Clayton Nysten.2

7/30/2019 Clayton Nysten.2

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Wendy R. Willis, OSB 94496Assistant Federal Public Defender101 SW Main Street, Suite 1700Portland, OR 97204(503) 326-2123Attorney for Petitioner

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COUR T

FOR THE D ISTRICT OF OREGONi-ELIZABETH DIANE DOW NS, )) CV No. 96-900 HAPetitioner, )) AFFIDAVIT OFvs. ) CLAYTON NYSTEN

)SONYA HOYT, Superintendent, )Oregon W omen 's Correctional Center, ))Respondent. )

STATE OF OREGON )) ss.County of Lane )

I am a former acquaintance of James Claire Haynes. I first met Mr. Haynes in 1975,when I was a student at Tracy's Kenpo ka rate studio, in Eugene, Oregon. Haynes was about nineyears older than me, and also a confident, street-wise sort of person. Because I had always beenlacking in confidence, Haynes was someone I admired and becam e friends with. It was apparentto me from the start that Haynes was a violent person. One of his nicknames w as "Animal." I

t

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know that Jim was involved in hurting a lot of people. In fact I was one of the few people whocould be around h im, especially when he was using speed. There was one t ime when Haynesheld a gun to my head, an d others when he threatened me with a gun. I knew he was veryproficient with guns, knives, an d other weapons.

At that time, there were a group of people at the karate studio who w ere involved withmanufacturing drugs, buying an d selling guns, an d also doin g "collections." One of the karateinstructors was also doing "protection" work. Haynes was heav ily involved in drugmanufacturing, gu n running, an d other illegal things, and I got involved through him. I used tohang around an d watch Haynes' place fo r him, and go with him during drug deals.

In around 1983, Haynes and I were at a drug house for Hayn es to pick up some dope.W hile Haynes and I were wa iting for the deal to happen, a blond wom an came into the housewith another woman, and walked straight to a back room where the deals were taking place. Theblond woman seemed brash an d full of herself. Haynes and I waited and then heard a loud

argument between the drug dealer and the woman. The woman w as being told in very strongterms that she should not have gone waltzing into that room. I later realized, after I heard aboutthe D owns case on television and in the paper that the blond wom an I had seen was D ianeDow ns. I also saw D owns again once or twice at other places where drug dealing was takingplace. I think that D owns w as buying drugs for her personal use.

Then, in the summer of 1983,1 heard on the television about the Downs family beingshot. The newspaper also had a story about the shooting and a composite picture of the m an thatDow ns said had done it. My first thought after seeing the paper w as that the c omposite lookedvery much like Jim Haynes. The day after the shooting, in the morning, I wen t to see Jim at hisPAGE 2 - AFFIDAVIT OF CLAYTON NYSTEN


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place in Springfield. When I arrived at the house, I met with Jim in the bedroom he liked to callhis "office." He was sitting there with the Eugene Register Gu ard folded on his bed with thecomposite picture face up. The composite looked just like Mr. Haynes. Jim was dressed in cleanclothes and was clean shaven. It was very unusual to see Haynes like that because normally hewore grubby clothes and went unshaven. I told him about the Dow ns shooting but he did not sayanything. I asked Jim w hether he had read the paper or seen any thing about the shooting. Hesaid "No," which I thoug ht was odd because the paper was there on the bed.

The paper also mentioned an older model y ellow car being at the shooting site. Hayneshad a number of different older model cars back then, and one of them was yellow.

The day after that, I saw Haynes again, and he then told me he was the one who had shotthe Downs f am ily. Jim said that Downs had been to another place where she had seen drugpayoffs taking place and it was because of that, and the fact that she had been warned before. Ithink he was talking about the earlier time when I saw her at Lionel Johnson's house and she

went into the back room. Haynes never told me about the exact details of it but I understand thatJim had arranged with Downs for her to stop the car on that road and buy drugs from him. Jimtold m e the kids had been shot so as to teach her a lesson, and ma ke her suffer for the rest of herlife. There was some talk among people in "protection" back then that if you wanted to teach aperson a lesson you hurt their f amily rather than them .

Later that summer Haynes gave me a Ruger .22 caliber semi-automatic. I never reallythought much about it at the time, and I cannot say whether that was the weapon used to committhe crime. Later on Haynes wanted the Ruge r back and swapped it for a muc h more expen sive

iSmith an d Wesson handgun. He never told me why he wanted the Ruger back.PAGE 3 - AFFIDAVIT OF CLAYTON NYSTEN


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Haynes was a changed man after the Downs crime took place. He changed hisappearance an d went into h iding , living in remote rural areas. I helped him out with mo ney an dother things. Sometimes he would need to move really quickly, and I would help him move hisbelongings. The biggest change in Haynes after that was that he lost his nerve. It was as ifsomeone had removed his backbone.

I stayed loyal to Jim for a long time. I migh t never have said anything about al l this if Ihadn't been tracked down by Diane Downs' father. I told him the same story and I swore an

i*

affidavit about it. I have no personal reason to say any of these things about Jim Haynes. Iknow Jim has confessed to committing the crime to many people.

I know that Haynes now denies the crime and the confessions. He laughs about the factthat he denied the shootings on television. I know that H aynes confessed to me and many others.I personally believe that he is the killer.

Clayton NystenSUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO BEFORE ME this of

1998

OFFICIAL SEALNANCY JGREENSTREETNOTARY PUBLIOOREGONCOMMISSION NO037378

MY COMMISSIONEXPIRESAUG 25 1998 j

_fq/Oregon

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