threats to his children, all of that fear. i mean, who else says that besides you and what evidence is it that he ever said such a thing? said such a thing as? that he was threatening your kids. well, keith, it s been the problem. i survived that day in october. i was still alive. my life continued on, and we have yet to see if the state is going to finish the job for him or not. and i understand i m in a bit of a fix. do you solemnly affirm the testimony you re about to give in this matter will be the truth, the whole truth now he ll tell his story to the jury. would they believe it? coming up, the story comes complete with dramatic re-enactments. what did you do? that was amazingly fast, mr. oakes. is that the way you did that? that s how i was trained. when dateline continues.
big-time stuff, yeah. why? was an explanation provided for this? no. 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. it was the ex. didn t she want him back? he was just sitting there but frenzied.
him? i went and i got shot. and i won. so because i won the gunfight, i know that i will not be standing on the side of my children s graves and people aren t going to be patting me on the back and saying, there s nothing you could have done. i did. oakes claimed mark stover shot first. thus the claim he now made. it was self-defense. even though no evidence ever surfaced to suggest stover was in possession of any firearm at all or that stover had ever arranged any meeting with oakes. and as for the story that he was a hired gun for the opdyckes, just not true, said michiel oakes. a great many people believe that one or both of the opdyckes are involved. were they involved? not at all. but of course it was all michiel s story. about a crazed dog whisperer,
oakes, apparently not aware he was being watched, took a white bag out of his car, said the officer and tossed it over a 20-foot embankment outside linda s house. he immediately questioned michiel about what he threw over the embankment. michiel said it was garbage. garbage? garbage. but they went to retrieve that bag of garbage. what was actually in it? it was a gun. inside michiel oakes garbage was a.22 caliber browning pistol. also in the bag, a bloody swatch of carpet and an overwhelming odor of bleach. and then here s what they found inside linda s house. bizarre. oh, there was all sorts of ammunition and guns, firearms on magnets behind tapestries, firearms in drawers. loaded guns all over this house. including semiautomatic weapons and big-time stuff? yes.
the judge to be sentenced. though first, michiel oakes had a thing or two to say. i wish to express the sincere and heartfelt remorse that i carry due to my actions and apologize to all that i ve harmed through my poor judgment. first, i would like to apologize to members of mr. stover s family and all those friends and clients who clearly cared so much for him. i also wish to apologize to members of my own family who have cared for me all of my life and who have now sacrificed everything for my legal representation and to enable my bail pending trial. but oakes did not withdraw his claim of self-defense. he stuck to his story. and the judge just didn t buy it. i believe we re still a long ways from the truth as to what actually happened on october 28th, 2009. truth, as the judge told the court, seems elusive still in