mark seemed strangely obsessed with getting his wedding photos back from linda, just one of many transcripts of these calls the attorney read from. send those dang pictures of the wedding. i know you re into the wedding. you don t give a damn about me. i don t want anything showing that we were married or anything else. keith morrison: the defense told the jury that linda s attorney told mark to stop contacting her directly, only go through his office. but of course, he keeps contacting her and contacting her and contacting her, because mark stover is dogged in the pursuit of his prey. keith morrison: prey? an interesting word, very deliberately picked by the defense, because now they would argue that michiel oakes also became prey for mark stover, would claim that a terrified oakes believed something unspeakable would happen if he didn t try to appease linda s ex. i mean, the fact of the matter is, you talk about domestic violence terrorist,
and there he is, standing in the bathroom with a gun in his hand. and you thought your house was locked. how many of those occasions does it take before you go, any room i m in, any moment, i have to be ready. and that s the scenario that linda lived in for at least two years. keith morrison: and then, as he worked out a protection plan for linda, he said, something unexpected happened. michiel oakes: we really resonated, really worked well together and connected on a very heart and soul level. so it was a romance. yeah. it definitely it definitely became a romance. keith morrison: and so michiel, the diminutive single dad and security expert, and linda, the beautiful, tall, golden-haired daughter of privilege, embarked on a life together, along with his kids. and then one day in late may, 2009, said oakes, he was getting into his car in a costco parking lot
things to say about him. but now it was clear oakes attorneys would use whatever evidence they could to paint the dog trainer as a threatening, gun-loving predator, someone michiel oakes would have feared. and here, the real work of the defense began. they focused to a large degree on stover s behavior with his ex-wife. linda opdycke, said browne, was stalked and harassed for years after leaving stover. it wasn t just the incident in which her ex-husband was caught rummaging through her garbage. he made a habit of showing up at her house uninvited, said browne, exposing himself, appearing in her bathroom as she got out of the shower, pointing a rifle at her through a window, leaving handwritten notes, threatening voicemails. the fact that he goes into linda s house with a .45 and puts it on a pillow and threatens to kill himself or her, the fact that he breaks into her house, the fact that he steals her journal, the fact that he steals her garbage, the fact you know, all those things
keith morrison: and in case we didn t get it michiel oakes: the lens i look at the world through is really that of a single dad. i am a nurturer. i m a father. i m a very peaceable person. i just happen to be a single dad who s kind of in a very unfortunate limelight right now. keith morrison: well, yes, charged with first-degree murder. so how did he get to this place? the story began, he said, when someone asked him to contact a frightened woman he did not know. that s how he made that first call to linda opdycke. and she said, i m dealing with a really frightening stalking situation. keith morrison: michiel, remember, was a security expert. he d trained swat teams in close quarters combat. he offered to help. she put in my hands this very thick file, including video recordings, audio recordings, police reports, page after page, threatening voicemails. keith morrison: linda told him she d been stalked for years by her ex-husband. michiel oakes: you get out of the shower
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.