DIANE DOWNS: MURDERER OR VICTIM
YOU BE THE JURY
MURDER ON OLD MOHAWK ROAD
Click here to find out
about: $100,000 Reward
If you have comments or questions, go to: drdue1@hotmail.com Be sure to put Diane
Downs in the subject line.
I think it
is important for everyone to know why I believe Diane Downs didn't shoot her
children. Following is a list of reasons:
1. James Jagger,
Attorney for the defense, said 383 leads that might have proved Diane's
innocence, were withheld by the prosecution. He said "he had made numerous
requests for discovery, including requests for exculpatory material under
Brady v. Maryland". He also said, "I felt I was at a great
disadvantage to have been denied access to reports and notes corroborating
Ms, Downs' version of events". Go
to: James Jagger affidavit.pdf
2. Trace metal tests were
performed on Diane the night of the shooting. They were negative: Go to: ANTIMONY AND BARIUM
3. The shooter (according to
the state) was well within the car and would therefore be covered with gun shot
residue. Diane was not. Go to: ANTIMONY
AND BARIUM
4. The shooter was covered
with blood spatter and the ceiling of the car was . Diane was not.
Go to: BLOOD SPATTER
5. The gun, Ruger #14-76187
that Diane was convicted with was subsequently found in a drug raid in Perris,
California. Tests were run to determine if the ballistics matched the
casings from the shooting site. They didn't!!!
6. Why do you
think the prosecuting attorney would adopt the children and then have another
attorney send a letter to their grandparents instructing them to not to visit
them? Go to: Hugi.letter1.pdf
7. In 1993 we found people who were willing to swear
that someone had confessed that he was the one who shot the Downs
children. Their affidavits are listed below. Do you think the
composite that was drawn on the night of the shooting looks like the confessed
murderer? His friends thought it looked just like him. Look at him
and decide for yourself and then read the affidavits.
A CONFESSED MURDERER
Just two days after Diane
and her children were shot, James Claire Haynes
began confessing to
his friends and family that he was the one who killed Cheryl Downs and
critically wounded Christie and Danny Downs. Sworn affidavits attest to
Jim Haynes confessions. On November 10, 1993 Jim Haynes partner, Clayton
Nysten told me on page three of his sworn affidavit: "Two days
after the shooting, Mr. Haynes told me that he was the one who shot the Downs
woman and her kids." See: Clayton Nysten. pdf On February 24, 1998, Mr. Nysten told the
Federal Public Defenders
on page three of a sworn affidavit: "The day after that, I saw
Haynes again, and then he told me he was the one who had shot the Downs
family." Go to: Clayton Nysten.2.pdf
The wife of James Haynes
had this to say about him: "During our marriage, Haynes
physically assaulted me many times. Haynes has held a loaded 9 mm pistol in my
mouth and a .357 magnum to my temple, threatening to shoot me. Haynes attacked
me and broke my nose. On one occasion, during another argument, Haynes threw my
newborn baby down the stairs. Haynes attacked me so many times it is difficult
to remember them all, but I can/will never forget the violence and horrible
crimes he has committed, nor the confessions he has made to me of brutal murders
in the Willamette Valley area. Mr. Haynes has told me he is the stranger
who shot the Downs family...." To read her affidavit, go
to: Phyllis
Haynes.pdf or listen to what Phyllis had to say in a
recorded conversation: ..."He has beat me bloody many times...."
Listen to it by going to: Phyllis
Haynes(128Kbs).mp3
Do you still have
doubts? Listen to what Dan Newby had to
say: Dan Newby(128Kbps).mp3 Or
just read his affidavit: Dan
Newby.pdf Now compare the photograph of Jim Haynes
taken in early 1983 with the composite given to Detective Dick Tracy on the
night of the shooting.
Look at the eyes, the nose
and the shag haircut. Do you see the cheekbones? The similarities
are there for you to see.
Teresa Nyjordet said: I was
riding with Haynes in his red Corvette. We were on our way to Creswell when he
suddenly told me he was the stranger who shot the Downs family.
Go to: Teresa
Nyjordet.pdf if you want the whole story.
Janet Rexroad said: When I asked him if he had shot the Downs family, he
admitted it said it was a hired hit. I told him the picture looked just like
him, and he replied, "Yea, but they'll never catch me." Read the affidavit Janet Rexroad.pdf
Cecilia Nysten,
Clayton Nysten's ex-wife, makes a few very interesting comments in her
affidavit about both Jim Haynes and Clayton Nysten:
Clayton
and I then went to Jim Haynes' house. Haynes was sitting on the bed
reading the paper about the case. Clayton asked Haynes whether he was the one
who had done it. Haynes confessed that he had committed the crime. Go to: Cecilia Nysten.pdf
Quote by Wesley
Frederickson: "I've seen the
place Cecilia Nysten spoke about. It's a pond on Clayton Nysten's
property and I was told they disposed of weapons in that pond if they didn't
want anyone to find them. I was told they covered the weapons with
cosmoline and placed them in plastic bags to prevent rust."
When I interviewed Sandy
Capps in 1993, her name was Sandy Stichler. She was baby sitting Jim
Haynes' children when I met with her. She shared a lot of very pertinent
information, but was afraid to make an affidavit so I never included it in any
of my writings. When the Federal Public Defenders interviewed Sandy
Stichler in 1998, her name was Sandy Capps she agreed to sign an
affidavit then changed her mind because she was afraid. In the affidavit
the Federal Public Defenders made of their conversation with Sandy Capps, she
said: "Haynes
then asked me what I would think if he had shot kids. When he said that I got
really nervous. Jim Haynes then told me he had shot Diane Downs' kids and that
it really changed his life". To
read more, go to: Sandy
Capps.pdf
On August 28, 1993,
the first person to share with me about James Haynes' confessions of guilt, was
Fran Wirta. Listen to what Fran had to say: Fran Wirta (128Kbs).mp3
Now read what she had to say: Fran Wirta.pdf Roxie Haynes was afraid to give
an affidavit: Roxie Ann Haynes.pdf
If you are going to shoot
someone, it's very important to hold a gun. Sounds silly doesn't
it? The night of the shooting, they did a trace metal test to see if
Diane had held a gun. Diane remarked that the police sprayed her hands
with a substance on the night of the shooting. She said she had a small
cut on her hand and the spray burned a little bit. She said they sprayed
her hands until the substance dripped onto the floor. This is called a
Trace Metal Test and the purpose is to determine whether or not you have held a
gun. The Trace Metal Tests came back negative. Diane did not hold the murder weapon. She did not shoot her
children. Go to: ANTIMONY AND BARIUM
There's more, but by now
you must be wondering what about the evidence? Isn't the evidence
weighted heavily against Diane? A few years after she was convicted, the
Federal Public Defenders decided to get the evidence files and were shocked at
the lies of Detective Douglas Welch. He insisted that all records had
been destroyed when they weren't. The Sheriff's Office said they were
following leads during the trial, when they weren't. In court, they told
the attorney for the defense there were no more leads. Roy Pond testified
there were only 30 to 35 leads. Judge Gregory Foote said he had a problem
with that detective's testimony. In 1998, the Federal Public Defenders
requested all the records that were held regarding this investigation and
any possible leads that might still be available. They were told by Detective Doug Welch the records
had been destroyed. The Federal Public Defenders pursued this
issue even further and found, according to William Teesdale of the Federal
Public Defenders Office: "On
March 4, 1998, Ms. Willis and I returned to the Lane County Sheriff's Office
and spent a full day copying the material from the three boxes, amounting to
about 4700 pages of documents..." Read the affidavit of William Teesdale: Teesdale affidavit.pdf
When Diane filed an appeal,
Judge Malcolm Marsh made many decisions that could have easily have been
decided in Diane's favor.
Judge Marsh writes:
The "miscarriage of justice" exception to procedural default is
limited to habeas petitioners who can show that "a constitutional
violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually
innocent." Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 327 (1995) (citing Murray v.
Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 496 (1986)).
To demonstrate actual innocence petitioner must show "that it is more
likely than not that no 'reasonable juror' would have convicted [her]" of
the offense she was found guilty of had they been appraised of the new
evidence. Schlup, 513 U.S. at 329; Van Buskirk v. Baldwin, 265 F.3d 1080, 1084
(9th Cir.2001), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 950 (2002).
Petitioner argues that she is "actually innocent of any 'dangerous
offender' determination," as evidenced by the above referenced attachments
to her original petition. However, neither the Ninth Circuit nor this court has
expanded the actual innocence exception to permit a petitioner to attack a
noncapital sentence. See Gandarela v. Johnson, 286 F.3d 1080, 1085 (9^th Cir.
2001); Dockery v. Thompson, No. CV-00-1022-GMK (D.Or., Sep.9, 2002), aff'd, 82
Fed. Appx. 552, 2003 WL 22783243 (9th Cir.2003); Jenkins v. Johnson, 2006 WL 1185666
at 5 (D. Or., Jan. 13, 2006). In any event, petitioner's evidence does not rise
to the level necessary under Schlup. Accordingly, her procedural default is not
excused.
Now
you must wonder what 'reasonable juror' wouldn't have wondered at the reason
the sheriff's office withheld 4700 pages of documents and then lied by saying
there were only 30 to 35 leads. That same 'reasonable juror' might also
wonder about the "constitutional violation" that was overlooked by
the courts to gain a conviction.
I know, it must just be her father talking, or is it?
Read Dr. Debra
Frisch's comments about Judge Malcolm Marsh's decision: Judge
Malcolm Marsh\Document.rtf
The Murder Weapon.
Diane moved from Arizona to
Oregon in early April 1983 and the shooting was on May 19, 1983. The
State said Diane used Steve Downs' gun to shoot her children. Diane said
the gun was in Arizona with her ex-husband. She said she didn't have the
gun, so I ran an ad in the Arizona Republic newspaper for a week in 1984,
offering a reward for Ruger #14-76187. This ad resulted in a letter from
Prescott, Arizona from a man saying he had the gun: Gun Response.pdf It was learned later that the man
who sent the letter worked as a security guard at Fort Whipple, just outside of
Prescott. The Sheriff's Office in Oregon eventually gave a press release
that the report was a hoax. The
newspaper article said that Detective Diffendaffer of the Prescott, Arizona
police department had conducted the investigation.
A few
years later I contacted Detective Diffendaffer to discuss his
investigation. According to Detective Diffendaffer, Detective Dick
Tracy, from Oregon conducted the investigation alone. He did not go with Detective Tracy
on the investigation. A few months later the gun was found in a drug raid
in Perris, California. This is the area where Detective Tracy had been
employed before moving to Oregon. Lane County, Oregon recovered the
weapon and ran tests to determine if it was the gun used in the shooting.
The ballistics from the shooting site didn't match Ruger #14-76187. The gun Diane had been convicted of using to shoot
her children was not the murder weapon. The State's
theory that Diane had used that pistol in the shooting of her children was in
jeopardy, so the State then decided she must have used another gun.
Go to: DEVIANT SOCIOPATH
ANTIMONY AND BARIUM
BALLISTICS BLOOD SPATTER MURDER WEAPON