Judge in mass slaughter trial reverses self, admits newsmen

SAN ANTONIO, Tex. (A) ---A state judge changed his mind yesterday and decided to allow newsmen and the public inside the courtroom for jury selection in the trial of a youth charged in a series of homosexual sex-andtorture murders.

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Immediately after court session was opened, Will Gray, lawyer for Elmer Wayne Henley, 18, asked District Court Judge Preston Dial to declare a mistrial. His motion was dismissed.

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Henley is charged in the deaths of six of the 27 young men police said were killed by a ring headed by Dean A Corll, 33. Henley's shooting of Corll last. August brought the mass murders to light. The trial was moved here from Houston.

In a surprise move before the opening of the trial

Monday, Judge Dial announced he would bar newsmen and the public, including Henley's mother and brother, from the courtroom. He told lawyers for both sides to select the jurors behind closed doors.

Dial referred to newsmen as a "bunch of locusts" and said he wanted to isolate the potential jurors from as much disturbance as possible.

About 30 minutes before lawyers for several news organizations appeared in court Tuesday to file a mo-

tion to end the closed ses sions Dial relented and said he would conduct open

sessions.

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He said he considered the appropriate thing to

Gray's motion for a mistrial contended that the defendant had been “denied a public trial as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment" of the Constitution.

During questioning of potential jurors yesterday, lawyers for Henley indicated their client will plead he was insane at the time of the slayings.