Man Sent to Prison for Stalking His Ex-Girlfriend : Oak View: He will serve two years in first case of its kind in county. Judge refuses to grant probation.

A judge hearing Ventura County’s first felony stalking case sentenced an Oak View man to two years in state prison, citing the defendant’s history of violence toward the victim.

Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. said Harold Owen Edwards was “too great of a risk to be put on probation.”

Prosecutors say Edwards, 37, stalked Lisa Hale of Oak View after the woman ended their 13-year relationship. Edwards twice broke into the woman’s home, ransacked her bedroom and shredded her lingerie, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donna K. Gissing, who recommended the two-year sentence. Edwards could have received a prison term of up to three years.

Under state law, prosecutors have been able since 1990 to file felony charges against accused stalkers, but Edwards’ case was the first one to be tried in local courts. The felony stalking law was passed after a series of women--notably slain actress Rebecca Schaeffer--were followed, threatened, attacked or even killed.

Edwards, who pleaded guilty to one count of stalking in February, asked Campbell to grant him probation.

His attorney blamed Edwards’ criminal behavior on an addiction to methamphetamine, but said the defendant has voluntarily attended anti-drug classes in Ventura County Jail while awaiting trial. Edwards has been in jail since August.

“I’ve never seen anything like what Mr. Edwards has done while in the County Jail,” Deputy Public Defender Stephen P. Lipson told the judge. “Mr. Edwards has apparently learned his lesson and has taken the appropriate steps to make himself a successful probationer.”

Gissing argued against granting probation, even though Edwards has no past criminal record and has participated in the anti-drug classes in jail.

“This is the behavior not of a drug addict. This is the behavior of a batterer, someone who beats women,” she said.

Edwards was also charged with two counts of residential burglary for allegedly stealing the defendant’s checks. He was convicted of those counts by a jury, although the verdicts were dismissed after Hale later found the missing items, Gissing said.

Prosecutors said they were able to file charges against Edwards because his harassment against Hale was blatant. For example, one morning a year ago, Edwards showed up at Hale’s house just as she was about to go to work and refused to leave her yard, they said.

Two weeks later, Hale discovered Edwards hiding behind her bedroom door at 5 in the morning. She called sheriff’s deputies, who served Edwards with a copy of a temporary restraining order, which he later violated, Gissing said in court Wednesday.

After that early morning bedroom incident, prosecutors said Edwards continued for several more months to harass the woman until he was finally arrested and charged under the new law.

Lipson said Edwards overreacted to a relationship gone bad. But Gissing accused the defense of minimizing the terror that the victim endured.

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