From Stalker to Murderer to Justice: How Waseem Daker's Victims Prevailed

Ga. woman breaks silence 17 years after stalker killed roommate.

ByABC News
October 4, 2012, 2:16 PM

Oct. 5, 2012 — -- Karmen Smith was Nick Smith's mother and Lottie Spencer's friend and roommate. Seventeen years after the attack in which she was killed and Nick Smith was stabbed 18 times, Nick Smith and Spencer said they can finally start living their lives.

Last week, Waseem Daker was convicted of murdering Karmen Smith and nearly killing her son -- when he was just five years old -- in the 1995 attack.

"He didn't break me," Smith told "20/20" co-anchor Chris Cuomo in his first interview since the incident. "He might have tried to ruin my life, but he didn't do it."

Also in her first interview ever, Lottie Spencer told Cuomo she met Daker in 1994 at an Atlanta-area paintball facility. They became friends, a friendship that Daker claimed was much more, she said.

"We were friendly because we were on the same team, that's it. Nothing else," said Spencer.

Watch the full story, including more of Spencer and Smith's first-ever interviews, on "20/20: Stalked!"

She said Daker spread rumors to their friends that their relationship was romantic, making her concerned enough to call Daker's family.

"I called his mom, and I spoke to his brother about it," Spencer said. "They said, 'We don't believe it. Anyways, he's sick; he just wants to be in a relationship with you, and he can't have you, and he's delusional.'"

Spencer said Daker's delusion turned into an obsession, with him calling her up to 100 times per day and showing up at her house every day at all hours.

"One day, my daughter and I were eating at Wendy's, and he just walks up and goes, 'We have so much in common,'" said Spencer. "I was thinking, 'Oh my God.' He would show up just everywhere I went, and he would always make it seem like a coincidence, and so right there and then I just knew [he was stalking me]."