LEGENDARY PHOENIX DEFENSE ATTORNEY
LARRY DEBUS IS EQUALLY ADEPT AT
NAVIGATING SEA CURRENTS AND JURY TRIALS
BY JIMM Y MAGAHERN
PHOTOGRAPH Y BY ART HOLEMAN
In the fall of 1980, Larry Debus sold his cars,
gave away his gold Rolex and left his thriving
law practice to his partner with the line,
“Maybe I’ll see ya someday!”
Debus and then-wife Leslie packed up their
essential belongings and took off on his
Vagabond 47 yacht, first around Mexico and
then across the Pacific Ocean to the South
Pacific islands.
· PARTNER AT DEBUS, KAZAN
& WESTERHAUSEN
· CRIMINAL DEFENSE, CIVIL
RIGHTS LAW
· SOUTHWEST SUPER LAWYERS
2007–2011
· MEMBER AND FORMER
DIRECTOR, AMERICAN BOARD
OF CRIMINAL LAW YERS
“I needed some kind of new adventure,” says the veteran
Phoenix attorney, who had by then established himself as one of
the highest-profile criminal defense lawyers in the region. After
making an early name as the young hotshot who at first assisted—
and eventually fired—Melvin Belli in the case that freed the
infamous “Trunk Murderess,” Winnie Ruth Judd, Debus spent most
of the ’70s taking on the city’s biggest cases.
His team defended Max Dunlap, the Phoenix contractor
convicted of ordering the Mafia-linked car-bombing hit on Arizona
Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles in 1976, winning the so-
called “fall guy” a second trial.
