she s calling him on the cell phone. he s following her. she s pleading with him to stop it and quit following her. keith morrison: that time, said the defense, linda called the cops. and he responded, according to her, by sending her a form canceling her health insurance, which was still in his name, controlling, threatening, suggested oakes lawyer. mark stover has scrawled across the front, next time do not call the cops on the guy that controls your health care. keith morrison: and then the defense attorney showed the jury this video from linda s surveillance cameras. in the middle of the night, here s a man the defense claimed is mark stover creeping around linda s house. corbin volluz: what you see is mark stover walking up the driveway and under her house, out of view of the camera. keith morrison: but that wasn t all. there was a series of odd and threatening voicemail messages, said the defense, many with a similar theme.
to finally make its case, browne s co-counsel corbin volluz did his best to drive the allegations home. when linda said she wanted to be separated from mark in 2005, he did not take it well. keith morrison: what followed, claimed the defense, were many examples of bad behavior, mark following her into a beauty salon. corbin volluz: mark stover walks in unannounced. he gives a card to linda saying he will never let her go. keith morrison: mark showing up at her place uninvited. corbin volluz: he grabs her by her shoulders and says he can t let her go. keith morrison: apparently spying on her when linda slept with mark s ex-best-friend. the next morning, linda gets a phone call from mark stover. and then, to linda s horror, mark stover begins to describe in graphic detail the intimacy that linda had been sharing the night before. keith morrison: and sitting in his car outside her home.
nothing further. keith morrison: and the witness left the stand. dateline wanted to talk to linda opdycke. but she did not respond to our interview request. and as for her father, wally opdycke, his lawyer e-mailed this statement. wallace opdycke had absolutely no involvement or prior knowledge of michiel oakes murder of mark stover. rumors and innuendo to the contrary are baseless and unfair. mark stover was a domestic violence terrorist. john henry browne closed with a powerful recitation of his theme, that mark stover was the bad guy. but even so, he said, oakes didn t want or plan to kill him. you don t premeditate up just to the point of shooting somebody. you premeditate the entire scenario. and what happened after this tragic event is absurd.
as the prosecution put on its case against michiel oakes, rolled out chapter and verse of the evidence pointing to oakes as the murderer of dog whisperer mark stover, browne said practically nothing. why? strategy, said john henry browne. we put them through the task of putting on a lot of evidence. and it was just kind of boring them. and so we wanted to be the people who brought light into this case. keith morrison: so what was the light in this case, the secret twist? the evidence shows and demonstrates beyond any shadow of a doubt for any reasonable person that mark stover was a domestic violence terrorist. keith morrison: terrorist? the villain was not his client, michiel oakes, said browne, but the victim, mark stover. remember, mark s friends and clients had nothing but good
wedding albums, photos. and i had to get them to him or else. what d you say? you know, i was my head was spinning. i was so much in shock i didn t say much. i listened to him. i think i nodded several times. i don t remember saying anything. keith morrison: but michiel oakes, the security, weapons, and hand-to-hand combat expert, the trainer of police swat teams, did feel something, he said. michiel oakes: for six months of 2009, i lived in a perpetual state of fear. keith morrison: too afraid, even, to call the police. i didn t have video proof. i didn t have audio proof. i didn t even have a witness. keith morrison: and so, according to michiel, he tried to appease mark stover and looked for the wedding photos.