On November 18 1969, 35 year old deputy district attorney, Vincent Bugliosi, was assigned to the Tate-LaBianca murder case. Not only did he have to prove the Manson family were responsible for the murders, but he also had to prove that Manson was the one who gave the order to carry them out. Things started to look up when a fingerprint of Patricia Krenwinkel was found on the inside door of Sharon's bedroom, this physical evidence was added to the .22 caliber bullets found at Spahn's Ranch and the gun used at the Tate murders was a .22 caliber. Tex Watson ran to his home in McKinney, Texas when the heat came down, he was arrested on November 30 after local police were notified by California investigators that his fingerprints were found to match the print on the front door of the Tate residence. He fought extradition long enough that he was tried separatley in August 1971, while awaiting trial he lost weight and was unable to communicate or feed himself, once his health improved he was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to death, however, a year later when the death penalty was abolished his mental stability improved. When a warrant was issued for the arrest of Linda Kasabian in December, she turned herself into the authorities on December 2, she was indicted for the murders, but agreed to turn state's witness against the Manson family when Bugliosi approached her, her testimony matched all the physical evidence in the case and she was later granted immunity from prosecution for agreeing to appear as the prosecution's star witness at the trial.
The trial officially began on June 15 1970, Bugliosi set out to establish the motive was helter skelter, which he felt referred to Manson's belief that he could start a race war and personally gain from it. In his opening statement, the prosecutor characterised Manson as "a vagrant wanderer, a frustrated singer-guitarist who would refer to himself as Jesus Christ and was a killer who cleverly masqueraded behind the common image of a hippie that of being peace loving but was a megalomaniac who coupled his insatiable thirst for power with an intense obsession for violent death". When Susan Atkins testified before a Los Angeles grand jury, she was hoping to avoid the death penalty, she testified how she held Sharon down as she pleaded for her and her unborn baby's life, she confessed that she fatally stabbed her to death showing no sign of guilt or remorse, the jurors stared in disbelief. The night before Manson face the jury for the first time he carved a bloody swastika into his forehead declaring, "I have x'd myself from your world". Whatever Manson did Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten imitated his every action, they also carved an 'x' into their foreheads and shaved their heads to show their solidarity and constantly disrupted the courtroom. Manson and the girls showed no signs of remorse at all, he claimed in the trial that he did not order for the murders to be committed, but the jury felt otherwise. When Tex Watson took the stand he said the victims at the Tate residence were "running around like chickens with their heads cut off". Manson's attorney remarked that Manson was an example of "total failure of modern society", while prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi described him as "one of the most evil, satanic men who ever walked the face of the earth". Manson stated, "You made your children what they are, these children that come at you with knives, your children, you taught them, I didn't teach them, I just tried to help them stand up".
On March 29 1971, after only 20 minutes, the jury handed down the indictments. Charles Manson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Tex Watson and Susan Atkins were charged with seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Leslie Van Houten was charged on two counts of murder and of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and they were all sentenced to death, however, when California briefly abolished the death penalty in 1972, their sentences were commuted to life in prison and they have been eligible for parole since 1978. Bugliosi later said, "It was the longest murder trial in American history lasting nine and a half months, the most expensive costing approximately $1 million and the most highly publicised, while the jury had sequestered 225 days, longer than any jury before it. The trial transcript alone ran to 209 volumes, approximately 8 million words". On April 19 1971, Judge Charles Older pronounced the judgement, "It is my considered judgement that not only is the death penalty appropriate, but it is almost compelled by the circumstances", he shook hands with the jury and said, "If it were within the power of a trial judge to award a medal of honour to jurors, believe me, I would bestow an award on each of you". The convicted family members still remain in prison to this day.