Document text
Shady Cove murder suspect testifies By Nick Morgan Updated: Oct 28, 2022 05:55 PM A A Shane Ryan Michael Wayman testifies in front of his defense lawyer, Michael Bertholf, Friday during his homicide trial in Jackson County Circuit Court. Closing arguments will be Monday. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune] The man charged in the 2019 killing of 20-year-old Destiny Anne Finch took the stand Friday to describe what he said were his thoughts and emotions leading up to her death. Shane Ryan Michael Wayman’s defense lawyer brought in a forensic psychologist to provide an expert diagnosis Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court, while a deputy district attorney pressed Wayman on key omissions in his 2019 confession to a Jackson County Sheriff’s Office detective — most notably why Wayman initially denied involvement in the 2016 death of his aunt, Malina Nickel. Wayman is standing trial on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree abuse of a corpse accusing him of killing Finch with a baseball bat Nov. 11, 2020, as well as first-degree criminal mistreatment charges and second-degree abuse of a corpse charges accusing him of leaving Nickel in the woods during an opiate overdose in November 2016 rather than getting her help. Defense lawyer Michael Bertholf introduced evidence of extreme emotional disturbance. If 10 of the 12 jurors agree, it would downgrade the second-degree murder conviction to first-degree manslaughter. Wayman testified on the stand that he’d had a major argument with Finch and her fiancé, Tristan Walker. Wayman said he’d just lost his job at a hemp farm the day before the homicide, that his cat had gone missing, that his car was uninsured and that he’d overdrawn his bank account by more than $300. He came home to an eviction notice from Walker and Finch the next day. Wayman testified the events triggered a spiral of emotions. He fixated and ruminated that he was soon to be homeless, on the money he owed his bank, how he was unable to take care of his dog. “All these thoughts began rushing through my head,” Wayman testified. When questioned by Bertholf, Wayman said Walker and Finch “were his closest friends,” and he suddenly felt abandoned by them. For hours he sat in his room mulling over his troubles and thoughts that he had nowhere else to turn. “I just felt like my friends were cutting me off from their life,” Wayman added. He went to get a drink of water and encountered Finch in the apartment. He said he’d lost control by the time he grabbed a bat. He said he did not mean to kill her. Deputy District Attorney Lucy Durst pressed him on that. “Then why did you wrap her up and not call anybody?” Durst asked. He said he tried, but she died in his arms. When Durst asked how he knew, he said he checked her body for a pulse and checked for a heartbeat and found none. Instead he dumped her body in the woods — in a location similar to the one where Nickel’s body was later found. Durst asked why he didn’t own up to his involvement in his aunt’s death the morning he confessed to JCSO Detective David Seese about Finch, even after Seese asked him about Nickel. “For me, after three years of lying, it was easy for me to continue the lie,” Wayman said. He came clean a week later. Durst questioned similarities between the disposal of Finch and Nickel. For instance, he’d thrown both victims’ phones out the window. “You had to be thinking something to get rid of a phone,” Durst said. “Even in a panic you came up with logical next steps.” Wayman made no denials. “What I’m trying to do is give a full account of what happened,” Wayman said, adding that he wanted to give closure to his family and Finch’s family in the two deaths. “I am not here to deny what happened,” Wayman added. Forensic evaluator Dr. Kimberly Rideout testified she interviewed Wayman multiple times at the Oregon State Hospital. Based on those interviews and Oregon Department of Human Services, school and behavioral health records, she diagnosed him as having major depressive disorder, moderate cannabis use disorder and a trauma/stressor or related disorder at the time of the homicide. His case file showed a history of violent outbursts and abuse and neglect from his biological mother due to drug use. For instance, he was placed in foster care at age 11 after he intentionally set fire to his mother’s curtains. “It was pervasive and prolonged,” Rideout testified about Wayman’s ongoing childhood trauma. In childhood, such trauma impacts a person’s ability to regulate emotions. The defense rested its case Friday afternoon, according to Bertholf. Closing arguments in the case are scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Monday. Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.