Follow The Fingerprints
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My husband did not kill his first wife. I absolutely 100% know that. Now, the very latest courtroom shockers. You have no idea where this would lead you. No idea. And it said Leo Schofield, not just wrongfully convicted, he's an innocent man. Oh, I promise I'm not going to do this. I'm sorry. When you set me free.

And it just hits me. We're looking for Michelle in the ditch. What do we expect to find? We're looking for her body. Michelle was found floating face down. This was a crime of emotion, of violence. 26 steps, three of which were in the back.

This was personal. It was rage-filled. And Leo said to Michelle, "Shut up. I hate you. I'll kill you, you bitch." What does Alice Scott tell police she witnessed the night of the murder? Alice says he's not looking for Michelle. He's killing Michelle. That's essentially what she's saying. He said there's another man who's forensically tied to the crime scene who has confessed. This was huge. This was the turning point. In fact, the story is just beginning.

I can feel the nerves starting. I think the most nerve-wracking part is anticipating, like, if things go south and they go really bad. It's a long drive home. For Chrissy Carter Schofield, that long drive is from Fort Myers to Tallahassee, Florida. It's the fourth parole hearing for her husband, Leo Schofield.

I feel nervous, scared, hopeful, desperate, sad, anxious, all of it. The daughter, Ashley, worries from the backseat. Almost every single parole hearing, it's almost like I go through a little life crisis.

Leo has spent 35 years in prison for the murder of his first wife, 18-year-old Michelle Schofield, a crime Chrissy insists he did not commit. She's been as strong as advocates as they met back in 1991. I was 31. He was 25. I had graduated from University of Florida with a bachelor's in sociology. I was a teacher at the college in the prison, and Leo was an inmate.

Maybe it was about seven months, eight months into it where I said, "Oh, I like him." He shared with me that he was in there for a crime that he did not commit. I went to the courthouse and I started looking and researching. Would it read something? I'd go ask him. It all starts to line up. I'm like, "Okay, yeah, yeah, he's innocent." She said, "I met someone." And I said, "Well, who is he?" And she said, "Well, he's a prisoner."

I said, "Okay, well my next question is, what is he in for?" And she said, "Murder." And I said, "Who?" And she goes, "His wife." And I said, "You're crazy." We got married in a little chapel in the prison. He played guitar and sang some songs afterwards.

It was very, very romantic in the weirdest kind of way. Chrissy and Leo's love story, unlikely, right? Yeah, I mean, to this day, when I tell people about it, I always get those raised eyebrows. They even adopted a daughter together, Leo parenting during jail time visits. The first time he held me, I was four days old. When I would cry, he would come and get me, and I would just stop crying as soon as he'd hold me.

I was daddy's girl from day one, so. I want my dad home and I want my dad home now. My husband did not kill his first wife. I absolutely 100% know that because I know him and I've looked at the case. It's impossible.

In the eyes of the law, Leo Schofield is a killer, a man who brutally murdered his young wife back in 1987. But his many supporters say there's much more to the story, including evidence linking another man to the crime. We spoke to Leo behind bars.

I like to say this, that I'm an ordinary man. There's nothing extraordinary about me. The circumstances may be extraordinary, but I'm an idealistic dreamer. I always have been. Innocent is no part in it, no plan in it. Didn't know it was happening. Didn't know it was gonna happen and didn't want it to happen. That is me. I am 100% innocent of Michelle's murder.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King has investigated Leo's case and produced a podcast series about it called Bone Valley. The story of Michelle's murder doesn't end with Leo's conviction. In fact, the story is just the beginning. Where did Leo grow up? Leo grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts, tough little town outside of Boston. And his family in the early 80s moved into a little trailer in Lakeland, Florida.

Lakeland is located literally in between Tampa and Orlando. It's right on Interstate 4. It's the cornerstone of Polk County. If you go into central Florida, it becomes very rural and very much like the Deep South. Leo immediately doesn't fit in. He's got the long hair, he's got that New England accent. It was very tough because

I grew up in the project in Massachusetts from the age of seven and I missed it as soon as we left. What was Leo's dream in life? You know, he really had one dream and that was to be a heavy metal guitarist. All my life I wanted to be a rock and roll guitar player. That's all I ever wanted to do. We all like music and used to get together and jam. He was a good guitarist for sure.

He had a cute smile and I think that that would probably melt some of those little teenage girls hearts. In 1985, Leo met 16-year-old Michelle Song. Unlike Leo, she was born and raised in Lakeland, Florida. Michelle was my older sister. My earliest memories about Michelle were that she was always happy. She was just so easy going, you know, and people just loved to be around her.

I met Michelle in the fourth grade and we became best friends almost instantly. Michelle was very playful, just a really fun person. She really liked to sing, she really liked music. One of her favorites was Pat Benatar. She would always be singing her songs. Jumping around doing "Hit me with your best shot." Of course that was the 80s. We always made time to goof around.

She was just absolutely stunningly beautiful. The first time I saw her, I thought, wow, she was always, always happy, always smiling. My first impressions of Leo, he was a little bit cocky, a little macho. He was very different from what I was used to seeing her with, a little more of the bad boy. Leo and Michelle get married in August of 1986. They had known each other about six months.

Their wedding happened so fast that I was like, "Wow!" It really surprised me. I was like, "Dang man, this is like in high gear." Michelle and Leo's wedding was at a small church in Lakeland. It was beautiful. I was the maid of honor, so I was the only one that walked down with her. Oh, here's one. This was the most recent picture of her before she passed. I haven't seen it in a while, so I apologize.

So this is the bouquet that I carried during Michelle's wedding. Her bouquet was just like this, only bigger. It was just a very good memory. The happiest day of my life, easily. I was so, so excited that day. I remember watching her walk down the aisle dressed like that, thinking, "I'm actually marrying this girl. This girl is going to be my wife."

You know, they were newly married, had very little money, so they lived off of Cumbie Road in a trailer establishment. - Leo worked odd jobs. Michelle was a waitress here at what used to be Tom's Restaurant. After her shift that fateful night, she called Leo from a payphone across the street. It would be the last place she would be seen before she went missing. - Minutes turned to hours, no sign of her. He's absolutely frantic.

In 2018, you were in Naples, Florida at a conference speaking to judges. Yeah, I talk about my books and I was sitting at a table signing books and Judge Kupp came up to me. Do you know who he was? No, I had no idea.

As he began speaking, I was very quickly blown away. And all I can think about is if I have my way, he has no idea what he's in for. And he basically had this card that he handed to me. I flipped it over and looked at it because he'd written something on the back. I take out my business card and I write Leo Schofield. And it said Leo Schofield had his Florida prison number. And it said in quotes, not just wrongfully convicted, he's an innocent man.

I get a lot of these kind of cards, as you might imagine, but never from a judge. That was different. And he started telling me about Leo's case. And what did he say? He said, "Do me a favor. Just read the transcript. That's all I'm asking." You had no idea where this would lead you? No idea. And he told me something that just absolutely shocked me. He said, "There's another man who's forensically tied to the crime scene who has confessed."

I sit down and start reading, and I can't stop. I would end up spending the next three and a half years of my life doing what Judge Kopp was hoping I'd do, a thorough investigation into the Leo Schofield case. February 24th, 1987, everything changes. Yeah, at this point, they're married for six months. The night before the murder, Leo and Michelle actually stay at Buddy Anderson's house, and Buddy was a member of the band that Leo played in.

Michelle had to work that day as a server and so she took their one car that they shared. She was working at a new place called Tom's Restaurant. Michelle's shift is going to end around 8 p.m. and they agree beforehand that they're going to meet over at Buddy's house. She was supposed to meet me back there at 8 o'clock that night when she got off. But 8 o'clock comes and there's no word from Michelle.

So this is where Michelle was working, right? Right. What happens when she leaves work? Well, after she finishes her shift around 8 o'clock, she goes home and folds some laundry, feeds the dogs, and then she drives back to a pay phone, because they don't have a phone in Michelle and Leo's trailer. She goes and makes a call there. It's raining. It's about 9.45.

Michelle called. She told me she made $13 in tips. She got $3 worth of gas. Wanted to know if I wanted her to get something from McDonald's. I said, "No, just pick me up." He says, "Meet me over at Vince's house." Another friend of theirs. So the last thing I got to say to her was, "I love you." Then he starts waiting for Michelle. Michelle has yet to show up at Vince's house. Minutes turn into hours. Still, no Michelle.

I expected her no later than 10. And that's the thing, there's no way Michelle calls me at 9:45 and says she's coming to get me and then not doing it. And so I called my dad, had my father take me down the road, she would have had to have driven. - They start driving around town, looking for Michelle, looking at all the usual places.

No sign of her, the car, nothing. We went all the way to my house, the lights were off, the car wasn't there, I didn't even stop. We came back, going back to Vince's house. I was really, really scared for her because something's not right. Now we're hours late and nobody knows where she's at and I can't find the car anywhere. So I make a missing person report at 12:43 in the morning.

He's very concerned about it, and you can hear it in his voice. At one point on the call, Leo is on hold, and he's recorded talking to his friend, Vince.

He was on hold. He didn't know it was being recorded. No, and to me, it's like, you get worried, you get concerned, you're scared. And I think those are all the emotions at play. And the night doesn't get any better from there.

I went to her dad's house. The door came up. I asked if he had seen her. He was upset. He was smoking a lot of cigarettes. He's pacing around. And that's when he told my dad that he couldn't find Michelle. It kind of caught me off guard. David Somm decides to go out and search for his daughter.

Leo takes off with his mother. They see two patrol cars parked in a gas station. He goes over to the officers. Asking if they had the missing person report, and they didn't. So I gave them the whole story. I'm not ashamed to tell you I was terrified something bad happened to her. This wasn't right. This felt wrong from the beginning. She's not going to be out driving around by herself in the middle of the night. I was terrified.

I was working at a grocery store. Leo walked straight up to my register and he said, "Do you know where Michelle is? She didn't come home all night last night." So I walked up to the office and said, "I have to go. My best friend's missing."

A search party starts to take shape. Parents, both families, friends, they drive the streets around Cumbee and expand into other parts of Lakeland. It was a frantic search for two days, but there's no sign of her until at last there's a new lead. Yeah, one of Leo's friends went by Leo and Michelle's Mazda on the side of a highway.

Will finding the car lead to more clues to explain Michelle's mysterious disappearance? There is a downy bottle with a smear of blood on it.

Okay, Alice, you ready to go? Let's go. I'm Brett. And I'm Alice. And we are the prosecutors. Today on The Prosecutors, it was the case made famous... I'm a prosecutor. And I'm a former federal prosecutor. We host a true crime podcast called The Prosecutors. I think with this

When we start a case, we look at it as if we were prosecuting the case. We look at every shred of evidence that's available. He does what he's going to do for that period of time. Then he turns back around, goes back over here, spends a few months researching, reading the trial transcript, reading the police reports. This is the opposite direction. When we started looking into Leo Schofield's case, we knew it was going to be a deep dive because this case had more twists and turns than we could have ever imagined.

When Michelle first disappeared, nobody really had any idea what might have happened to her. I just felt like that she was just gonna, you know, magically come back and be like, "Oh, I was staying with a friend or I just had to get away from Leo or whatever." And things were just gonna be normal again. And a few days after that, it's just, you realize, "Oh my God, dude, like they really can't find her."

What was the searching like for Leo at that point? Well, you know, it was horrible. What they're doing is he's sitting in a pickup truck with a big spotlight and they're driving up and down these roads looking in ditches. While Leo's searching for Michelle, he's also looking for their car because if they can find the car, maybe they can have an indication of where Michelle is. But it's not until two days after Michelle first goes missing that a friend of Leo's sees a car that looks like Michelle's car on the side of the road.

How important was that discovery? I mean, it was tremendous. There had been no clues, no word from Michelle, nobody calling up saying, "Yeah, she's with me," nothing. So the car was an orange Mazda. They found it abandoned on the side of the road. It won't start. The car has broken down. It wasn't purposely parked there. In fact, the car was still in gear. They noticed that some speakers had been stolen.

There's seemingly no sign of Michelle, but in the hatchback of the car, there is a downy bottle with a smear of blood on it.

And that was a match to Michelle's. Detectives searched the car, checking for clues, dusting for fingerprints. The fingerprints were actually found in two different areas of the car, both in the front near the windshield and also on a receipt in the back hatchback area of the car. They didn't match anyone who should have been in that car. They were just these unidentified fingerprints.

Leo and his family and friends decide they're going to break up at this point. Leo's father takes the area closest to I-4. Leo and Michelle's best friend go further down State Road 33. We would just drive and look.

And then it's getting close to noon, and Leo sees a sheriff's car speed right by, and then another sheriff's car. Lights flashing, and they start following the path of that second squad car. And Leo keeps going faster and faster until he gets to the spot. He jumps out of the driver's seat and starts running towards the crowd where the police were. I saw my dad coming out of the tree line with his hands in his face.

And I knew. He kept telling me, "She's gone." And I'm in denial. What do you mean she's gone? It turns out that Leo's father was the one that located the body first. Leo Sr. had found Michelle in a canal. The location is a place that's right off Interstate 4. It's along State Road 33. Michelle was found floating face down, still wearing her uniform from Tom's restaurant.

She's got a long piece of plywood that's resting on her back, partially covering her. And his reaction when his father finds her? It was clearly the worst time of his life because, you know, he said it was just this moment where he's trying to get back there to see Michelle and they're holding him back. The detectives don't want him going back there. Father doesn't want him going back there. I don't know exactly what I felt, but it was beyond despair. That man right there is totally lost right there.

I was so angry at God in that moment. I ripped my shirt off. I punched the tree. I punched the ground. I was pulling grass out of the ground. And I cursed God. They found out that Michelle has been stabbed 26 times. My dad couldn't even talk. And my mom told me, you know, they found her. And so, you know, that was a really dark day.

It was horrible. I was like, I mean, I was just, I was just, ugh. The following day after Michelle's body was found, you see a newspaper story, but it's not front page or anything. It didn't have a suspect. It was just a case under investigation. So you have investigators who are looking to see, is there a sexual assault? Has anything been stolen? Michelle still has her rings on her fingers. She hasn't been sexually assaulted. She's been murdered, and she's been murdered brutally.

This was a crime of emotion, of violence. This wasn't just, "I'm gonna kill you, stab and walk off." Or even two.

26 stabs, three of which were in the back. This was personal. It was rage-filled. You did not need that many stab wounds in order to kill Michelle. And so it suggests a very passionate, very violent, heat-of-the-moment type of murder. And when you see that kind of violence in a crime like this, oftentimes your first thought is, could the husband have been involved?

The police start reaching out to Leo's friends, family members, neighbors, including the woman who lived right across the street from Leo and Michelle in this house. Her name is Alice Scott, and what she has to say will change the course of this entire investigation. I'm an artist by trait, mostly abstract arts. I use wood and plastic and all types of different mediums.

I think that without art, I don't know what I would be doing as far as emotionally. I keep a picture of my sister Michelle close by. Here in my studio, I like to keep her close by because I can always look at her and it makes me smile. When I think about Michelle, the images that I think about, they always are a little fuzzy. It's almost like a filter on a summer day, the richness of her character and the sweetness.

of her soul. When I heard about her being found, I was really confused about the whole thing. And I'm like, you know, who on planet Earth would, you know, want to hurt this girl? In the very beginning, there was a lot of sympathy for Leo. People perceived him as the grieving husband. He appeared to be very sad, very distraught. He would, from time to time, just lose it, you know, just be

Like, I can't believe somebody did this to her. So a lot of Leo and Michelle's friends are interviewed. And it comes out pretty quickly that Leo and Michelle had a passionate relationship. They fought passionately. They loved passionately. And stories begin to come out that Leo was abusive towards Michelle. The police are drawing information from the people who know Leo and Michelle. And what they're hearing is violence.

Police start to get a picture of Leo and Michelle's relationship and it's not very pretty. They're talking to friends who say, "I've seen her hit her, I've seen she yell, he yells at her all the time." There were stories about loud arguments in the trailer, Leo screaming at Michelle, some noises that sounded like slaps, red marks on Michelle's face.

Some of the guys that used to come around would hit on Michelle because she was a cutie. And I think that he didn't like that. So I think that triggered his jealousy. He was very impatient. When she was supposed to be somewhere, she better be early. Don't be late.

The one time that I remember most significantly, he grabbed her by the top of her hair and jerked her to the floor and drug her from the living room to the bedroom. And Leo said to Michelle, shut up, I hate you, I'll kill you, you bitch. And I could hear them screaming and hollering. I went in to check on her and she was down beside the... She was down beside the bed, between the bed and the wall.

still laying there like crunched up with her arms over her head. And I said, "I know he hit you, I heard it." And she said, "No, he didn't." And I said, "Yes, he did, Michelle, you know he did it." And I couldn't believe that she was going to let somebody do that to her. That just did not happen like that. It really, honestly, truly did not happen like that. Physical abuse is one type of abuse. And then you have the emotional abuse, which

I'm guilty of. I did a lot of yelling. I did a lot of screaming. And I wasn't beyond punching a wall and being very theatrical. Then police have a pivotal conversation with one of his neighbors, Alice Scott. What does Alice Scott tell police she witnessed the night of the murder? Well, she says that she sees Leo come home around 1 or 1.30, bring Michelle inside. And she sees the two of them get out of a vehicle and go inside their mobile home.

She then hears a real fight. They're really carrying on. They have a fight. He leaves about 20 minutes later, comes back, terrific argument, fight, sounds like Michelle's being thrown against the wall, all sorts of screaming involved. And then about 20 minutes later, she says, "I see Leo come out carrying something heavy." Police presume that the heavy object was Michelle's body. Those statements really make the trailer the crime scene.

Alice Scott really put the whole focus of the investigation on Leo at that point. What Alice does to Leo's story is she contradicts what Leo claims. Leo claims he's looking for Michelle. Alice says he's not looking for Michelle, he's killing Michelle. That's essentially what she's saying. Alice Scott puts the investigation's focus squarely on Leo.

This investigation has gone on for a year with no arrest, no prosecution. But then the LaFoons entered the picture. Randy and Mary LaFoon were other neighbors of Leah's. And of course, the police spoke to them days after the murder. And when they spoke to them at that time, LaFoons didn't have much to say. That would all change 15 months later. Now, they say that the night Michelle disappeared, they were driving home from Mary's job stocking the newspapers.

Now, they do remember that they saw some cars out by the place where Michelle was found. The Mazda that belonged to Leo and Michelle on the side of the road. They also saw a truck that matched Leo's seniors parked next to it. This helps tie the prosecution's story together that Leo had something to do with Michelle's murder, and he had an opportunity to dump the body sometime during the night.

Leo and his father deny that they could have seen their vehicles. But this, along with Alice Scott's account, leads to an indictment. In June of 1988, police arrest Leo for Michelle's murder. No charges are brought against Leo's father. It was in the newspaper. I said, "Oh my gosh, David, they arrested Leo for Michelle's death. You don't think he did it, do you?" That was the first thing that came out of my mouth.

After they arrested him, we visited him constantly in the jail. I think he had a positive attitude. Adamant that he was innocent. So he just felt like he was going to be able to win this thing. You looked at the state's timeline for what happened. What stood out to you about it? The thing that stood out was it just made no sense. The more you read about the timeline and the more you begin to realize this is probably not a murder that Leo Schofield could physically commit.

At the trial, Leo comes face to face with former friends. I just wanted to stare him down.

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This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust, or is it a real POS? You need Shopify for retail. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify POS has everything you need to sell in person. Go to shopify.com slash system, all lowercase, to take your retail business to the next level today. That's shopify.com slash system. ♪

The trial was definitely a big story for the ledger. Anytime there's the first-degree murder case, and particularly in this case, Leo Schofield faced the death penalty if he was convicted.

the prosecutor in this case. First things he says to the jury is just how violent he finds Leo Schofield to be. And he paints Leo as this angry young man. There were 21 character witnesses. How damaging was what they said about Leo? I think it was extraordinarily damaging. They painted Leo this picture of this, you know, person with a temper who was extraordinarily violent.

In one instance, Leo asked Michelle to bring him some iced tea. And when she brought it in the wrong glass, he was so angry that he punched her in the stomach. So witnesses testified that he was an angry man, but that they come up with any motive for that night, for the killing. Yes, that he was so upset with her not showing up, and he was just so angry that he killed her.

That's it. This was a homicide committed in rage. Let me say this unequivocally, that never happened. I have never pulled her hair. I have never punched her. I never abused her. That never happened. I don't know why people lie. They do. I know that they have. And in this case, they did. I know that the state has described the relationship as volatile and violent. It was not volatile and violent. It was a very loving, passionate relationship that had moments

Because of me and I live with that every single day. I remember walking into the courtroom I just wanted to stare him down, you know, Leo's just said kind of out of the blue You know, I could have blacked out and killed her and I would never even know it They do put Leo on the stand He admits to slapping Michelle twice, but he basically says I didn't kill my wife. I

The state has presented her as a victim, and she was a victim of a cruel and heinous crime, but not one committed by her husband. I'm not charged with being a bad husband. I'm charged with murder. Leo's friends thought they would have the opportunity to testify on Leo's behalf. We were told that we were going to be character witnesses. And his lawyer decided not to use us. He says, I don't need to. He kind of assured us that he thought he had it all sewn up and he wouldn't need us.

The main argument from the defense is the lack of any physical evidence connecting Leo to the murder. The prosecution's theory is that Michelle was killed in the Schofield trailer. 26 stab wounds, with several of them being fatal. He didn't kill her in the trailer. Not stabbed 26 times, there wasn't any blood. If you stab somebody 26 times, there's blood flying everywhere.

The prosecution points back to their key witness, Leo's neighbor, Alice Scott. And on the stand, she testified that after Michelle went missing, she saw Leo bringing a carpet cleaner into Leo's trailer. She also says she could even see him cleaning the carpets. We know that he had that cleaner to clean up the rug. He spent some time in there doing that. What he may or may not have done with his clothing, I don't know.

It was his home he had the ability to either get rid of or wash, that type of thing. Of course, when the crime scene technicians came here and they examined the carpet, they said there's no sign that this carpet was freshly cleaned. For the defense, the timeline was a factor. There were people who had seen Leo during the course of the night and could identify where he was at certain times.

According to the prosecutors, where would Leo need to be and when on the night of the murder? Well, it's interesting. If you look at this map, you can sort of see what transpired. So this is where Leo lives and Alice Scott is right across the street from him. She says, "I see Leo come out. Looked like he's carrying something." She figures it's about 2:15 or 2:20.

the interesting thing is at 2 20 leo is over at david psalm's house father we know that because he testifies he's a state's witness this is miles away from where alice scott says he was supposed to be within the span of five minutes within minutes yeah in fact he really according to alice scott he's in two places at once in any case that you've looked at you're going to find some discrepancies with witness testimony it's human

I don't think any witness was looking at their watch saying, "Here's Leo." I think they were being as honest as they could be in approximating exactly what they observed. The main thrust of the defense case was that there were too many questions and those questions led to reasonable doubt. Especially those two sets of fingerprints found in the Mazda that did not match Leo, Leo Sr., or Michelle. They were unidentified fingerprints.

So at the very end in his closing argument, the defense says, "Wouldn't you like to know if someone else's fingerprints were found in that Mazda?" I just remember it seemed like it took them forever to say the words guilty or not guilty. The verdict was guilty, this charge of first-degree murder. And I just knew without every ounce of my being that they had the right person. Leo, I remember seeing him kind of fall apart crying.

I remember my head hitting the table. I was devastated. I begged my attorney, "Don't let him kill me in an electric chair." Leo was spared the death penalty. He was given life in prison instead. But a new chapter in Leo's story is about to begin.

The painful truth is, someone else's fingerprints were found in the Mazda. So I'm like, whose fingerprints were those? Somebody knows something. Then finally, there's a match, and alarm bells go off. The fact these prints come back to a known killer in the area is a one-in-a-million type of chance. Oh, I promise I'm not going to do this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Decades after Michelle's murder, does the real killer come forward? I've been holding this confession for a long time. The story of a man serving life in prison. Oh, I promise I'm not gonna do this. I'm sorry. I don't see this as entertainment. I see this as a man who spent 36 years in prison for a crime that he didn't commit. They're keeping him away on purpose.

And I don't know why. So this is the Mazda. They would find fingerprints on that driver's side window. In my career, I haven't seen too many instances where new evidence surfaces 15 years after a conviction. Sounds like something out of a movie. This was huge. This was the turning point. I went home and this guy didn't do it.

Did you think this new evidence might help Leo get a new trial? I think everybody thought that. He's a cold-blooded, unrepentant murderer. All of the arrows pointed towards Leo, period, handstand. Whoever his prince these are may have known something. And I knew then I was looking at Michelle's killer. When he describes killing her, it's the most horrific thing ever to have to hear. I've been...

holding this confession for a long time. Now, the very latest twist, as one man's future comes down to three strangers. I started collecting documents in 1991. And this is just a tiny little portion because now everything's on computer. These are old transcripts. I have legal stuff, investigations, depositions.

31 years. So, that's a lot. Somewhere amidst the thousands of case files that she saved through the years. It's all the legal motions. Chrissy Schofield is hoping to find something, anything that could help free her husband Leo from a life sentence for the murder of his first wife, Michelle. If somebody's interested in the case, I'll fill up this box and, um,

dump it all in there and say, "Just read it. You don't have to believe me. You don't have to take my word for it. Just read it." I do this because I can't not do it. To right this wrong and to see justice, it has to be done. When someone's in prison, they need someone fighting for them on the outside. And Leo had that in his wife, Chrissy Schofield. She's been called my bulldog. She's very tenacious. She doesn't take no for an answer.

How does she begin investigating the case? She's showing up at the clerk's office, asking a million questions. I wanted him out. This was wrong. She was adamant that he was innocent. And she's doing all this as a single mom with her adopted daughter, Ashley. Absolutely. Being a dad of a daughter is another difficult thing. It's exponentially more difficult from in prison.

But what Ashley brings is the reason for hope and living and a future. Having my head wrapped around the fact that people think he's a murderer is confusing. Because if you look at the facts, if you look at the story, it doesn't add up. It's tough for me because I want us to be together and I want this to be over. This is the area where the body of Michelle Schofield was discovered decades ago.

It looks much different now. Years after Leo's murder conviction, his wife Chrissy began a crusade to prove his innocence. And she became fixated on one physical piece of evidence that had remained a mystery all those years: unidentified fingerprints. So I'm like, "Whose fingerprints were those?" I don't know. It drives me crazy.

What are we looking at here? So this is the Mazda. They would find fingerprints on that driver's side window on the interior. Also in the back of the Mazda, the hatchback, they found a fingerprint on a receipt laying right there. The prints did not match Michelle, nor Leo, nor Leo Senior. Right. These were just a stranger's prints and that's why Chrissy was so obsessed with it. Whoever's fingerprints in that car had to know something.

The layperson can't just obtain evidence from a case file nor run fingerprints. But lucky for Chrissy, she had a friend who's married to a defense attorney, Scott Cupp. Chrissy was a friend of my wife's at the time. A little bit later, came to find out that, you know, that she was married to Leo and

Of course, I thought she was crazy. Most people did, she says. But then they both kind of worked on me. You reluctantly agreed to read Leo's case file. I'm just going to do it, and then I'll be able to tell Chrissy that this is what happened. This is why, you know, this guy's in prison. That's not the way I want it. The thing that stood out the most is kind of simple. You can't be in two places at one time. And so at that point, he's all in.

You contact the state police in Florida to get a copy of the original fingerprints. At that point, all I was looking at was the next logical step, and that was one thing that I saw that should still be around.

In 1987, you would have to compare these unknown fingerprints to thousands of known fingerprints. And that's even just assuming that the match is somehow in your file. It's a painstaking process to do these fingerprint matches by eye rather than by automation. Having the fingerprints is a huge moment for this case, but Chrissy's still running into a problem. She can't run them. Fortunately, Cinda, her friend, works for the Sheriff's Department. They kept hounding her, like, "We have to get these prints run."

And I would pester her and pester her and pester her and drive her nuts. And she took them. In Hendry County, I was the captain over the Criminal Investigations Division for the Sheriff's Office. So I asked my crime scene detective, "Can you make out whether or not this print is viable?" I did not ask that that print be run, but the print got ran. It was either a day or two days later, and I vividly recall him saying,

We have a hit. Cinda called me and said, you're not going to believe this. Was it a tow truck driver? Was it a random guy that stumbled on the car? Somebody knew something. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that that somebody was a murderer. I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now

I see you. It defines that era of my life now because of this tragedy. But today, I'm not the same man that I was then. My life has changed because of Jesus working in these men's lives. Prison is not the place that builds men into good men, but it can if the man is willing. Whoever his prince these are,

may have known something about what happened. - Exactly, and that was what Chrissy's whole thing was. I mean, I don't think she expected this outcome. - These prints come back to this man. - The fingerprints are put into the system and they come back to someone who is a convicted murderer, Jeremy Scott.

I mean, what are the odds in this situation that these unidentified fingerprints, they come back to a convicted murderer who's from that area? It's just too big a signpost to avoid. Sounds like something out of a movie. This was huge. This was the turning point. When I heard that the fingerprints matched, I thought that they found the person that actually did kill Michelle. I was excited because Leo's going to get either out or get a new trial.

When Cinda told me the name, we had an answer. It's scary. It's overwhelming. It was one of those, "Oh, crap" moments. It became very significant. Jeremy Lynn Scott. You look up the police report and look up his DOC record. I started researching and looking into his cases and reading about it. I saw this long history of violence.

It turns out Jeremy Scott had a tough upbringing. Yes, he did. It was pretty horrible. I first met Jeremy Scott when I was 16. Jeremy Scott's upbringing and childhood wasn't very good. His family tossed him around from home to home. He had lived on the street and just grew up

having to fend for himself. He was constantly committing violent acts. He's just very different, very narcissistic in a way. Jeremy Scott was just a punk criminal. One of the things that he was almost proud of was if he saw a car that was abandoned, he would get into that vehicle and take stereo radio equipment.

At the time of Michelle's murder, he'd already been tried and acquitted by that same office of a murder. In 1988, Jeremy Scott is yet again charged with murder. This time of a man that he beats over the head with a bottle, and when that didn't do the trick to kill the man, he strangles him with a telephone cord. This time, he is convicted.

He's initially sentenced to death. That sentence is eventually commuted to life in prison. And Jeremy's been in prison ever since. Then we start looking more and realize that he lived about a mile from where Michelle was found. So all those are adding up. We got our guy.

We're prosecutors. I've never seen anything like this, certainly not in my career. This is a reasonable doubt personified. I think people thought that this would get Leo out of prison. You must have thought, "Leo's gonna get a new trial." Absolutely. I was thinking game, set, match for Leo. I remember Scott and I was like, "Oh, 90 days, he's gonna be out of there." I went to visit, and I told him that we had a match on the fingerprints, and it was Jeremy Scott. And his first reaction was to put his head down on the table and cry. That was tough.

It was tough. For me, it was the mantle of the murderer was taken up because that's been laid on my shoulders by the state and I've had to carry that burden. I was looking for a monster for years before Jeremy was found. I picked up the phone and I called Polk County Sheriff's Office and I immediately told them what had happened.

On the heels of that new information, cold case detectives are sent to visit Jeremy Scott in prison. And what he has to say could hold the key to Leo's freedom. Go ahead and state your name for the record, sir. My name is Jeremy Scott.

Hi all, Kate Gibson here of The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson. This week we talked to Whoopi Goldberg about lots of things. But one of the things we talked to her about is how as a science fiction and graphic novel fan, she never saw herself on those screens or on those pages growing up. I mean, I didn't realize that part of me until I watched Star Trek. And I saw it because I love sci-fi.

And for some reason, it never occurred to me that I was missing until I was present. You're not going to want to miss this episode of The Bookcase from ABC News.

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I never, ever thought that this would be my story and my life. I went from traveling, doing things, friends, to now spending my weekends in prison.

That was not something that I had planned, but here it is and it's my life. For three decades, Chrissy Schofield has visited her husband Leo in prison. I realized just now, today is our anniversary for when we met. But in 2005, it was investigators who paid a visit to Jeremy Scott. My name is Louis Ciampavolo. I'm a retired major from the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

there were unidentified Laytons on Michelle Schofield's car and they came back with a hit. So myself and a detective drove up and sat down with Jeremy Scott. Basically our goal was to talk to him and just get some background. Who is this guy?

What does he tell them? They say, "Is there a reason that your fingerprints could have been in a car along the side of a road?" First thing he said was, "Was the stereo equipment missing?" He made the statement, "That's all I used to do. I'd steal every stereo out of a car." And the evidence in Michelle's car was that the stereo speakers were missing. Correct. So who knows? We decided, "Well, let's bump it up a notch. Let's see what he knows or what he's going to say."

So we slid a picture of Michelle Schofield to see what his reaction was going to be. What does he tell them? He just basically says, "I didn't do it." And so that's what they go with, that he was just a stereo thief, which is kind of remarkable because they know he's not just a punk stereo thief. They know he's a murderer. As far as this case goes, we look at the evidence, and as bad as he is, he ain't part of this case other than stealing out of her car.

Leo's defense was not deterred. Armed with Jeremy Scott's fingerprint evidence, they filed a motion for a new trial, while Chrissy rallied the local media. My name is Donald Morris. I was a news artist for the St. Petersburg Times.

I got a call from Chrissy. She shared what was going on in Leo's case. It was a story that really caught my ear. So this is the doubt story as it ran on the front page. In 2007, the St. Petersburg Times publishes an article about Leo's case, which took aim at the testimony of Alice Scott, the neighbor who is unrelated to Jeremy Scott.

She had this story that she was looking through the bathroom window and I think somehow they got, somebody got in there and looked and you couldn't possibly see what she said she saw.

Alice Scott, Leo's neighbor, lived in this house. She testified to seeing him from her bathroom window the night Michelle disappeared. When Times reporters questioned her 20 years later about whether she could have seen Leo from that distance, they say she changed her account and now claimed she actually saw him from her porch. Now that's something Alice never said at trial or to the police.

2020 tried to contact Alice Scott, but we never received a response. I believe that at the time she testified, she was credible. And please bear in mind, we had no less than three separate individuals go confirm that she could actually see what she said she saw from where she said she saw it. Go ahead and state your name for the record, sir. Your name is Jeremy Scott.

Jeremy Scott is deposed in 2010, and just like before, he denies having any involvement in Michelle's murder. Jeremy says that he didn't do it. There was nothing tying him to brutally murdering Michelle Schofield. All of the arrows pointed towards Leo, period, hands down.

Months later, Jeremy Scott is back in court to testify at Leo's hearing. Did you kill Michelle Schofield? No, sir, I didn't. I thought we were going to get a new trial. The court found that Jeremy Scott's fingerprints alone would not likely have led to an acquittal on retrial and ruled there were no issues with the trial evidence that would have led to Leo's exoneration.

This is seemingly a complete dead end for Leo's case. It must have been devastating to Leo's supporters. And for Leo. I still have a hard time believing it. You feel very strongly that Leo deserves to be exonerated. No question. And I'm not the only one that feels that way. To lose that was... it's horrible. And I have to tell Leo. I'm the one that tells him. At that point, I've got two paths to go down.

I can go down the path that leads to bitterness and hatred, or I can pray, and I did exactly that because I'm hurting inside, and I don't know what else to do. This was probably his darkest moment. He's just starting to accept the fact that he's in for life. He's probably never getting out. And now Leo's praying for a miracle. I'm a private investigator. I'm talking with Jeremy Scott. ♪♪

My daughter, never did she ever lose her personality, her energy, her enthusiasm for life. And there were moments where I needed her far more than she needed me. I definitely can't wait till he walks out and I run and I just hug him. That's what I'm waiting for.

Years go by and the case is stalled. Scott Cupp becomes a judge and stops representing Leo. So a new attorney comes into Leo's case. He asks a private investigator to speak with Jeremy Scott, hoping to get a confession on tape.

So during my career, I was the private investigator for OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony, a number of these high-profile cases. I'll find dirt on Mother Teresa. I just wanted you to go ahead and just explain what happened that night with Michelle in your own words. He's not even looking at me anymore. He's looking at this tape recorder on the table. Pat just says, Jeremy just stood up and started talking about the ride in the car with Michelle.

It was around February, around midnight, maybe one o'clock or something. I went to the Texaco station. She asked me, was I waiting on the phone? I said no, we need a ride. We go past the old trailer park where I used to live at with my grandparents. So I tell her to turn off. And the road, it's behind the little trees is the lake.

I said, "Where did people come and make out at?" She said, "I'm married." And I reached in and grabbed my cigarettes and out of my pocket, I got like a seven-inch knife. She went to panic and started screaming and hitting me. Next thing I know, I lost it. She done stabbed her, you know, I don't know how many times. And I'm like panicking now because I don't know what just happened.

And he said, "I just remember I dragged her body down to the water and I think I covered it. Then I got up and I took her car up to get away." It was along this stretch of highway that Jeremy Scott says Michelle's car broke down. He says after cleaning up the evidence, he walked half a mile up the road to that overpass where he disposed of the murder weapon. I didn't mean to kill Michelle Scofield. I never intended to do any harm.

I've been holding this confession for a long time. Let me just say this. I didn't know Michelle, but I've lived with Michelle for 31 years. When he describes killing her, it's the most horrific thing ever to have to hear and to know it's true and to know it happened.

This confession leads to a momentous event. There was a hearing to determine whether or not Leo should get a new trial. And Jeremy Scott takes the stand. Everybody was on pins and needles because, Jeremy, you never know what you're getting. My name is Jeremy Scott. But he sticks with his story. Do you recall having an interaction with Michelle Scrofiel that night? I made a statement. I ain't got nothing else to say. Keep pulling me out of prison for this. I'm confessing to the murder.

On cross-examination, the prosecutor pointed out multiple times over the years where Jeremy Scott denied any role in Michelle's murder, as well as certain details that he could not recall or got wrong in his testimony, such as the clothes Michelle wore that night. And then at one point, she shows the autopsy pictures, and he's visually disturbed by them. Can you take a look at this, Mr. Scott? Look at it.

- And I see it again. - See it again? I didn't hear that answer. - No, I didn't hear that. - They took that as a flip flop that he recanted. - No one wants to look at photos of dead people, is that correct? - No, no, no. - And you feel ashamed to do it, don't you? - Yes, sir. - That's why he gave that answer. - I killed her. - There was no doubt that he said that. We were definitely convinced the judge would bang the gavel and that would be it.

But Leo's hopes are dashed. When the opinion comes out, the judge doesn't find Jeremy Scott to be credible. And he rules that there's not enough evidence to grant Leo a new trial. I don't like to think about it because it hurts. It's almost like they're keeping him away on purpose. And I don't know why. I mean, I understand the Jeremy evidence.

But Lord, are they ignoring the 18-wheeler worth of evidence that says he did it? Leo Schofield should never see sunlight unless it's filtered through razor wire and barbed wire ever again. It's now September 2021, and Gilbert King interviews Jeremy Scott in prison for his podcast. Hi, Jeremy. I'm Gilbert King. What were you hoping to learn from him? He admitted to us that he was tortured by these murders that he committed.

And he has a message for Leo Schofield. Yeah. As far as Leo, Leo innocent. That man ain't do nothing. He's innocent. I'm convoluted in my spirit. You know, obviously I've known that he's confessed. I haven't heard any of his confession. Oh, I promise I'm not going to do this. I'm sorry.

Jeremy Scott continues to claim responsibility for Michelle's murder, but it's Leo who's still serving a life sentence in prison. So at this point, Leo is out of legal avenues to actually be exonerated or get a new trial. He potentially can be up for parole.

Today in Tallahassee, a parole board will decide the fate of Leo Schofield. I want people to believe in me. I want the parole commission to believe in me. This one is it. It should be it. He's a cold-blooded, unrepentant murderer. He deserves no breaks. Commissioners, this man does not deserve one more night in prison.

In September of 2022, Leo's story went nationwide. The story of a man serving life in prison for a crime he may not have committed. 2020 is all new tonight, looking into a Florida husband's conviction in his wife's murder. His case was recently covered in a crime podcast, Bone Valley.

What was the public's response to Leo's story? Almost immediately you start to get people feeling emotional about it and feeling invested in who Leo is as a person. Shaking with rage. He didn't do it. The obvious and glaring issues in the case. Michelle Truax, Michelle Schofield's best friend, tells us that after hearing Jeremy Scott's confession, she now firmly believes Leo Schofield was wrongly convicted.

Another key believer, Judge Scott Cupp, who does something totally unexpected. In January 2023, you resigned from the bench. Why? I finally made the decision that I'm going to step off and go back to being this lawyer representing at the parole hearing. You had a comfortable life. Nine years you've been on the bench. It sounds too, I don't know, too trite, too self-effacing. It was the right thing to do because this guy's innocent.

Get 'em out. We are in Tallahassee, Florida the night before parole hearing. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord of all. This is the fourth time I've done this and every time I'm hopeful. This time more hopeful than ever before. We pray this in your son Christ's name. Amen. Amen. It really needed to happen.

In May 2023, Leo's up for parole. Before that, what had his experience been like? He's just had all these parole hearings for the last decade that have gone nowhere, mainly because he refuses to express remorse for a crime that he didn't commit. Just having his story be out there, this time it made a difference, I think. I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order for the full commission. If everyone could please take your seat. Leo's not invited?

The three people that are making the decision about him, don't talk to him. They've never met him. He can't even listen in. People assume that the inmates, the person seeking parole is present. They're not. Somebody can speak on their behalf. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Scott Cupp. I'm an attorney representing Leo Schofield. The first thing I would like you to hear from

is a letter written by Jesse Somm, who's Michelle Schofield's brother. I felt compelled to write the letter to the parole officers because I wanted to voice my opinion. Over the years, I've done some research and have found many inconsistencies and discrepancies in the investigation and the trial. I am still convinced that Leo isn't the one that killed Michelle. At this time, I'd like to have Senator Jonathan Martin speak.

He oversees the prisons and the parole commission. So to have somebody like that come in with that stature, it became a very powerful part of the hearing. Everything that I've seen about this case turns my stomach. I don't know why Leo Schofield wasn't released years ago. Innocent, innocent, innocent. That's been an elephant in the room for way too long. What I'm asking you to do is to search your heart.

This man does not deserve one more night in prison. -And we're gonna now move to opposition. -Who represented the state? -Jacob Orr, who's the chief assistant state attorney. -There's overwhelming evidence in support of the guilty verdict that was handed down many years ago. He's been a very good inmate.

You know the law doesn't allow being a good inmate alone to allow for release. Michelle's other brother, Ricky Somm, calls in. People have asked me, you know, did Leo kill my sister? And, you know, I believe in God and I believe in the courts, and the courts got it right. He sort of expressed the other side was that he didn't want to see the murderer of his sister paroled.

Our role is not to determine guilt or innocence. However, our job is to look at a person's overall record and determine whether or not they are suitable for parole. Our final decision is to move Mr. Schofield's case to 2024. The subject of the Bone Valley podcast has been denied parole again in his wife's murder. People aren't going to be happy with this verdict. They're going to get a lot of pushback for this.

At the end of the day, the parole board did decide to deny parole, but with an important caveat. They would put Leo in a new facility, a facility designed to see whether or not someone is ready for parole. It's not what we wanted at all, but it's movement. It could have been way worse. Hey, it's Chrissy. Chrissy calls Leo to give him the new, and he takes it in stride.

We've been walking in a tunnel in utter darkness for 35 years. We have never had a light at the end of this tunnel, ever. A big bright light was lit.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. The first case that we're calling is item 22 on page 12, Leo Schofield. Leo was sent to a reentry program for a year. So he's fulfilled that whole year and he's back for another parole hearing today. In 2024, Leo has another opportunity for parole. People show up in full force.

Among the people who spoke on Leo's behalf, a prison guard. Yeah. My name is Sergeant James Simmons, and my professional opinion, I put forward that Leo Schofield would make a great candidate for parole. The state also appeared. They didn't really talk about Leo. Instead, they called out the media. Whatever decision you make, don't base it on some sensational media accounts that are set to dramatic music.

based in on truth. Thank you, Mr. Orr. And we'll proceed with the votes. Today, my vote is to parole Mr. Schofield. My vote today is to parole to the max. My vote would be to parole. The tough story is this morning, after nearly 35 years being behind bars, the parole board voted Wednesday to release Leo Schofield. Leo is only going to have to spend 13 more days in prison and then he'll be out.

It's hard to put into words the level of emotion that I feel right now. ♪ I could lead you home ♪ Leo was potentially going to spend the rest of his life in prison, but this is a chance to live the life that he has been denied. I haven't been able to see my dad since he's been out of prison. Today, I get to see him, and I'm so ready. So excited. ♪

Today is the day Leo's gonna walk out of prison. Cars filled with friends and family members line up behind us. We're all peering through the dark. Just a few weeks ago, Leo Schofield, now 58 years old, was released from prison after 36 years behind bars. I'm like, okay, so they're gonna let me go. Opened the front gate and I went through it. It was incredible.

I saw him come around the building and the most magical moment of my life. It was unbelievable. It was just so, so fantastic. After all these years and dreaming and hoping and waiting. Hi, baby. Hi. It was just the most magical experience of my life. He's released and you get to hug him. What was that like?

still is the hardest and longest hug of my life. I mean, he just grabbed me and wouldn't let go. And I found myself, you know, just grabbing him too. Yes, not that complicated. For the next year, Leo will live at this halfway house. And he now has a remote job working in customer service. Hey, Leo. Hey, John. Nice to meet you. Thank you. Come on in. Thank you. Thank you for inviting us. Yes, sir. And this here is my bedroom.

As you can see, it's my playroom actually. Leo's never really held a cell phone in his hand before. He didn't know how to do email and text messaging and all of this had to be taught to him. So much has changed in the world since you were in. Yes, absolutely.

almost everything. And then they got these things called emojis and I'm like, they express, my daughter was sending me emails the first day I was out and got all these different faces and I'm supposed to be able to interpret that stuff. When I caught up with Leo, he told me he was not going to take any moment for granted. I mean, look at how far away that is. Miles and miles. Miles and miles that I get to see. No fences, no walls, no bars.

It resonates and touches you so much. Yeah, it does. I'm missing 36 years worth of moments. I'm not going to miss another 36 years. I am about to go to my mom's birthday party with my dad for the first time. This is actually my first time seeing him since he's been here at the halfway house. So a lot of emotions and I'm really excited.

Leo's daughter Ashley has only known her father within the confines of prison walls. These are their family portraits. This is our first family photo not in prison. I really get to have my dad. I can hug him when I'm sad and upset or mad or angry. He gets to be there now.

As a grandfather, I couldn't ask for a better male role model in my son's life. But the happiness is often short-lived. We don't get to have the magic honeymoon, the glorious experience that one would think. It's wonderful that he's out, but he's not free. This isn't over. He's a convicted murderer, and he's on parole.

There's a whole bunch of stuff he can't do and he won't ever be able to do unless he gets exonerated. And it's just not justice because he's innocent. Do you want exoneration? And not only do I want exoneration, I deserve exoneration. I should have never been in the prison to begin with. Leo says his faith has given him the strength to not only fight for himself, but also for his late wife, Michelle.

How often do you think of Michelle? Every single day. Every single day. And this is not yet complete justice for her. And she deserves justice. She deserves better than this.

Leo Schofield is in the process of writing a book and hopes sharing his story will help in criminal justice reform. And we should mention that for more on Leo's release, you could listen to a new bonus episode of the Bone Valley podcast. That is our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David Muir. And I'm Debra Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.

Hi all, Kate Gibson here of The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson. This week we talked to Whoopi Goldberg about lots of things. But one of the things we talked to her about is how as a science fiction and graphic novel fan, she never saw herself on those screens or on those pages growing up. I mean, I didn't realize that part of me until I watched Star Trek. And I saw it because I love sci-fi.

And for some reason, it never occurred to me that I was missing until I was present. You're not going to want to miss this episode of The Bookcase from ABC News.