Peoples Temple

Larry Layton was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for his role in conspiring to murder Rep. Leo Ryan in Guyana in 1978. But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain of survivors of the Jonestown massacre, could be freed within five years. U.S. District Judge Robert F. Peckham recommended that parole authorities consider releasing Layton in five years.

U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham in San Francisco postponed sentencing of former People's Temple member Larry Layton until March 3, giving Layton's new lawyer time to prepare for the hearing and for a request that Layton get a new trial. Layton was convicted on Dec. 1 of conspiring to murder California congressman Leo Ryan and a foreign service officer in an ambush that led to the Jonestown massacre in November, 1978. Robert R.

Former Peoples Temple member Larry Layton went on trial again Friday on federal charges of conspiring to kill a U.S. congressman and diplomat just hours before the mass suicide-murder in Jonestown that took the lives of cult leader Jim Jones and 912 followers.