LOS ANGELES -- Marvin Pancoast, an admitted homosexual on trial for the murder of Vicki Morgan, had sexual relations with her even though he believed he was suffering from AIDS, a psychiatrist testified Wednesday.
The psychiatrist said Pancoast's apparent willingness to risk transmitting the deadly disease to Miss Morgan indicated that he harbored enough pent-up anger against the former mistress to the late presidential confidant Alfred Bloomingdale to harm her.
Dr. William Vicary, a defense witness, later testified that, although Pancoast may have believed he was suffering from Acquired Immune Defiency Syndrome, he was not.
'He had a combination of other illnesses that in laboratory tests mimicked AIDS,' he said.
The psychiatrist surprised attorneys with his comment that Pancoast had been sexually involved with Miss Pancoast.
Vicary, in discussing Pancoast's medical records, said the psychiatrist treating the defendant considered him a homosexual who probably was suffering from AIDS and that his sexual promiscuity could be interpreted as anger directed at others.
'But he wasn't having sex with Vicki Morgan, was he?' Mathews asked.
'Yes, he was having a sexual relationship with Vicki Morgan,' Vicary said, adding that Pancoast had told him the two were sexually involved 'intermittently.'
Mathews insisted outside court that there had been no sexual relationship between Pancoast and Miss Morgan, his roommate.
He said Pancoast apparently lied to his psychiatrists and to police, and said Wednesday's testimony provided further evidence of his 'self-destructive tendencies.'
In an attempt to underscore the penchant for self-destruction that prompted his confession to police, Mathews asked Vicary if the suspect had told his doctor, 'Well, if I don't have AIDS, I want it.'
Vicary said he had, adding he read the remark in Pancoast's medical reports.
Under questioning from prosecutor Stanley Weisberg, Vicary said Pancoast's taped confession to police hours after the July 1983 killing showed he had a lot of stored-up anger although his voice sounded 'coherent and rational.'
Vicary also testified that Pancoast's relationship with Miss Morgan had become increasingly difficult, saying the tape indicated she had rebuffed his efforts to help her through her troubles.
'So, the more he tried to help and rescue her, the more she resisted these attempts?' Weisberg asked. Vicary agreed.
'Was the material on the tape consistent with an explosive outburst in which a reservoir of hate and anger was released?' Weisberg then asked.
'Yes, it was,' Vicary said.
The exchange backed the prosecution's contention that Pancoast was angry enough with Miss Morgan to kill her and was thinking clearly enough to know what he was doing.
