5 04-24-87 02:41 aed Layton forced into homosexual acts, attorney says By PAMELA A. MacLEA

   5 04-24-87 02:41 aed

   Layton forced into homosexual acts, attorney says By PAMELA A.
MacLEAN

   SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) _ Peoples Temple gunman Larry Layton would
not  testify  on  his  own  behalf  and  opposed an insanity plea
because he did not want to reveal a  homosexual  relationship  he
had with cult leader Jim Jones, an attorney said.

   The  relationship  was  disclosed  Thursday  at  a  hearing to
determine if Layton should get a third trial in the  1978  ambush
slayings  of  a  congressman and four others at a jungle airstrip
near Jonestown, Guyana.  He was convicted at his second trial  of
conspiracy to commit murder.

   Robert  Bryan,  Layton's new attorney, argued before a federal
judge that a new trial should be granted because previous defense
attorneys mishandled the case by not having  Layton  testify  and
not entering an insanity plea.

   But  Tony  Tamburello,  former  head of Layton's defense team,
told the U.S. District Court hearing that the defendant's  sexual
relationship  with  Jones prevented him from taking either course
suggested by Bryan.

   Layton, 41, was a  disciple  of  Jones,  whose  912  followers
joined  him  in  an orgy of mass murder and suicide shortly after
the airstrip slayings of Rep.    Leo  Ryan,  D-Calif.,  and  four
others  and the wounding of U.S. diplomat Richard Dwyer in Guyana
in 1978.

   The sexual relationship between Layton and  Jones  during  the
1970s was the major reason Layton did not wish to testify or have
his defense team offer an insanity defense, Tamburello said.

   "He  was  very  afraid  of  revealing  he had sex with Jones,"
Tamburello testified. "He did not want it revealed.  I  am  sorry
it is being revealed today."

   Layton  told  prosecutors earlier this week that he was forced
to submit to sex with Jones,  U.S.  Attorney  Joseph  Russoniello
said.

   A  report  taken from newly revealed defense notes says Layton
"gave up two wives, suffered beatings,  sodomy  and  humiliation"
for the charismatic cult leader.

   "I  think  he  felt  he  was  forced"  into  homosexual  acts,
Tamburello said. "He certainly was not the instigator."

   Layton was convicted Dec. 1, 1986,  of  conspiring  to  murder
Ryan and  Dwyer,  who  survived  his wounds.  He was sentenced to
life in prison.  His first trial, in  1981,  ended  with  a  jury
deadlocked on an 11-1 vote for acquittal.

   Ryan, three journalists and a cult defector died in the attack
on Nov. 18, 1978, after an investigative tour of the camp.  Jones
and 912 followers drank a cyanide-laced soft drink and died later
the same day in a mass murder-suicide.

   Russoniello  said new information that surfaced in the current
hearing confirmed government  suspicions  that  Layton  not  only
participated in the conspiracy to kill Ryan, but that he may have
instigated the attack.

   Although  the  information,  included  in  taped conversations
between Layton and a defense psychiatrist in 1979, could  not  be
used  if  a  new  trial  is  granted, it could be considered by a
parole board if Layton must serve his  prison  term,  Russoniello
said.

   Newly  revealed  documents  include  defense strategy reports,
psychiatric data and notes to the government being  used  by  the
new  attorney  in  his  effort to prove that Layton's defense was
mishandled.

   Included in the disclosures was a 1979 psychiatric  report  by
Dr.   Hardet  Sukhedeo,  in  which  Layton said he asked Jones to
allow him to blow up the plane  expected  to  take  Ryan  out  of
Jonestown.