LOS ANGELES, Aug. 15 – A Marine corporal, who claims to have seen the star prosecution witness in the Tate-LaBianca murder case take a drug a few weeks before the killings, something she has vehemently denied, was arrested Friday as he walked from the courtroom.

In a dramatic side action in the trial, Marine Lance Corporal Jon Hayan Marsh interrupted the cross-examination of Linda Kasabian to declare in deposition that he saw the 21-year-old mother of two “pour” a drug into her mouth as she frolicked on the beach near Topanga Canyon in mid-July.

The 23-year-old Marsh, on emergency leave, claimed he was absent without leave from the Marine Corps and was working in the Topanga Canyon area when he became acquainted with Mrs. Kasabian and Susan Atkins, one of the four defendants in the trial.

One of his friends, whom he identified only as “Piccolo,” gave Mrs. Kasabian some psilocybin, a drug similar to LSD, and she “poured it into her mouth,” the Marine said.

The youth had been warned by the prosecution and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Older that his testimony could possibly incriminate him, but he continued to testily.

At one point he refused the prosecution’s request for the name of the “friend” who gave Mrs. Kasabian the psilocybin but later recanted when told all of his testimony would be invalid.

He said he saw Mrs Kasabian again some days later in a nearby shopping center, “jumping like a jumping jack” and obviously under the influence of drugs. At both times, he said, she was in the company of Miss Atkins.

As the youth stood by, Mrs. Kasabian again took the stand, admitting she was in the area with Miss Atkins, but denied knowing Marsh or taking the drug.

When the session ended, Marsh walked out of the courtroom and into the arms of two members of the shore patrol who arrested him again for being AWOL. They said he was to have reported at midnight Thursday to San Francisco for return overseas.

Earlier, Mrs. Kasabian admitted under questioning by Irving Kanarek, attorney for hippie leader Charles Manson, that she has been “getting high” without the use of drugs while she has been in county jail.

“Sometimes I would just sit and meditate and try to still my mind — so I’d be together — so I wouldn’t be nervous,” she said. “But it was mostly at the beginning of my testimony. I’ve never been on the witness stand and voiced myself to a lot of people.”

Although she appeared nervous when her testimony first began three weeks ago, she appeared composed and relaxed during her testimony Friday the first day she has testified as a witness and not a defendant.

Admitting she had “worshipped” Manson, the pale-faced young hippie said that she had looked on the cult leader, bearded or clean-shaven, as Jesus Christ until the murders at the home of actress Sharon Tate last Aug. 9.

“Charlie never said he was Jesus Christ,” she admitted frankly, “but within my own self that was what I was looking for, and that’s what I saw in him.

“I finally got a vision in my head of what and who he was when I saw the murders happen.

“I didn’t think of Charlie until I looked into Mr. Frykowski’s eyes. (Voityck Frykowski, the Polish playboy friend of Miss Tate’s husband, Roman Polansky, and one of the five victims at the Tate home).

“The moment I saw Mr. Frykowski. I changed my mind about Charlie,” she said.

The next night, she said, it was Manson who “put a sword or gun into his pants” and entered the home of market owner Leno LaBianca.

Manson’s sword, which she described as a “pirate sword with a 16-inch blade,” had always been with him at the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth where the Manson “family” lived, she said. But, she added, she was not sure whether he had taken the sword with him or a gun she saw in the possession of Clem Tufts, another “family” member.

When Manson entered the home, she said, she had no doubts that the occupants were to be killed, especially when he returned to the car where she waited with five other cult members, and told them he had tied up LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.

Manson, she said, entered the market owner’s Los Feliz area home with a leather thong around his neck. Later that night, she said, she “didn’t remember seeing the thong” as they walked hand-in-hand along a beach. Two leather thongs had been used to tie the LaBiancas before they were stabbed to death.

The prosecution charges Manson masterminded the killings, but that the other three defendants charged – Miss Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten did the actual killings.

By MARY NEISWENDER