[woman] I look back and…
I think I've always had a hard time believing that there is evil in people…
until I met him…
and I saw evil firsthand.
Hurtin' a woman?
It's not somethin' that I would do, you know? Uh, uh…
Far as puttin' my hands on 'em or, you know, uh… just abusin' 'em.
You know what I mean? Uh, uh… I… That's not who I am.
I don't like to be lied to. I don't like to be taken advantage of.
You know? And when I feel that I'm bein' taken advantage of,
you're gonna see another side of me that's not gonna be good.
[man 1] I'd rather be considered a murderer than a stalker,
you know what I mean?
[woman] I wanted the intensity of, like, of her feeling watched.
[man 2] Anybody can be a stalker.
[man 3] It's all boogeyman talk.
[man 4] I'm not still that crazy. Like-- [chuckles]
[birdsong]
[train horn blaring]
My name is Terry Dwayne Morrison. Um…
I was incarcerated for aggravated stalking.
I-- I received four years.
I grew up in Dallas, Texas.
I guess I was kind of rebellious. You know, I didn't…
I didn't go to school, you know, like I was supposed to.
I felt I was at a disadvantage because my mom worked.
My dad was a truck driver, so I didn't really have the support in the stands.
You know, people cheerin' me on and stuff like that.
I saw my dad abuse my mom a couple times.
But I got three other brothers, and we--
as we grew up, you know, when my dad wanted to abuse my mom,
we would step in.
We would take the pain or the-- the beatings for my mother,
you know, just because she didn't deserve, you know, to get hit.
I finally ran away from home,
and from 11 to maybe 17 years old, I ran with gangs.
[Morrison] I met my ex, Sadie, on a dating website.
Our age was the same, you know.
She--she was kind of, like, independent, you know what I mean? She was…
She wasn't a high-maintenance lady.
She was more of a homebody. That-- that what attracted me to her.
Our first date, uh… she called me on my job.
I was workin' in a restaurant, and she wanted to come by the restaurant.
So I invited her to have lunch with me that day.
And, uh… it made me feel good.
She was a nice lady, you know what I mean?
We spent a lot of time together, you know, just, uh,
goin' bike ridin', um… to the movies,
um… you know, doin' a lot of different things that I like doing.
[birdsong]
My name is Sadie, and I am a stalking survivor.
I met Terry probably around May or June of 2013.
A few of the friends that I worked with were really big into Internet dating,
and so they talked me into going on a dating site, which I did.
And I had gone out with several people before I met Terry.
My first impressions of him were, he seemed really shy and he seemed nice.
You know, we were able to communicate quite well.
We did exchange phone numbers and started texting.
But I remember thinking he really wasn't my type.
And then…
about the time I was about to lose my job,
I guess I just needed somebody to talk to, so it kind of took off from there.
[Morrison] For a couple months, I'd text her every morning.
"Have a great day at work," and stuff like that.
And she did the same thing for me.
We kept seeing each other for about maybe three months.
She would always ask me,
"Why don't you move in? We're always together."
And I would always change the subject, because, like I said,
I wasn't really seekin' a-- a relationship, um…
where I was totally committed.
[birdsong]
[Sadie] He was getting kicked out of the place he was living,
and I felt sorry for him,
so I told him he could stay with me.
But I remember telling him when he did move in with me,
that as soon as I finished school in a year,
I was planning to move and he was not going with me.
Well, at first, it was okay. Just normal stuff.
Cooking dinner, working, and watching TV.
And then gradually, I started seeing him change.
He would get a little possessive.
Like, if I was sitting in the kitchen on my computer
and he was sitting in the living room watching TV,
he would want me to sit right by him the whole time.
And I would be like, "I don't understand why I can't do what I wanna do
if you're doing what you wanna do."
That's when I'm starting to think, "I think I made a mistake here."
[cicadas chirping]
[Morrison] Our relationship turned bad maybe a month after I moved in.
There was a couple times that different guys stopped by the house
bringin' back movies or, you know, she asked me to cook her a meal
that the food that was there, I didn't put that in the refrigerator.
So I'm like, well…
"Where did you… where did you get that?" You know what I mean?
She wouldn't give me no answers.
I kind of had feelings for the lady.
I just wanted to know if she was cheatin' on me, you know?
But she would never give me no answers.
[Sadie] I was trying to think of ways to get rid of him,
and I did tell him that he needed to find another place to live,
because I didn't think we were very compatible.
And as soon as I told him that,
that's when things started becoming violent.
[cicadas chirping]
One night, we had been watching TV and sitting on the couch,
and we had been talking.
Terry had talked a lot about changing his life and doing different things,
and I said to him, "You know, Terry, if you want to change your life
and have a better life, you need to lose this gang mentality,
because it's not gonna get you anywhere in life."
And he-- he got real quiet, and he didn't say one word.
Well, he went to bed and I just--
I stayed there watching TV probably for about another 30 minutes,
and then I went into bed.
I was about to doze off,
and the next thing I know is he took his foot
and put it on my hip and shoved me out of bed.
I went skipping along the floor,
and I was half awake, and I remember thinking,
"Well, maybe he just stretched and he didn't mean to do it."
You know, because I was kind of, like, groggy and half asleep, half awake.
So I got back in bed, and the next thing I knew,
he was on top of me with his hands around my neck.
It was just like I was a rag doll, just flopping all over the bed.
And…
I thought that was it.
In my head was this voice that said,
"Don't fight. Just go with it. It's gonna be over soon."
And he stopped, and he got up,
and he went out of the bedroom.
After that, I got up and went to the bathroom.
And that's when the whole, um… white of my eye was blood-red.
And I bled from my bowels for three days straight.
I honestly believe I was close to death.
[crows cawing]
[Morrison] It was a Friday night that we-- I came home with her
from babysittin' her-- her grandbabies.
So I was like, "Well, I gotta go to work in the morning."
So the next mornin', um, she wakes up. She's got a black eye.
She tells me that, um… I hit her. And I'm like, "No."
Because when I got into a relationship with her,
I explained to her, "If I ever put my hands on you, call the police."
You know?
And when she said that, I'm like, "No, I didn't-- I didn't punch you."
She had to leave the house that night, or, you know, she punched herself.
I-- I really don't know.
I wouldn't put nothin' past her.
[birdsong]
[Sadie] When I left, I just took enough clothes to kind of get by,
and I left a lot of my things there at my apartment.
One night, he sent me a bunch of texts
telling me that he had bleached all of my clothes,
he had destroyed all of my pictures, my personal belongings,
cut up my shoes,
and they were all in the dumpster at the apartment.
At that time, Terry was sending, like, 50 messages in a day and it was, like…
none of them good.
He was leaving notes at my cousin's house.
He would drive by my daughter's house and put letters in their mailbox
saying that he loved me.
"I just can't believe you're doing this."
That's when I started thinking, "This is stalking."
I was scared.
If a car, I felt, followed me for too long…
I would try to make sure I had in my mind the quickest way to the police station.
It's kind of like being in a perpetual fight-or-flight mode all the time.
It's scary. Very scary.
[woman] The most dangerous time
for a woman to leave an abusive relationship
is when she's walking out the door.
And in this case, when Sadie left…
that's when her life became endangered.
My name is Angela Hirsch,
and I'm the executive director
for the Rape and Abuse Crisis Service in Jefferson City, Missouri.
When a victim starts to recognize
that this is an unhealthy relationship,
that they have been isolated,
that they are being controlled by another individual,
and they take steps to diminish that control,
that's when the perpetrator feels threatened.
And when Sadie took control of her own life
and made the decisions that she made to leave this relationship,
that created an era of…
almost panic, if you would, to Morrison.
[Hirsch] When he says things like, "I know when you're babysitting,"
he's able to take those day-to-day situations that are just part of her life,
going to school, spending time with her grandchildren,
visiting her family,
and he's able to twist those in such a way that she feels unsafe
regardless of where she is or what she's doing,
or what she's put in place to try to help her.
I think he's doing it just to let her know that,
"Hey, you can run, but you can't hide."
"I am in control. I know what is happening."
"You will never get away from me."
And imagine living your life like that constantly.
That's what… that's what happens with victims of stalking.
That's how they have to live.
In Sadie's case, she did absolutely everything she could
to-- to get away from this person,
and I absolutely understand why she went into hiding.
We see that with many battered women,
that they have to get to a place that is safe, that is secure,
where they cannot be found,
uh, because it is not safe for them to be where they are.
I think going into hiding was probably her last option to survive.
Only by the grace of God was this woman not killed.
[birdsong]
[Sadie] When I went into hiding,
Terry continued to try to harass me and my family.
He was trying to send me apps where he could track my location.
Just like a text message, but it had… kind of like a GPS tracker.
I turned my phone off, and when I turned it back on,
that's when all these just started coming in,
like 50 text messages, just bing, bing, bing, bing.
And it was from his phone number, and I thought, "Nope, delete, delete, delete."
I didn't leave the house unless it was just to go to class,
because I was scared to be in public.
It's just hard to explain the feelings of just being scared.
You know, if I could have put myself in just a box and lock it,
that would have been better.
And it was to the point where I knew
that it was either gonna be like this the rest of my life,
and I would live in fear,
or it would come down to me or him.
And I was-- I was preparing myself to be me or him.
[Sadie] I knew it was gonna make him angrier,
so that's why I waited till I could go into hiding to file the ex parte.
The main fear is retaliation,
and I think that's why a lot of, especially women,
are reluctant to get a restraining order, because it's just a piece of paper.
There's nothing that can keep them from you, honestly.
Even if you have a restraining order,
they can get to you before the police get there.
And then what?
There was nothing I could do to protect my children.
There was nothing I could do to protect myself.
It just… So helpless.
[cicadas chirping]
[man] If I remember correctly, it was in the morning.
I had just finished my morning patrols,
and I had received a call that there was a student that needed to see me.
When I arrived at the student services desk, there was Sadie.
And she told me that she had a copy of a full order of protection
against a gentleman, and so I told her, I said,
"We'll get the Ozark Police Department involved,
'cause it sounds pretty serious."
My name's Jerome Ransome.
I'm the safety and security supervisor here at the Richwood Valley campus
here at Nixa, Missouri.
We proceeded to the president's conference room,
and she sat at the table here, the Ozark officer sat here,
and I sat at the-- the front of the table here,
and we went over her paperwork and discussed a plan of action.
She was pretty afraid of him. You could tell that she was very nervous.
Seemed very upset.
She told us, she said, "He will show up here. I know he will."
She said, "He's not afraid."
And when we proceeded out to the door, I looked and I turned to her and I said,
"I think Mr. Morrison's out here now. I think that's him."
I said, "Why don't you stay in here and let me check?"
And that's when I proceeded to the student services desk and saw him standing there.
We came on down here.
These doors were open just as they are now,
and we pushed him into this door right here.
And I had him pinned up against this door.
We said, "You're in violation of a full order of protection."
The officer informed him that he was under arrest.
Mr. Morrison said, "I don't know what you're talking about."
And I pulled out of his pocket the full order of protection
that he had been served.
And I said, "Maybe you don't understand, it's this right here."
And I put it in his face.
So, we proceeded to walk Mr. Morrison out to the patrol car,
and he was taken to the Christian County Jail
for violation of the full order of protection.
Sadie was terrified.
She was absolutely terrified when she saw him.
I'm glad that she came forward and was brave enough to say,
"Hey, look, I've got somebody who I'm concerned about."
Had Sadie not filed that paperwork,
Mr. Morrison just would have been asked to leave and he would have left.
But we had the right to arrest him, because she filed that-- that paperwork.
[Ransome] Mr. Morrison pulls over,
he jumps out of the car and he rushes the police officer's car.
The police officer exits his vehicle, draws his weapon,
draws down on Mr. Morrison and starts giving him commands.
The officer arrested Mr. Morrison.
He was taken into custody, and taken back to the Christian County Jail
for the second time within two weeks.
My name's Janette Bleau.
I am an assistant prosecutor,
and I've been doing prosecution about 20 years.
We got the notebook on April 1st with that arrest.
The things that were said in the notebook
just really heightened our awareness of, like, "This-- this guy is dangerous."
Part of that notebook was,
"I just want to say you need to kill yourself."
"It's over for you."
The other thing that was really concerning is in that notebook as well.
It says, "I got a gun for you."
We found letters that he had sent after the protection order was in place,
and on one page, says,
"You already lost because of what you've done,
call police and put a protection order on me."
"Is that going to keep me from talking to you?"
"Hell no. You gotta stay in hiding."
"Quit school, because if you drive, are riding with someone,
I will be in the parking lot watching you."
"Wait until you head to where you live."
These are threats.
He is actively stalking her and telling her that he's watching her.
And then all the text messages.
"I will camp out at your house. You're going to talk to me."
"Why did you do this to me?"
"I will come to your school and to your family house if that's what you want."
I would be terrified.
And I think that certainly Sadie was.
I mean, she was terrified, 'cause she knew he knew where her family lived.
My thought process was, like, "We gotta keep him in custody,
'cause I really think he's a threat to her if he gets out."
"He now knows that she's reported him twice to law enforcement."
"He's been arrested twice." So you know, right then and there,
I was like, "This is something that we really need to be on top of."
[Bleau] I was very apprehensive going up to the preliminary hearing,
because I was concerned for Sadie to be in the same room with him,
and having to see him, and having to point him out and, you know,
say, "That's… that's Terry Morrison, who's stalking me."
They filed for a motion to suppress.
There were several instances where they filed changes of judge.
It was kind of just a delay after delay after delay.
I don't know if he thought by delaying the case
that eventually Sadie would get tired and just say, "I'm done."
He didn't really think this was gonna go anywhere,
that this wasn't gonna happen.
[geese calling]
[Morrison] She told me our relationship was over, she didn't love me,
and she didn't wanna have nothin' to do with me,
and she didn't wanna talk to me.
So, yeah, it's-- it's--
I could consider that stalking, now that, uh, I have looked up stalking
and, you know, what it-- what--what…
all about what stalkin' is.
I think I did it out of-- To put fear in her or to scare her.
I know it was wrong, you know, uh, for-- because it put a lot of fright in her.
And she didn't know what I was capable of doin'.
But I just wanted closure, even with the stalking, you know.
I wasn't gon' physically harm, uh… Sadie.
I wasn't gonna put my hands on her. I just-- All I just wanted, some answers,
why you did what you did, or said the things that you said about me.
You know, that was it.
She was saying things that were false,
because I'm-- I'm not an abuser, you know.
Uh… I don't-- I don't abuse women.
I would never hurt a woman, you know, because like I said, I'm a man and,
you know, she's a woman, she's the… the…
She's the weaker link, you know, and…
I didn't like being labeled a stalker, you know, it-- it-- it's…
Like I said, it's up there with a pedophile, or…
You know, it's kind of the lowest of the lowest, you know what I mean?
I feel like a creep, you know what I mean? I feel like…
That people--
I'd rather be considered a murderer… a murderer than a stalker,
you know what I mean?
[man] Mr. Morrison has a violent past.
I mean, you don't get any more violent than murder.
My name is Scott Hill.
I'm a Springfield police officer here in Missouri.
And I was on patrol back on September 23rd of 2011,
when we got a dispatch to a "shots fired" call.
[Hill] A female later identified as Pristina Tyner
had been shot in the head.
Terry Morrison was identified by witnesses
as the suspect who shot Ms. Tyner,
and was later arrested by officers for the murder.
[cicadas chirping]
Room 212. This is where Mr. Morrison went into the room
and confronted them with a gun.
And the witness has indicated that he reached over the banister here
and shot her as she was running down the stairs.
There was a female inside the room that knew Mr. Morrison from past dealings,
and was able to identify him in a photo lineup,
and he was arrested about four days later.
[Hill] The main witness refused to identify him as a suspect.
She was terrified.
There was a lot of words on the street that she was possibly the intended target,
and it wasn't the other victim.
And so that really, I think, spooked her of…
she was involved in this a lot more than she wanted to be,
and her friend was killed right in front of her, and so that could happen to her.
[Hill] Murder never goes away. There's no statute of limitations.
So I knew I would have another chance for justice.
I met Sadie from learning she was a victim of the stalking charge,
and I knew if there is going to be any new information,
I mean, that was his last relationship.
If they were close, maybe he shared information about this homicide with her.
So she would be someone that I would wanna talk to.
When I interviewed her, she broke down in tears.
The fear that she was living in, knowing that if he were to get out,
she legitimately believed that he would find her and kill her.
That fear that I could see in her eyes and in the interview,
you can't make that up.
You can't fake that.
And, you know, she brought up the one point where he did tell her
that he did kill her.
So that became, I think, very important at the trial for the jurors
to listen to a recent relationship of someone that he confessed to
that he did murder the victim in this case.
[cicadas chirping]
[Sadie] When I got that phone call, I was shocked.
Terry had gone to prison for the aggravated stalking.
And I had Detective Hill get a hold of me,
and he wanted to talk to me about if I knew anything about the murder.
One night, just out of the blue, he had told me.
He said, "Yes, I killed that woman, but nobody but you knows that,
and I will deny everything."
At that point, I didn't say anything. I didn't ask any questions.
I didn't wanna know.
The less I knew, the better off I was.
[Sadie] I didn't want to testify because, you know,
"Well, what if I testify and then he's not convicted?"
I think I just got to thinking about it and I thought, "What have I got to lose?"
"Because if my testimony does any good and it helps the case,
then this is gonna benefit me."
And not that I--
That sounds bad, but I was scared for him to get out.
I really was terrified.
[Sadie] When I went for the actual trial, it was so nerve-racking.
I do remember walking up to the stand and, um…
I think it was just seeing the jury, and Terry, and everybody there
that it just…
And I know you could see me shakin'. [chuckles] Because I was shakin' so hard.
I didn't really want to look at him.
I would glance, but I didn't really wanna look, but…
My daughter, bless her heart, um… she's got a fighter's spirit.
She just looked at him like… She wanted to make eye contact
to let him know, "You are not winning."
[Sadie] When they came out and they had a verdict,
and they said "Guilty," I almost passed out.
I was so happy.
I was so relieved. I was in tears.
And I remember the woman's daughter came out…
because her daughter had a little girl with her, a little baby.
[sniffles]
The witness advocate went to her and put her arm around her.
And she brought her over to me.
And she said…
"This lady helped put your mom's murderer in jail."
That was hard.
She didn't know what I was capable of until, uh, um…
they convicted me of first-- uh, second-degree murder.
So, uh… yeah, she's scared of me.
And-- and I know how that seems.
You know, it seems that, uh, I'm a violent person,
that I should never be let out of prison.
But I'm a-- Basically, I'm a loner, you know?
I'm a person that-- I just like to be left alone.
Me, I look at it like this here.
I'm…
I could be dangerous if you put me in a situation
where I have to show my authority,
and that I can be the person that you don't wanna see.
Yes, I still have possibility of parole.
But at my age, 59 years old, I'm gonna die in prison.
I'm-- I'm never gonna get out.
It's basically a life sentence. It's a death sentence.
But I'm never gonna give up.
Like I said, uh… I'm gonna continue to fight
until all my appeals run out, you know?
I don't have nothin' else to do in this place
but to fight, you know what I mean?
I'm not comfortable here. I don't wanna be here.
And I don't wanna die here.
So why wouldn't I spend my… the time that I got in here learnin' some law,
uh, uh… doin' somethin' to try to get me-- regain my freedom?
[birdsong]
[Sadie] When the judge read "Life plus a hundred years…"
I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.
The prison sentence of the aggravated stalking was only,
I don't know, three to seven years,
and he would have gotten out probably with good behavior, maybe.
I did feel like he didn't succeed in, um…
trying to destroy me.
But I don't really feel like
the aftereffects of a relationship like this, you really truly get over it.
I think it stays with you forever.
I still have moments where not only do I just lock my doors,
I will put chairs up under my door handles so people can't come in.
When you go through something like that, you have nightmares.
You know, just little things you see out the corner of your eye, and…
And it just scares you for a split moment and, um… puts you back there.
This happens to people of all walks of life.
It doesn't matter how much money you make.
It doesn't matter how good of a person you are.
It doesn't even matter… your upbringing.
I had a strong feeling when I first met him
that he wasn't somebody that I would be interested in,
but I ignored it to my downfall, but…
Yeah, I wish I would have listened more.
I believe that if I had followed those instincts,
I wouldn't be sitting here right now.
But then I also think,
maybe I had to go through this to see how strong I was.