Or someone who's buying supplies to go kill someone? Famed defense attorney John Henry Brown, who once represented notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, says there's no connection between Oakes' Walmart shopping spree and murder.
That doesn't mean he went there with premeditation. Oakes says the bullet hole in his Kevlar vest proves Stover shot him. But prosecutor Rich Weyrich believes Oakes shot his own vest. Detective Dan Luvera took "48 Hours" back to Stover's house at the exact time he believes Oakes attacked. Ding comes outside, in this driveway area where I believe Michiel Oakes shot Ding several times," he explained.
I believe Mark Stover got shot right where we're standing and quickly retreated back into the house I don't know what it was Police believe Oakes didn't report it because he had committed murder.
Oakes admits to putting Stover's lifeless body in the back of his SUV, but he's never revealed to investigators where he got rid of it. Nearly one year to the day Mark Stover was gunned down at his house, Michiel Oakes goes on trial for his murder.
Prosecutor Rosemary Kaholokula begins the case by connecting the dots between Oakes and Stover's ex-wife, Linda Opdycke. Number two, that the defendant killed him," Kaholokula said in her opening statement. Opdycke was armed to the teeth Oakes became her 'bodyguard. A bodyguard, prosecutors say, who became an assassin -- shooting an unarmed Mark Stover in his home.
He didn't have any. They meticulously present a mountain of evidence against Oakes, beginning with two women who saw him moving what may have been Mark Stover's body. It looked like a big huge roll of plastic," Tami Gilden testified. The jurors see the damning Walmart video and learn about shell casings recovered from outside Stover's home that match Oakes'. Then, Jennifer Thompson -- who asked her face not be shown in court -- tells the story that links her ex-husband directly to Stover's killing But he killed someone.
How do you not go forward with that? But the defense had a strategy to turn the tables on the prosecution, saying the real victim in this case is Michiel Oakes. And then he did it only in self-defense," defense attorney Corbin Volluz told the court. With his freedom hanging in the balance, Michiel Oakes must now convince 12 jurors that Stover's threat was real. Oakes then put on that Kevlar vest he wore at Stover's house and demonstrates for the court how he acted in self-defense after Stover shot him.
In the demonstration, Oakes lunges at his attorney, Corbin Volluz, grabs his left arm and tackles him to the ground. Was that the way you did that? Oakes even had an explanation for that shopping trip to Walmart. He says the supplies - the rope, the weights and the camouflage - would only be used if Stover sent out his attack dog. Oakes' plan was to flee to a nearby water tower. Dan Luvera said, looking up at the water tower. Oakes then reveals the secret so many people have longed to hear -- where he put Mark Stover's body.
But Oakes has a problem. Authorities searched that very spot just days after Stover disappeared Oakes' defense team is now ready to call a dramatic witness -- a former employee who will crush investigator's claims that Stover was unarmed. Meghan Mataya will testify that Stover invited her on a hunting trip just two months before his death and asked her to carry his gun. Mataya is also the only other person who can back up Oakes' claim that Stover was indeed stalking him. But in a decision that cripples the defense, the judge rules there is no way to verify that Meghan Mataya's story is true and she is not allowed to testify.
Michiel Oakes' life now depends on someone who had remained in the shadows, refusing to speak to investigators: his lover, Linda Opdycke. She is now willing to come forward to save his future. And he had a pistol in his hand, and laid it on the pillow next to my head," she testified.
With Opdycke captive on the stand, the prosecutor zeros in -- raising the possibility that Opdycke was somehow involved in Stover's murder.
Prosecutor Rosemary Kaholokula : Isn't it true that if this is a case of self-defense, it gets you off the hook, too? Prosecutor Rosemary Kaholokula : If a jury were to find that this was self-defense, you wouldn't have anymore liability either, would you? He started a gun fight and I won. As the agonizing wait drags on for three days, Mark Stover's sister, Vickie Simmons, worries the jury is deadlocked and prepares herself for the possibility of an acquittal.
Inside the courthouse, the jurors comb through the mountain of evidence, assembling a foot timeline and elaborate fact sheets to help them find the truth. After four long days of examining the evidence, the jurors voted for the first time and it was unanimous. Stover's family and the investigators gather on one side of the courtroom; the Oakes family on the other. Oakes said he agreed to meet with Stover at his home on Oct. Before the meeting, Oakes testified, he armed himself, donned a bulletproof vest and put together a getaway bag with the camouflage clothing, the weights and the rope.
Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report, which includes information from Times archives. Sara Jean Green: or sgreen seattletimes. Show caption. The check was dated August , about two months before Stover was killed. He left no will. Awesome man!!! Linda will burn…. Just listened to the Dateline story. Oakes made a horrible mistake to try to be the knight in shining armor for Linda. Nice self defense claim… lol, you get rid of the body, and all the evidence….
Horsehead Opdycke hired, I mean seduced a man to murder her former husband.
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