New Lawyer For Girl In Tate Case
Associated Press, December 20, 1969
LOS ANGELES - Leslie Louise Van Houten, a member of a communal clan who is
charged with conspiracy in the Sharon Tate slayings and with murder in two other
killings, has a new lawyer - a specialist in his field.
Marvin L. Part, 38, a former deputy district attorney and a former deputy
California attorney general, was appointed by the court Friday to represent the
slim, brown-haired defendant.
"From what I know," Part said, "the girl has a defensible position."
Miss Van Houten, 19, of nearby Monrovia, appeared before Superior Court Judge
William B. Keene for substitution of attorneys after it was learned she lacked
funds to pay Donald Barnett, the private counsel initially slated to handle her
case.
Keene said he appointed Part because the public defender’s office is involved
in another case - the murder last July 25 of Malibu musician Gary Hinman - and
the possibility of conflict of interest might arise if the office also
represented Miss Van Houten.
Police say the Hinman case and the other seven deaths are related.
Miss Van Houten is among six members of the Charles M. Manson hippie-style
cult accused in the gunshot-stabbing deaths of Miss Tate and four other persons
at the actress’ rented Benedict Canyon mansion Aug. 9 and the knife slayings the
following night of Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.
Newsmen later asked Part whether he would seek a separate trial for his
client.
He replied: "When you take some defendants and put them in with other
defendants that have a gad image, it can be harmful."
But he declined to give a definite answer, saying he would spend the weekend
studying the grand jury transcript before entering her plea Monday.
Meantime, in Mobile, Ala., attorneys for Patricia Krenwinkel, 22, another of
the defendants, were told they have until Dec. 29 to decide whether to fight her
extradition to Los Angeles.
The date was set by Circuit Judge Joseph M. Hocklander Jr.
Alabama Gov. Albert Brewer had signed a warrant honoring an extradition
request from California Gov. Ronald Reagan.
