After 17 long years, justice has been served in the case of a stalker who brutally murdered a young mother and stabbed her five-year-old son. Now, the grown son, pictured here, can live in his life with some peace. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
It was a heartbreaking moment in court, as Nick Smith fought back tears while facing down the criminal who tried to kill him when he was just a boy.
"I finally can hopefully start moving on from being the sad, scared little boy that I once was," said Smith. "He's finally caught and I'm finally free."
Smith's courageous words refer to a crime that happened when he was just five-years-old, living with his mom, Karmen, a Delta Airlines flight attendant.
One October day in 1995, Karmen was brutally murdered and little Nick was stabbed 18 times. Miraculously, he survived. That was 17-years ago and Nick, now 22 has been haunted by the crime ever since.
"When Waseem Daker took my mother's life and stabbed me, my life was put on hold," said Smith.
Convicted stalker, Waseem Daker had long been suspected of the crime, but it took new DNA evidence to finally bring him to trial, and it wasn't easy.
"He is unlike anyone other criminal defendant I have ever prosecuted before. He is a brilliant psycopath. There's no other way to put it," said prosecutor Jesse Evans.
Daker even served as his own lawyer in the Marietta, Georgia, courtroom to no avail. The jury found him guilty of murder and assault. He denied it to the end.
"I did not kill Karmen Smith, I did not stab Nick Smith. I hope one day the truth comes out," said Daker.
The judge sentenced Daker to life in prison plus 47-years, so a young man can finally close the book on this lifelong nightmare that left him motherless and on the brink of death, as justice is served at last.