kanarek until a metal plate was closed over a grille in the door of a holding cell where Manson had been placed.

Manson backhanded Kanarek on the chest three times with a clenched fist, pushed the lawyer and said, “I can’t do anything with you. I can’t communicate with you.”

The seven men and five women who will decide whether Manson and his “girls” live or die for the seven Tate-LaBianca murders saw the incident but were advised by the judge to disregard it.

The three women co-defendants, Susan Atkins, 22, Patricia Krenwinkel, 23, and Leslie Van Houten, 21 — sat quietly as bailiffs took Manson away. They remained that way through the rest of the day.

As has happened before in the seven-month-old trial, Manson’s violent objections came after he had been denied permission to represent himself.

Manson once again sought to fire Kanarek and to represent himself in the penalty phase, arguing that his attorney could not know his thoughts and therefore could not adequately represent him.

“We wish to put on a defense.” Manson told Superior Judge Charles H. Older, who had granted the defendant permission to make a motion. “We have wanted to put on a defense since we were arrested.”

When the judge told him he would be allowed to call the witnesses he wanted but through his attorney, Manson snapped:

“There’s no justice here, Older! Damn it, look at it!”

The judge warned Manson repeatedly that he would be removed from the courtroom if he persisted in the disruptions, and advised him that it was in the defendant’s own best interest to sit down.

“My goodness,” Manson fumed. “My own best interests? I’ve already been convicted of something I didn’t do.”

Then, in an apparent reference to prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi, the angry defendant said:

“If you’d leave me alone in this courtroom, I’d tear that little boy apart.” Manson apparently referred to his own mental ability, not his physical prowess.

Bugliosi had called the prosecution’s first witness in the penalty phase, a black musician, Bernard (Lotsa Poppa) Crowe, 28, when Manson struck Kanarek and was removed.

Crowe testified Manson shot him in August, 1969, with ‘a long-barrelled .22-caliber revolver, similar to a death weapon in the Tate murders, and he still carries the slug lodged near his spine.

The shooting followed an argument over delivery of marijuana, Crowe said.

Crowe said he was hospitalized 18 days and nearly died.

Two motions offered by defense attorney Paul Fitzgerald at the beginning of Thursday’s sessions were denied by Older.

Fitzgerald sought to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on behalf of his client, “Katie” Krenwinkel. He said he knew that such a plea should be entered near the beginning of a trial and that his motion was unusual.

Nevertheless, he said, he had not offered the plea earlier because he thought it might appear that Miss Krenwinkel was making an indirect admission.

Nov, Fitzgerald said, the situation has “changed remarkably” and the jury should be entitled to knowledge of his client’s mental state.

He said he offered the insanity plea, without Miss Krenwinkel’s permission, because he might have made “an erroneous decision” before the trial began.

In denying the motion, Older said there is ‘”no good case whatever” suggested by Fitzgerald or by the record for granting the motion.

The judge also rejected Fitzgerald’s arguments challenging constitutionality of the death penalty.

By JOHN KENDALL