Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Man Stabbed Ex-Girlfriend He Stalked 15 Times

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Spencer Pearson has pleaded guilty to attempted murder charges for a stabbing attack on his ex-girlfriend, Madison Schemitz, and her mother in June 2023. A man who helped Schemitz and her mother was also injured. Pearson's lawyers had him evaluated by a forensic psychologist who also evaluated Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of murdering her daughter. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at what this could mean for sentencing with Dr. G in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5\Guest: Dr. John Paul Garrison https://www.youtube.com/@drgexplainsCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Those three girls got attacked by him. He saved them. When I came up, he was trying to kill himself. So I just got the knife out of his hand because I figured he could still jump around. That man who attacked the two women has now pleaded guilty to trying to kill his ex-girlfriend and her mother and wounding a bystander who came to their aid. We were coming in from this side and the guy that stopped everything ran in front of us. And I was like, what the hell is going on? The man's name is Spencer Pearson, and his sentencing may be

delayed after his defense attorney had him evaluated by the same psychologist who evaluated Casey Anthony. I lay out what this could mean for the case of Spencer Pearson. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Madison Chemetz is lucky to be alive. She's the definition of a survivor. And from everything I've seen on her social media and in news stories, she is an incredibly strong and brave young woman. She's remarkable. But her life could have ended tragically and needlessly on June 3rd of last year when her ex-boyfriend, Spencer Pearson, attacked her and her mother with a knife. Pearson has now admitted to these charges.

Spencer Pearson had been stalking Madison since April of 2023, according to an incident report. Spencer and Madison had dated, but the relationship had ended. On June 3rd of 2023, Pearson found Madison and her mom at a Chubby's restaurant, and Madison and her mom left to avoid him. 20 seconds later, Pearson began stabbing Madison. The body camera footage of the aftermath from the St. John's County Sheriff's Office is chilling. The EMTs and the deputies found an awful scene. There was a man laying on the ground wounded, and he's being treated for stab wounds. What is wrong with you?

Hey, stay away. Okay? Yeah, there you go. Release him. Give me that third rescue kit. All three are really live and unresponsive. One stab in the chest. One stab in the head.

One deputy reported that one of the victims was stabbed in the chest. An EMT is working desperately to save a man who's laying on the ground wounded. I need a crank kit for my airway back. Can you get an airway back for us? Airway back. I need an airway back. Oh, he's got it. That man who was wounded is Spencer Pearson. Pearson had tried to cut his own throat,

and he is the suspect in this case who attacked Madison Shemitz and her mom. He ran from across the parking lot and tackled them and got them apart. We parked and I walked up. He was laying here cutting his fucking neck. Don't step on this. I was like, dude. So I just got on top of him. But he had so much. He was still like. All right.

Madison's mother had tried to stop Spencer Pearson. And as you just heard, a man in a pink shirt was hurt as he tried to stop Pearson. My husband's the one that got it away from him. He was cutting his neck. He was cutting his neck and my husband stopped him and threw it, got it away from him. I just wanted to make sure he knew that. Thank you. Appreciate it.

I'm going to hold on. Deputies gathered as much information as they could, interviewing a server who spoke with Madison's mom right before the attack. The mother pulled me outside and asked me if the kid was eating or if he was just there by himself. And I was like, well, he's eating. And she was like, oh, okay. And I was like, is everything all right? And she said that they had, you know, just some kid stuff going on. Deputies also interviewed other witnesses, including the people who stopped Spencer Pearson. Love you, ma'am. Love you, brother. So what the happened? I just packed my truck and got off of work and I see the guy on top of that girl right there.

Okay. I saw that and I just I heard yelling. I ran over and knocked him off and I guess when I knocked him off, he sliced me. Where's your wallet at? I gave it to him right there. Who's got his wallet? I just need his wallet. I'm just going to write everything down. That man saved Madison's life. You're a hero, man. You are a hero. You're my hero, brother. Other witnesses talked about either seeing Pearson right before the attack or witnessing the attack in different stages. It started right there. Right here. Okay.

He was waiting on her. I saw this kid pacing around out here. Okay. The kid that's suspect. Okay. I don't know if she was alone. I just talked to the manager. And so he stopped them here.

Whatever happened, I saw him pacing around out here, and I didn't put anything together, but I just... He started screaming, and he ran. It was sprinting. Was it a kid in a pink shirt? Yeah, he's the one who saved those two girls' lives. Okay. Like, I was just sitting here with my family having lunch,

and I saw him sprint, dead sprint, and I didn't really realize what was happening because I saw the kid come out. I'm going to start signing off anyway. Okay. But that's where he ran out of his own shoes trying to get to them. The main altercation happened. I was coming in.

I was parked in. I parked in this truck right there. Okay. The very end, and I see everybody. They were right on the way. They just saw it. They were running around right there. And I see the one guy, and he's got a knife.

OK. OK. All right. So what happened was he was so close to them. I was like, dude, what are you doing? And he was like, like, barely being able to do it. OK. So I jumped on him.

I was like, give me the knife. I figured he's close to them. So I'm moving on top of him. He had a lot of power. Madison Shemitz was paralyzed by the attack, but remarkably, she has regained the ability to walk with help. And after months of rehabilitation, Madison later met the man who saved her. A photo of the meeting was posted on her GoFundMe page. Madison Victoria Shemitz. meeting was posted on her GoFundMe page. And this past May, Madison walked onto the stage at Ponte Vedra High School to thunderous applause where she collected her high school diploma. Then in July, Spencer Pearson pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree attempted murder

and one count of aggravated battery causing serious bodily injury. He was supposed to be sentenced next week, but that now looks like it might not happen. The prosecution is asking to delay the sentencing after receiving a psychological evaluation of Pearson from Dr. Harry Kropp. He's a forensic psychologist who met with Casey Anthony several times. She was the young Florida mom, of course, who was acquitted in 2011 of murdering her daughter, Kaylee. That development was first reported by stjohncitizen.com. Now, what that report says is being kept under wraps, but the prosecution wants its own expert to evaluate Spencer Pearson. Pearson's lawyers had said in court documents

late last year that he attempted suicide in the weeks before attacking Madison. The stabbing of Madison Shemitz and her mother is an absolutely terrifying case, and it's literally exhibit A of how you have to do everything you can to stay safe. Truthfinder.com is a website that can help you do just that. Just put in a person's name into truthfinder.com and you'll get valuable information like past addresses, criminal records, relatives, and social media accounts. I use Truthfinder to research all of the cases that I cover, and I use it in my personal life to research the people that I meet each day, especially since I have a family. And one thing that I love about Truthfinder is

that it will show you the addresses of registered sex offenders who live in your neighborhood. So right now, I have a great deal for Crime Fix viewers and listeners. You can get 50% off of all confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix, log on, and start accessing information about almost anyone. So what could this psychological evaluation mean for Spencer Pearson's case? I want to bring in somebody who does a lot of this. He is Dr. John Paul Garrison. You may know him better, though, as Dr. G. He's a forensic psychologist. So, Dr. G, thanks for coming on. This is a really disturbing case. Spencer Pearson was stalking his ex-girlfriend, and then he has now admitted to attacking her and her mother at this restaurant.

Yeah, this is a tremendously disturbing case. Whenever stalking, harassment, any of these type of factors come in, it just really becomes more unsettling. And the details of this are horrific. The details are horrific. And Madison Shemitz has made a remarkable, remarkable recovery. Thank goodness. I mean, she was paralyzed for a time. And she has made, as I said, a remarkable recovery. Obviously, Spencer Pearson was trying to kill her.

And you don't go after somebody with a knife and paralyze them if you're not trying to kill them. And he's pleaded guilty to attempted murder. So if you're the defense attorney here and he's pleaded guilty and he's facing 18 years in prison, which I would expect him to get, why a psychological evaluation now? I mean, what are you trying to accomplish there? So there's a few things that you'd want to know. One, whether or not they can participate in their own defense. So whether or not you are suggesting that he's not mentally fit to know what's going on. So you've got to get clarity on that, being sure he's intellectually capable if somebody's implied anything else. So you've got

to do IQ tests, those kinds of things just to get a baseline of all of that. Then you also have to find whether or not he was delusional or if there was some sort of psychosis going on when the crime was commissioned. So there's a lot that you want to get clarity on. Essentially, once you've got a good baseline for how he's functioning, then you'll know how you can approach it in court. Then you'll know what you can and can in court. Then you'll know what you can and can't do. And you also need to know what makes sense as far as sentencing and where he should be, whether he should be in a hospital, whether he should be in prison. There's a lot that comes from those kinds of evaluations. But we're at the stage now where he's pleaded

guilty and he's supposed to be sentenced this month. That's now probably not going to happen because the prosecution wants their own expert to evaluate Spencer Pearson. So I assume this is all about the defense trying to get him less time or, you know, get him maybe placed somewhere that's not prison or something like that. You know, this is being kept under wraps. They're not sharing with us what this evaluation says. So at this stage in the game, I mean, do you think if they can show that he was suffering from some, you know, grave mental illness, that that could get him less time or maybe get him treatment instead of, you know, put into some type of mental health facility rather than prison? I just can't imagine a judge not sentencing him to prison, given what we know about this case. I can't imagine that either, but there may be details that come out that are surprising or things, you know, from a clinical side, you know, as a psychologist that I wouldn't expect. So

from the details that we see, it seems pretty much, it would be surprising if he didn't get the full 18 years or that the judge wasn't very harsh with the sentencing. But I'll be curious if there is something unknown or something very dramatic or profound that has to be uncovered. But sometimes this is how defenses work in situations like this, where they just want to make sure that they're covering every base about what they think could be going on or suggesting that somehow he just is not capable of knowing what he did or something like that. So not knowing all of the specific details of it,

it's hard to say whether or not it'll be effective, but it sounds like the prosecution doesn't like what the defense had to say, given they're doing their own evaluation. Yeah, most certainly. It sounds like they are not in agreement with what this expert is saying. So talk to me about stalking a little bit. I mean, this obviously, there's a lot that goes into this type of behavior. It's somebody who can't let go. There's a control aspect of this, and also kind of an obsessive thinking type thing, I think, that goes along with this. So there's a specific diagnosis that we oftentimes see when it comes to stalkers. Now, I have obviously not evaluated him. I have no idea the appropriateness of the type of diagnosis he has, but borderline personality disorder is the most common diagnosis we see with stalking. And that's someone who tends to go between moments of rage and moments of being obsessed with somebody. They have a very hard time being stable. Their most persistent trait is that they are unstable. So oftentimes these people, their whole identity

becomes this other person. They just can't do anything but obsess over this other person. And so oftentimes we see to have the level of obsessiveness, it takes in the type of risk-taking behaviors it requires to do something like stalking or harassing. Oftentimes we see certain types of personalities that go with that. There was a premeditation aspect of this. I mean, he went to the restaurant. He was eating in the restaurant. He's watching Madison and her mother. He then attacks them. But then on the body camera footage, they're talking about some of these bystanders who jump in to help and witnesses that he's slashing his own throat. What does that tell you about this? I mean, the whole thing is so horrific. Those are the kinds of aspects of this that are going to be

harder to suggest that he was unwilling or incapable of knowing that what he was doing was wrong. Because typically what we see with people that truly don't know the difference between right and wrong, someone who's so detached from reality that they really can't figure out what's going on. They do this because they think that's the right thing to do. They don't typically harm themselves afterwards. So the idea that he was doing that does add a complicating layer to this case for sure. And that certainly seems to imply some degree of premeditation about it. Dr. Harry Kropp, he's a pretty well-known forensic psychologist. He evaluated, met with Casey Anthony. She, of course, was acquitted of murdering her daughter.

So this is a totally different type of case. But he's somebody who's been around for a really long time. So what can you tell me about him? So I don't know him personally, but I do know that he's been involved in thousands, I believe, of murder cases. So he is very, very experienced in this. So I'd be very curious what he has to say about it. And I'm sure it does carry a lot of weight with the courts. So I am curious what his conclusions are about Spencer's functioning. Well, it is a disturbing case for sure. Any final thoughts?

So my final thoughts about this case really are that I think we have to go into it with an open mind. I'm certainly trying to. When you see it, when you hear about it, it's so horrific and it's impossible not to feel bad for what she went through. But there may be more complicating factors. There may be some serious mental illness. There may be things going on in there that we don't fully see or fully appreciate. So I do think that we have to go into something like this with an open mind. But it's also possible that once all of the evidence is out and once Dr. Kropp's report is more well known, maybe people will still disagree with whatever his findings are. But I'll be very curious myself to find out more about what they could possibly be suggesting would be a mitigating factor and what's going on. It will be interesting to find out. Thank you so much, Dr. G. I appreciate you coming on. Thanks for having me.

Spencer Pearson faces 18 years in prison when he is sentenced. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thank you so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.