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,
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
and i get to do that. i get to provide that for them. miss opdycke, raise your right hand. keith morrison: for months and months, since the murder of mark stover, his ex-wife linda opdycke had maintained absolute public silence. in the face of questions from police and prosecutors, she invoked her fifth amendment right.
jennifer thompson: he told me that there was a potential job coming up that he was interested in taking about a woman and an ex-spouse that was harassing her. the father of the woman was initiating the job. keith morrison: a father with a daughter named linda. and it seems there was a plan in store for linda s ex-husband. jennifer thompson: and they would basically use linda as sort of bait to lure the ex-spouse toward her. and then they would, were to show signs of hurting her or killing her, then they would take him out. sheriff: ok, and by taking him out, you meant, or you understood that to be they would kill him. jennifer thompson: right. keith morrison: linda and her father? could that be wally and linda opdycke, the police wondered, mark stover s ex father-in-law and ex-wife plotting to kill him? it was a wild story jennifer told,
and saying really horrible things about him to damaging the business. she called and tried to shut the website down, tried to shut his phones down. keith morrison: which is why, again, this is the story teresa said mark told her, why he snooped in her garbage one march morning in 2008. this was a three-hour drive from his own house. he went there, said teresa, to look for a paper trail to prove linda wanted to destroy his business. you know, divorce is never, never pleasant, but theirs just became very visible. and the fighting involved the business. keith morrison: he was afraid of losing it. very much so. keith morrison: after the garbage incident, linda came up with a whole slew of accusations. that mark had been harassing her ever since she left him. a domestic violence protection order was issued against mark in april 2008. mark was later charged with criminal stalking. he swore up and down that many of the allegations were not true. but he was caught going through her garbage,