haven t we, you don t negotiate with terrorists. michiel didn t know that. or michiel felt he could negotiate with terrorists. linda felt she could negotiate with terrorists. the reality is you can t negotiate with a terrorist. and mark stover was a domestic violence terrorist. keith morrison: mark s friends and clients had by now gathered around the courthouse here in mount vernon determined to tell the world, anybody who would listen, that those claims were both unfair and untrue. most of all these reports that we hear are filed by her alone and by her eyewitness alone and absolutely no one else s. so you ve got to weigh that in at some point too, that it doesn t have that much meat to it. woman: i just knew that wasn t true about him. there was there was nothing in him that was malicious or vindictive. keith morrison: and perhaps to answer them? a surprising and extremely unusual strategy. in mid-trial john henry browne brought
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, the person who s dead here is mark stover. yeah. he s the one against whom the violence was committed. here s something that we ve learned in this country,
reporter: why? was an explanation provided for this? no. reporter: before police left linda opdycke s house here in winthrop, he arrested michiel oakes on suspicion of murder. and back in western washington, a local buzz began to grow. if michiel oakes did kill mark stover, was someone else involved somehow? buzz is discouraged, however, in police work in favor of actual evidence, which in this case arrived in a phone call to police from her. michiel oakes, it turned out, had an ex-wife who volunteered a remarkable story about disturbing visits and puzzling messages from mr. oakes. what did that say to you? it says a lot to me.
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 in a town called kennewick, washington, when he was confronted by linda s ex, mark stover. michiel oakes: i was approached by mark stover out of the clear blue.
he s looking through the scope, pointing the rifle at me. keith morrison: and once, said linda, long after she left him, after mark agreed to plead guilty to the stalking charge, she visited their abandoned paradise, kiket island, to retrieve some personal things. and she said she found in a cubbyhole in the master bedroom a wedding candle that she d thrown away during the divorce. i found the wedding candle in there with a .22 bullet casing and a picture of me along with that in the cubbyhole. keith morrison: was it a message, a threat? in her cross-examination, it was pretty clear that prosecutor rosemary kaholokula was deeply skeptical about linda s fears and allegations. no proof at all from michiel s claims. and linda hadn t seen or heard a word from stover in the year and a half before he was killed. so what was she and oakes so frightened about?