I Am a Stalker (2022) s01e07 Episode Script

1
[man] When I look back in hindsight,
I guess there were some things I should've
maybe looked at differently or whatever.
During this time,
I probably did call 50 or a hundred times,
but the calls were not done
in a threatening or harmful manner.
They say the house was broken into,
and I did it.
There's no witness to anything.
It's like, "Come on, man.
You're cryin' wolf."
[woman] Every day, I can expect
a thousand phone calls.
Bein' followed.
Not knowing when he would show up
was just overwhelming.
It was difficult to see where it would end
or if it would end.
I was scared for my life.
[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 could be a stalker.
[man 3] It's all boogeyman talk.
[man 4] I'm not still that crazy. Like
[chuckles]
My name is David Anthony McGee,
and I'm incarcerated for, uh
what would, uh felony stalking.
It's called felony stalking in Texas.
Do I deserve to be here?
Only the Creator really knows.
You you know, because, uh
nothin' in life just happens.
[McGee] For what most of us call normal,
my upbringing falls into that.
You know, you you go to church,
you go to school, you play sports.
Uh, everybody sits down to have dinner
at the same time.
When I speak to different people,
and they expect for you to have come
from some poverty, or
It's a bunch of ignorance,
or somethin' like that.
And that's not the case by far.
I began to function
in different capacities
of Protestant Christian ministry
when I was 18.
In my late 20s, uh, an opportunity came
when someone asked me to be their
youth pastor, and then I accepted it.
Throughout my years
of functioning in ministry,
my focus has always been more
who can benefit from it.
[McGee] I was in the drugstore.
She was in the drugstore.
We passed each other on the aisle, uh
I don't know, some kind of way,
conversation started.
She was like, "Well, yeah,
I can come hang out."
"Just let me change and what else."
I was like, "Cool."
So that's how we first hung out.
It was just a a female
that I met inside of of a drugstore.
Uh, I I wasn't lookin' for anything.
[birdsong]
My name is Charmeka.
I'm originally from Dallas, Texas.
In 2009, I was a single woman,
working at that time
as an associate unit manager
in a HIV clinic for Dallas County.
I sprained my ankle,
so I stopped at the local CVS.
And that's where I met David.
Pickin' up pain medicine.
So, I'm not easily flattered.
[laughs] But
he made a comment
I can't remember exactly,
but it was funny to me.
And so that's how we ended up
exchangin' numbers.
The first date,
we went to a steakhouse downtown.
He was funny, you know,
we had good conversation,
liked some of the same music.
So those things were interesting for me.
And if, I should add,
I can say the one thing at the time,
he is an ordained minister.
And so, for me,
I was really heavy into my religion,
church, and that was another thing
that kind of drew me to him.
I remember tellin' him I wasn't really
lookin' for a relationship per se.
My focal point was really
not anything long-term,
but he was okay with us
maybe buildin' a friendship.
In the beginnin',
he did seem really chill.
There was no pressure, you know.
"We can go out to eat,
have a conversation and go from there,"
but he was open to being just friends.
[McGee] There was a couple of evenings
where she hit me up.
She would get her a glass of wine
or whatever
and sit there with me while I ate,
and we would talk, you know, like that.
Me personally, I don't
I've never used the term "date"
very much.
I don't really get into the whole wining
and dining, and trying to impress 'em,
and spendin' money
for them to be around you.
I don't really I've never really bought
into that way of thinkin'.
She invited me to come see
where she lived.
And, uh, that was the first night
that we did, you know, grown-folks stuff.
You know. You know, uh
intimate things between grown people.
I mean, somebody invites you
into their home
and into they body at the same time,
I would figure
something's goin' all right, you know.
[Charmeka] In terms of things shifting
and not going as well,
or me starting to see little red flags,
would probably have been
around months two or three.
Things did become
a little more controlling.
It would be, "Call me when you get here.
Call me when you get here."
"Text me when you get there."
And that was overbearing for me.
Like, I don't want to check in
with you every time I make a move.
So it did become an issue.
He would say I was seein' other people.
He would accuse me.
"You can't just be friends with somebody."
And I was like, "Clearly, yes, I can."
"I have several people
that I'm just friends with."
There was one instance that I was out
with some of my sorority sisters,
and he just showed up at the event.
That wasn't the agreement,
'cause you have just completely
disrespected all of my boundaries.
When I think back on it, I probably
should have just cut everything then.
[rockets whistling]
[McGee] There was a Fourth of July event.
She's not answerin' the phone,
not returnin' texts.
I get all the way to her mother's street,
and her car is sittin'
in front of her mother's house.
They're standin' out
in the front yard talkin'.
So I just rolled on by, kept on going.
I'm like, "Well, she's all right, I guess.
She'll call or text when she get ready."
So I go on.
They said that I drove by ominously,
and that that made her fearful,
because I drove by ominously.
I was following her around.
I guess I was supposed to stop
and get out and say,
"Hey, I was just checkin' on you."
But I went on about my business,
you see what I'm sayin'?
[Charmeka] My mom and I
were sittin' on the porch.
He's slowly creeping by my parents' house.
If I tell you I'm at my parents',
why are you drivin' down the street
checkin' on me?
So for me, that was the final straw.
That was the final straw.
[Charmeka] When I started seeing the red
flags, it wasn't hard at all for me
to say, "Hey, this is not gonna work."
"This is not gonna work."
That made him upset.
You don't get to tell him no,
and that we can't be in a relationship,
and that you're gonna move on
and do things different.
So I get in my car.
He's following me at first.
And then he gets in front of me on 35,
where the speed limit is 70
and just hits his brakes in the middle
of the highway in front of me.
I almost hit him.
Fortunately enough, I was able to swerve
and there weren't any cars comin'.
And when I went past him, there was
just this look in his eyes, like,
"I despise you."
For me, that was scary,
because you just put my life in danger.
[McGee] I was supposed to come
pick up my stuff from her house.
I get there, all of a sudden,
she didn't want me to get it.
She and I had had a verbal dispute,
and she wanted me to leave,
but she didn't want me to gather my stuff.
I was irritated about it, definitely.
'Cause I'm, like, "Man, this bitch
is really on some stupid shit."
But at the same time, I'm not
I'm like, "Okay, yeah, whatever."
[chimes tinkling]
[Charmeka] He wasn't leaving.
He wasn't goin' anywhere.
I was like, "You need to leave."
"And if you don't leave,
I'm going to call the police."
So when I told him
I was walking to call the police,
he pushed me out of the way,
which there was a closet here,
and went to my room
and yanked the base out,
and then pushed me on his way out.
I had never been in a relationship
that was physical or had become physical.
To be shoved into a wall like that
and have a phone yanked off
and have everything
on my nightstand broken,
that was all totally new for me,
so it was a very scary situation.
[siren wailing]
[McGee] I wasn't there
when the police got there,
so I don't know at exactly what moment
she called the police,
you know what I mean?
But the police came and made a report
based off what what she was sayin'.
[train crossing bell ringing]
[Charmeka] My hope was
that once he knew the police was involved,
that it would all stop.
But it did not work that way.
It just never stopped.
It just it just never stopped.
He would call me all day.
If I blocked one number,
he would get another number.
Once I blocked the numbers,
there would be emails.
He showed up at my job
a couple of times, a couple of mornings.
I've just never had this issue,
and now you're puttin' my job in jeopardy
because I never know if you'll actually
come up here and do somethin' to me
or my co-workers.
So that all was scary.
I would have to start changin'
what time I went to work,
which way I went to work.
I would get to the gym,
he would be comin' across the parkin' lot.
And he would call me some mornings.
"Oh, you look so pretty.
I like the color you have on."
And I'm lookin' around the parkin' lot,
like, you know, "Where are you?"
And, like, that happened many days.
And I did really get to a very low place
where it was like a struggle
just to get up in the morning,
'cause I just felt so low and afraid.
[Charmeka] I'm gonna ask you this
one more time.
Quit callin' my phone.
Do we not have a protective order
in place?
If you don't stop callin' my phone,
I'm callin' the police.
[ringing tone]
[bleeping]
[Charmeka] Hello?
[McGee] Oh, I wish I could see you
dancin' in them shorts.
[Charmeka] David.
I don't want to be called at two o'clock
in the morning.
I want it to stop.
During this time, yeah, I called.
Yeah, I probably did call
50 or a hundred times.
The police put a temporary
restraining order in place,
let her know about it.
I didn't know about it.
And all along from the beginning,
I told my attorney, told the DA,
"Okay, yeah, for
for callin' too many times."
Uh "Okay, fine, yeah,
I'll take misdemeanor harassment."
"Stalking? No."
"This person has never been in danger.
In danger of what?"
[thunder rumbling]
[Charmeka] A couple of things happened
at my house.
[thunder crashing]
There were track marks where he had
driven across my yard
and ran into my garage.
My front door was kicked in.
There were windows shattered
and screens pulled away from the window.
I knew nobody but David
could have done this.
I didn't really know what would stop him,
so I really felt powerless at this point.
I did clearly feel like he was just not
gonna leave me alone.
It made me really afraid and scared,
and the next aspect of that was,
how far would he really go?
You have those allegations put up there
with conjecture,
and you're drawin' this picture.
They say a garage door was hit.
They say a window was broken.
They say this, they
Oh, this happened and this happened.
There's no witness to anything.
Just they're sayin' the house
was broken into, and I did it.
"So okay, the house was broken into.
What was taken?" "Oh, nothing was taken."
"Somebody just broke into the front door
and left."
Do you see what I'm saying? It's all
You know, it's all boogeyman talk.
My name is Michael Jones,
and I was working for the Duncanville
Police Department as a patrol officer.
I remember gettin' a call of a burglary,
possible burglary call.
Um, we didn't know if it was burglary
or criminal mischief.
There was damage to the back door
and I believe one of the windows
to the house.
Any time that you're responding
to a call like this,
you're always prepared for,
you know, what what if?
You know, the worst-case scenario.
[birdsong]
So, the first time
I got here to the house,
there were previous calls.
There was possibly some domestic violence,
um, you know,
that we had responded to fairly recently.
So we had Charmeka,
you know, wait off to the side
while we came over
and kind of secured the house.
We noticed that the back door
just beyond this fence here was damaged.
It was kicked in.
Obviously, somebody had been in the house
or attempted to break in her house.
To her, she knew that that was
a way of David McGee, her stalker,
lettin' her know that he was around
and he wasn't gonna let her be.
Tire marks and property damage on its own
is very hard to prove
as far as a stalking case.
We needed to have definitive evidence
of property damage
or, uh, physical bodily harm to her
that we could directly tie to him.
One of the neighbors actually did have
a conversation with Mr. McGee
here on the property, um
and actually was quite alarmed.
Um, apparently,
Mr. McGee had asked him about gun laws.
Um you know, and this happened
early in the early morning hours.
So think about it, early morning hours,
you come out to check your house,
there's a stranger to him lurking,
you know, in the shadows.
And all of a sudden, you know,
he's asking about gun laws.
For me, that was a real red flag,
and and probably the key point
where I really felt, um
in fear for her and her life.
But my hands are tied at this point.
[Charmeka] It just seemed
that he had the right timing
that they were never able
to catch him in action.
I can't protect myself.
And then have the police
not be able to protect you,
it's terrifying.
And as a victim, you just want it to stop.
As time went on and nothin' happened,
he became bold.
It becomes,
"Oh, I'll just knock out windows."
"Oh, I'll just increase the number
of times I call her."
"Oh, I'll just show up to the gym
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,
instead of just Monday."
So everything was escalating.
[chimes tinkling]
He would send me messages sayin',
"Hey, you should really keep
your porch light on, for safety."
And there were texts and calls like,
"Oh, go stand by the window.
I wanna see you."
And then there were threats
against my family's property,
other loved ones.
It was just a very tryin' time.
I didn't know what would happen next.
[Charmeka] There was a day
that he showed up on my porch
with pictures of me
that I didn't know he had.
And he essentially stood in my door,
performing sexual acts on himself
and moaning while holding
my pictures in his hand.
It was at that point that I decided
I needed to move in with my parents.
I just didn't see any other option,
because I no longer felt safe.
It was scary, but I knew
my dad would protect me
even if the officers
and the justice system couldn't.
And that's just why I call him
my first superhero.
- work today.
- [laughs]
Work today
[Charmeka's father] When I first found out
how she was bein' treated,
I began to reminisce about some of
the conversations I had had with the guy.
And I saw that it was really beyond
someone just trying to date her.
What it was initially was how
he tried to isolate her from the family.
Especially at that time.
We usually had a lot of gatherings
and things,
and he would try to keep her away
as much as he could.
When I noticed that those situations
were getting physical, threatening her,
calling her consistently all night long,
I couldn't believe it.
I kind of went into a protective mode.
I felt that she could come up dead
at any minute.
I felt her life was in danger.
[Charles] When you go to the authorities
and it appears
that they're not doing anything,
my mind was sayin',
"It's my daughter or him."
And I was prepared to try to
to to kill him, yes.
I
And that's not a good place to be,
to want to eliminate another human being.
[Charles] We had, uh
done the legal stuff,
but we didn't know
what he was gonna do next.
Had Miss Stephanie not come along,
he would be dead, I would be in prison.
She came along and she was an angel.
She changed everything.
She was truly sent from God.
[Huff] When I first looked at the case,
I was alarmed by the sheer number
of police reports involved.
I mean, there were over 2,000 or so
pages of records.
This is a pattern of behavior
all geared toward this one person,
to make her life a living hell.
Right now, I have in front of me
a series of text messages
that David McGee would send to Charmeka.
We got these extracted
from one of her cell phones.
There was one time where he texted
every man that was in her phone.
Her brother, her father,
all her male friends,
and said very degrading information
about her sexually to them.
David McGee was very crafty,
because he would not use his name
a lot of times.
None of his cell phones were in his name.
There was one time where he texted,
"You should turn your porch light on."
"It's good for safety and security.
See, I always look out for you."
Well, what's concerning about that
is that
her windows were all broken out
that same day.
So the fact that he's able to see
that her porch light is not on,
that in context with that text message
is very alarming.
But it's hard to pull it all together
because it's so circumstantial.
And so, while I had all these things
where she would come home
and her windows would be busted out,
no one saw him do it.
It was not going to be easy at all,
because stalking cases
are difficult to prove.
Everyone expects DNA,
everyone expects video footage,
everyone expects eyewitness testimony.
It's so many things, and quite frankly,
stalking doesn't lend itself
to havin' all that.
It just doesn't.
I had talked with Charmeka quite a bit
leading up to trial,
and I told her, kind of.
the hurdles and concerns.
The goal of this was to keep him
away from her and give her her life back.
But if you got more than five years
on a stalking case,
that would be applauded here.
Most of the time,
the stalking cases get probation,
or maybe two years, the minimum.
[Huff] The stakes
were extremely high in this trial.
It was a feeling that if he didn't
get a significant amount of time,
he would hurt her.
He could possibly kill her.
So I started digging through his history,
and I found a lot of alarming
and terrifying things.
I began to find
there were a number of women
that had had issues with David McGee.
I have one here where he hit
a woman in her face, causing her pain.
There was another lady
where he left her a voicemail saying,
"Your life will be miserable.
I have a key to your house."
"I'm gonna be waiting in your house
one night, and I'm gonna eff you up."
This is a totally separate woman.
These are multiple women
this is happening to.
That's scary.
[Huff] So, prior to Charmeka,
he was in a relationship
with another lady.
And I found that this dated back
as early as 2004
and continued until 2009,
which is around the time he met Charmeka,
uh where, when she tried
to break up with him,
it was almost mirror image
to the things he did to Charmeka,
which is calling her job and harassing her
repeatedly throughout the day,
calling her at home,
um, damaging her property,
threatening to assault her and her family.
But this poor woman,
he made her life a living hell.
He broke her nose. Um, he had choked her.
He forced her to have sex,
causing pain and swelling,
and he threatened to beat her brains out
and kill her,
and throw her in the Trinity River.
I think because he found Charmeka,
he left her alone.
And because he left her alone, she said,
"I I don't wanna prosecute
or pursue anything."
David McGee was predatory.
I mean, he was a sexual deviant
that stalked and harassed
numerous women over years, years of time.
He's a predator.
That's who David McGee is.
He is someone that quotes scripture,
is a pastor,
comes across as this great man,
until you get to know him
and until you date him
and until you tell him no.
The more I came across different instances
of him being violent with women,
aggressive with women,
uh, harassing women,
it it made it more important to me
that we seek as much time
as we could possibly get in this case.
[Charmeka] This is where the case
of the State of Texas
versus David McGee happened.
Stephanie had made it quite clear,
though we were here,
we still had a long road up ahead of us
because to get a guilty verdict
in a stalking case,
is a very hard thing to do.
But when I heard the stories
of the other victims,
it became clear to me that
it was necessary for me to fight on.
I was nervous when I first saw David,
but I made sure that I looked him
in his eyes as he glared at me
and let him know, "I'm here
and we're gonna do this."
[Charmeka] Being in the hot seat
trying to defend your story is tough,
um, because the defense attorneys,
they have a job to do.
So they basically made me feel like
I was on trial.
At one point, it was suggested
that I teased David.
So, I I wanted him to follow me.
I wanted him to send the messages.
It was very frustrating
to feel like you're the suspect.
When I left the stand,
I felt defeated in some ways.
I was really unsure which way
the jurors would go.
There were character witnesses.
He had a list of people
that were from his church,
because he was a ordained minister.
Of course, his parents and family members
that spoke on his behalf.
So, while I was prayin' for the best,
I was also preparin' for the worst.
And the worst could have been
him not gettin' a guilty verdict.
There was a lot of uncertainty.
I just wasn't sure.
[McGee] The prosecution said that
Charmeka was the latest in a long list
of "victims."
You have to show me the list,
because there's a reason
why those allegations
never turned out to be anything.
At no time can anybody show you a scratch,
a scar, a broken nail,
a bloody lip, a hair out of place.
Yeah, no nobody can show you that.
That's what I know! [laughs]
And that's what's documented.
See You see what I'm saying?
I can give you a a list of women
of all different types of ages,
all different types of background,
from church and just
all walks of life, right?
From from strippers and prostitutes
to church missionaries, right?
Who would tell you,
"I don't believe it. I can't see it."
"That dude is a
He's he's a very unique person,
but no, he's not
he's not crazy like that."
"That's not David McGee,"
you know what I mean?
Do I have remorse
toward Charmeka for what?
For for what happened?
What happened that I'm supposed
to have remorse for?
You, uh You're
you're a 33-, 34-year-old woman.
Okay?
My clothes,
my stuff are inside your house.
The only thing that I've done
was call you a bunch of times
tryin' to see, when could I get my stuff?
The the number of times I called
caused her to be in fear. Really?
Come on, man.
All all of that was
was a bunch of flimflam.
You dig what I'm sayin'?
I've been locked up right now ten years.
I was given a parole answer not long ago,
so it shouldn't be much longer.
Yeah, it shouldn't be much longer.
My plans for the future when I get out
Uh
I will always
You know, I will always have a a
a passion to to help people,
as far as ministry goes.
So I'll never be too far from
from that as a personal goal.
As far as having any regrets
or if I would do anything differently
concernin' Charmeka or any other women?
Hmm
Well, I I was raised
as a person of faith, right?
I was raised to believe in God
and Jesus Christ.
So if I would do anything differently,
I would not have had sex with those women.
Sex clouds a lot of things, man.
Especially good sex.
Clouds a lot of things, brings a lot of
Yeah, it's it's
Because I believe that's where a lot
of problems start, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
[birdsong]
[Charmeka] At the moment of the jury's
verdict, it was a sigh of relief.
I hugged my parents
for stickin' with me to the end and
And really Stephanie, for believing
my story was worth goin' to trial.
It was relief.
It was relief.
There were tears,
that everything that I had overcome
and been through wasn't in vain.
It felt like regainin' my freedom
as far as my livelihood and bein' able
to go back to livin' my life
without havin' to look over my shoulder.
But the mental scars,
the emotional scars,
they're still with me over 12 years later.
I don't know if I'll ever stop
healing from it.
Eventually, David will be released
to come home.
I was just fortunate enough to live
to tell my story.
Many people don't get to tell their story.