Tremayne Durham still wants his money back.

Three years ago Durham killed one man and held another hostage in an unsuccessful attempt to get back $18,000 he thought he was due. He is now serving a life sentence in the Oregon State Penitentiary, but he hasn't given up trying to collect. Today, he's using the courts instead of a .357 magnum -- and so far, he's having more success.

Durham has filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court against Rob Chambers, whom he paid nearly $18,000 to build a soft-serve ice-cream truck in December 2005. Durham changed his mind a few months later and when he couldn't get a refund, killed one of Chambers' former employees. Later he showed up at Chambers' house and jabbed a gun in his stomach and held him hostage for two hours.

Durham was sent to prison last year. He filed his neatly handwritten suit in February, seeking money for the truck and an extra $20,000 to cover, among other things, the cost of traveling from his home state of New York to Oregon in his personal collection attempt.

In Multnomah County, civil suits under $50,000 are automatically sent to an arbitrator to resolve. The arbitrator assigned to this case issued a draft ruling earlier this month in Durham's favor because Chambers failed to respond to repeated letters requesting he participate in hearings.

Now, Chambers says he feels victimized all over again.

Chambers, who doesn't have the money to hire an attorney, says he never got the letters and thought the case had been dismissed.

"He's terrorizing me," said Chambers, 39. "...That's the good ol' American way: He can sue me. I'm just amazed that they would even see this case."

Arbitrator John G. Crawford told Chambers in a letter that he "will have an uphill battle in arbitration" because he admitted in writing that Durham paid him.

A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, to give Chambers one last chance to argue his case.

Chambers, who says he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, says he doesn't have the money to pay Durham. Since he was held hostage, his fledgling business has failed. He said he's been fired from jobs because of he tends to blow up at others under stress. He's sold almost everything of value that he owns, including the truck he was building for Durham.

What's more, he doesn't think he should have to pay the man who held him hostage and killed his former employee, Adam Calbreath, 39. Chambers suspects that Durham killed Calbreath because Calbreath wouldn't tell the killer where to find him.

"How do I live with that guilt?" Chambers said, tears filling his eyes.

He says he jumps whenever he hears a doorbell, because it reminds him of the afternoon Durham showed up on his front porch, brandishing the same gun he used to kill Calbreath. Durham also brought along duct tape, handcuffs, gloves and a cloth bag big enough to cover someone's head.

"He's like, 'I've been robbing people and killing people to get to you. I just want my money!'" Chambers said.

Prosecutors would later praise Chambers for keeping calm and talking Durham into letting him leave the house. Chambers assured Durham that he wasn't trying to cheat him and showed him the ice cream truck, still under construction in his garage.

Chambers told Durham he was wrong not to have returned his money and promised to do so. Then he heated up a plate of ribs, and sat Durham down to watch a movie. Chambers gave Durham a long story about how he had to find parts to finish another customer's truck, in order to get paid and have money to pay him. Durham agreed.

Instead, Chambers immediately summoned police, who surrounded the home and took Durham into custody.

In response to Durham's $48,000 suit, Chambers has filed a handwritten counterclaim seeking $48,000 for battery, false imprisonment and the trauma he's suffered since Durham held him hostage.

The arbitrator denied Chambers' counterclaim in his draft ruling.

Durham's pursuit of cash from prison raised eyebrows in Multnomah County Circuit Court. But that's nothing new.

Last year, Durham agreed to plead guilty to aggravated murder and save the state from an expensive death-penalty trial if the judge agreed to let him feast on his favorite foods. The judge agreed, and Durham sat down to a smorgasbord of KFC chicken, Popeyes fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, carrot cake and Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Two weeks later, at his sentencing, he dined on calzones, pizza and lasagna.

The unusual deal made international headlines.

If the arbitrator rules in favor of Durham, Chambers can appeal and ask for a trial. Josh Lamborn, a former deputy district attorney who prosecuted Durham, thinks the convicted killer would be the one with the uphill battle before a jury.

"I don't think a jury is going to be very sympathetic," said Lamborn, who now works in private practice.

Although he was vaguely aware of why Durham was in prison, Crawford, the arbitrator, said he based his draft order on the court file before him: Durham claimed he never got a ice-cream truck or his money back. Chambers admitted in writing that Durham paid for the truck.

"All I had in front of me were those papers," Crawford said.

Chambers did not say that the truck was under construction and he intended to give it to Durham. And Durham did not mention that he was in jail on murder and kidnapping charges and could not take possession of the truck.

Crawford sent Chambers two certified letters notifying him that he must submit a statement and attend an arbitration hearing, but Chambers didn't respond.

Chambers, who was working temporarily as a long-haul trucker, said he wasn't home to receive the letters and didn't go to the post office to pick them up. Chambers said he thought the case was over when he received a letter notifying him that a judge had dismissed his now-defunct company from the suit in June. Chambers said he didn't realize that he was still listed as a plaintiff.

Then earlier this month he discovered he was wrong when he found the draft order in Durham's favor taped to his door.

He's upset about having to take part in arbitration Wednesday and listen to the man who once held him at gunpoint. Durham will attend the hearing by telephone from prison.

"I just start crying for no reason," Chambers said.

It's ironic that Durham is suing him now, said Chambers, reflecting on how differently things might have turned out if Durham had gone to court instead of coming to Oregon with a gun.

"Adam would still be alive," Chambers said. "He wouldn't be in prison. I wouldn't be tormented."