ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605310057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
A federal judge on Thursday changed the prison sentence of one of the members of the "Phototron" indoor marijuana-growing conspiracy to house arrest.
Dayna Patrick Layman will be allowed to serve her nine-month sentence at home beginning Aug. 5, when her husband, Victor Layman, leaves for prison to serve his nearly five-year sentence.
Her attorney argued at a hearing Thursday that she should be allowed to remain at home to maintain her fledgling flower business, Perennial Pleasures. The plants would die, Layman testified, if left unattended while she went to prison.
Her attorney, John Lichtenstein, also argued that her role in the conspiracy was minor and that the flower business, which she testified she had been working on for five years, will have to support her while her husband is in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott questioned whether the business really existed.
Victor Layman forfeited about $300,000 in assets and money from an offshore bank account as part of his plea agreement, but the Laymans were allowed to keep the Roanoke County home he bought years earlier with legitimate income.
"We are just barely getting by at this time," Dayna Layman told U.S. District Judge James Turk.
Mott argued that Turk had no authority under federal sentencing guidelines to revisit the sentence he imposed May 17 unless there was a technical error. But Turk said since he never entered an order in her case, he considered Thursday's hearing a continuation of her sentencing hearing.
Mott said he may appeal. He compared Dayna Layman's case to that of a woman sentenced the same day in a crack cocaine distribution case. That woman received a two-year sentence even though her involvement was limited, she was an addict and she cooperated with police as soon as she was caught, helping them catch her supplier.
Dayna Layman, on the other hand, was part of "a much more aggravated offense" over a several-year period and has tried to minimize her real role, Mott said.
Nine months "is more than fair from Mrs. Layman's standpoint," he said.
Lichtenstein argued that the 18 months since the Laymans became aware of the investigation against them served the goal of deterrence and rehabilitation in her case. Her probation officer, Mike Price, testified that she was a suitable candidate for house arrest.
Dayna Layman will have to pay the cost of electronic monitoring while serving house arrest, about $5 a day. Nine drug defendants in the past year have been sentenced in Roanoke federal court to house arrest, according to the U.S. Probation and Parole Office.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Dayna Layman.by CNB