RedHanded - Leo Schofield – Part 2: The Wrong Man | #450

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

As wrongful convictions go, the trial of Leo Schofield – who stood accused of killing his young wife Michelle Schofield – had it all: bias, speculation, and pure fabrication. And through the years, through a combination of bad luck and bad representation, Schofield stayed behind bars.In this second part, we look at how this cold case finally warmed up, thanks in no small part to the journalists behind Bone Valley. And, the bigger question: if not Leo, then who?--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

I'm Saruti. I'm Hannah. And this is red-handed and welcome back for part two of our look at the case of Leo and Michelle Schofield. Let's just immediately, I think, pick up where we left off last week. At the start of Leo's trial in 1989 in Polk County. The state claimed that Leo was an angry, violent young man who abused his wife Michelle regularly. And he had finally ended up killing her in a fit of rage. The defense didn't deny that Leo had.

had a temper, but they said there was no evidence to say that Leo killed Michelle. In fact, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary that the state was clearly ignoring. The prosecution, led by John Aguero, came in hot and got started by calling a total of 21 witnesses to testify to Leo's abuse of Michelle. This will be a theme throughout this episode. How Jack Edmund did not contest this is beyond me. Now look, people testifying as to their experience or like what they witnessed of how Leo treated Michelle in and of itself isn't the problem because he is on trial for her murder so it is highly relevant.

The issue is how many witnesses, 21 witnesses being allowed to testify to basically the same thing over and over and over again, Jack Edmund should have challenges and would easily have won that challenge. It's massively over the top to present 21 witnesses to this effect. And it could have been shown as prejudicial just by the shift volume of the number of witnesses. But he doesn't.

He's just sat there watching Leo get slaughtered. There's no denying that these witnesses were enormously damaging to Leo's case. His own friends, like Buddy Anderson and Vince Rayner, testified against him. Bobby said that Leo could get mad over the smallest things. And while he never actually saw Leo hit Michelle, he had heard them arguing and heard slapping sounds. While Vince said that he saw Leo with a knife that Leo called his equalizer.

But another friend, who lived with them, said that he once saw Leo punch Michelle in the stomach because she bought him his drink in the wrong cup. Another friend recalls Leo telling his wife, if I don't stop myself, I will end up killing you. Michelle McCluskey, Michelle's best friend, said that she had seen Leo hit Michelle multiple times, and once he'd even screamed, shut up, I hate you, I'll kill you, you bitch. Now it's worth noting that on one hand, some of these friends, like Buddy, are Leo's alibis at various points in the night, and they testify as such, but they also testify against us. Leo, making to me their alibis for him more believable.

Because they've got no skin in the game to, like, defend their mate. The other thing worth mentioning is that while I have no doubt at all that Leo was physical and abusive towards Michelle, and he actually takes a stand himself in court and admits to some of the physical violence, but he said that he only slapped Michelle twice, but they did argue a lot. And also, it's worth saying that some of the friend's stories went from maybe I saw him slap her once or heard something that sounded like a physical altercation to being much more dramatic retellings by the time of the trial. I am not saying he wasn't physical with Michelle, but it all gets more and more and more and more

by the time they get to trial. I'm not saying any of it is acceptable, but that's what happened. And actually most of his friends originally, when Michelle's body is first found, couldn't believe that Leo killed Michelle. They all defend him. It was only after they were told about. what Alice Scott said she had seen that they changed their minds.

And look, I get it. Their friend Michelle has been brutally murdered. And remember, these are very young people. And you've got the police and the prosecution telling you Leo did it. I mean, why would you question them? And if you had seen, as most of them had,

Leo lose his temper with Michelle, it would also be natural for them to want to ensure that the court heard it. So even if they exaggerate or say things more than they were, or maybe it is how it was, I'm not shocked that that's what was happening. But the question isn't, was Leo abusive towards Michelle? That's not what he's on trial for. The question is, while Leo could be angry and physical towards Michelle, did he kill her?

Yeah. And some of the testimony seems like it could have been misunderstandings or people misremembering. For example, one friend said that Leo told her he may have killed Michelle and not. remember doing it. Leo claimed that that wasn't true at all. Someone asked him if he could have killed Michelle and then blacked out and he told them no way. Yeah. There were also accusations that Leo had started saying Michelle was dead the day after she vanished and that he was sure the police would try and pin it on him because he was her husband, which in hindsight doesn't agree. A few witnesses also testified that Leo started dating about a week after Michelle was buried,

with rumours even swirling about a woman who he'd had move in with him. But again on the stand, Leo claims that this was his married cousin who had asked if she could come and live with him in Florida to escape her relationship. Again, it's just a lot of like he said, she said and things that make him look bad. But the bottom line is that all of the allegations of abuse and of Leo saying things around the time that make him look guilty or even dating other people or anything like that, aren't hard facts when it comes to murder.

But it certainly was a very smart way for the state to start because by the end of their whopping 21 character assassinating witnesses, the jury hated Leo. And Jack Edmund, his attorney, had done nothing to stop it. Then there was Leo, Sr. Another huge nail in Leo's coffin. Because his own dad was forced to admit that he said God had led him to Michelle's remains. And that doesn't look great for Leo either.

No, it's very, very bad. I think that's the thing that's like when you're talking about this case, that's the thing that everybody says first. But it is important to say that Leo Sr. didn't mention God or anything like that. until after he found Michelle. And the search party were already checking all the side roads, all the alleys and the waterways in the area. It's not strange that one of them eventually found Michelle.

And we also have to remember, this is Florida in the 80s, right? Is it that weird that a man, in a time of shock, said that God led him to the body? No. Michelle's mum thought that Leo was an occultist rocker who had sacrificed her daughter. daughter to Satan. And look, I'm not saying that to mock her. She's obviously going through the

worst thing imaginable. I'm not saying that to mock her. What I'm saying is using that as an example to show that emotions were running incredibly high for everyone and it was also a much more superstitious time and place. This is the time of people who believed in a fucking satanic panic. Why would a man not think that God had led him to find his daughter-in-law's body? Totally. But despite Leo Sr. trying to walk this statement back in court by saying they had been so upset that day that he couldn't even really remember what he'd said. It was too late.

His words had been recorded by the police and it played right into Aguarez's hands, who claimed that Leo Sr knew Michelle was there because his son had told him or because he had helped him dump the body. But yeah, I think once you pick it apart, I don't think it's really that big a deal. I don't think so either. And like I said, it comes back to what I said in last week's episode. It's not that remote an area. No.

It's six miles from where the car was found. And everyone's got a car. And they spent days looking. Like, one of them was eventually going to find it. I even think if it had been Leo's dad who found her but hadn't said the God thing, it wouldn't have even been that weird. It's because he says that. But again, where is that coming from? It's a totally different mindset, a time and place that we have to put ourselves in, much like the mobile phones.

Like, we just can't. We can't get our heads around that, I think. Then, Aguero called up Alice Scott. who repeated her story of seeing Leo and Michelle get home at 1.130 a.m., hearing them argue, and then watching Leo leave. And then Alice Scott says she saw him come back and load something heavy from the trailer into his car. During Alice Scott's testimony, Aguero just starts calling this heavy thing a body. It's crazy! He's just like, so the body, the body that he's moving out of the trailer.

Jack, chicken neck, Edmund, just sat. there. Not contesting, which he obviously should have done, since there is absolutely no evidence at all that Leo was ever moving a body. It's staggering. That is staggering. Then Alice Scott told the court that she could back up her story because she had actually spoken to her sister-in-law, Linda Sells, the very next day about what she had seen Leo doing. the same day that she, Alice Scott, testified to having seen Leo cleaning his trailer with a carpet cleaner. But, and this is very interesting and worth mentioning, the carpet cleaning incident wasn't actually in the police notes from the first time Alice spoke to the investigators. It seems to have suspiciously turned up after it became known that the police didn't find any blood in the trailer.

But Alice just tells the court, I did tell the police that they must just not have written it down. And it only got more mental with Alice Scott on the same. understand. Because she just told this story when she was under direct examination by Aguero. But when she was under cross-examination, even with a shockingly ill-prepared Jack Edmund, she was immediately caught out. So what did she do? She changed her story. To the second version, she told police months before, shifting the entire timeline and placing Leo at his trailer when we know that he was at Michelle's dad's house. It's a total mess and unbelievable how she ended up being the state's star witness. And for Jack Edmund,

like, there are so many easy wins for him. This is exactly it. So many. It's like he doesn't know the case. Yeah. A first year law student would be like, excuse you? You're going to call it a body, are we? A fucking true crime podcaster would have been like, are we just going to call it a body, are we? Like, it is, it's wild. So let's come to Linda Sells. Linda Sells, as we say, is Alice Scott's sister-in-law. And Alice Scott tells everybody, I spoke to Linda about it the next day. So she can back up everything I'm saying, right,

as a contemporaneous witness to what I witnessed. But the problem is Alice Scott, according to police notes, because she apparently also sees it, right? That's what Alice Scott says. Alice Scott says, not only did I see it, not only did I talk to Linda Sells about it, Linda Sells also saw it. I saw Leo carrying the heavy object,

the body out of the trailer into his car. The problem is Linda Sells says, according to the police notes, that for her to have seen that at that time that Alice Scott says it happened, she would have had to have been home from work early. Because she was like, I worked every day until 3 a.m. I would have had to be home early. And I was home early. And I did see him move something heavy out of his trailer into his car,

but it was five days before Michelle vanished. And also, when she was first spoken to, Linda was first spoken to by police, she never mentioned talking to Alice Scott about anything the morning after Michelle to appeared. And she would obviously remember what day Michelle vanished because the police come around and speak to people a couple of days later. She never says that she's voted Alice Scott. So yeah, Linda sells like, it's a mess. Alice Scott ropes her into it. And that's why last week we were like, Alice Scott tamper's with witnesses because they're not even witnesses. And then you have the LaFoons, the couple that we met last week, who testified to seeing the orange car and

the blue and white truck parked out near the dump spot the night Michelle vanished. But at trial, the pair, because there's a pair of Lafoons, they couldn't even agree between themselves what they had seen, with again the times that they were dithering between being points in the night when Leo was with other people. Not to mention the fact that they didn't even say any of this for a year and a half after Michelle was killed, during which time they clearly had a lot of contact with Alice Scott.

Then the state brought out a man called Thurmond Toole. He testified that he and his wife drove down Highway 33, which is around where Michelle's body was found. He said they did that on the 26th of February, and they saw two men come out of the woods. They had dark hair and looked to be under 30. And when they heard that a body was found there the next day, they called the police.

The issue is that Michelle went missing on the 24th of February. and her body was found on the 27th. So why on earth would Leo, or anyone, for that matter, dump Michelle's body in the area where everyone was looking, especially when the heat turned up even further after her car was found on the 26th of February? Why would you take such a risk? He's literally saying the car was found on the day

that Thurmond Tolls says that he saw the orange Mazda and the blue and white truck parked. Why would you then take Michelle's body, presumably from somewhere else you've kept? it even though all her blood is found out the scene because she was definitely killed where she was dumped. But that's another story. Why would you then take her body and dump it six miles from where the car was found that day? And when the police have finally started to take it seriously, which you, by the way, have forced them to do because you've been reporting it to them.

Right. And you've spent all your time looking for her. It just doesn't make any sense. So basically, let's stick with them and tools testimony despite what we think. because the reason the prosecution bring call him as a witness is that their case is that Leo Senior helped Leo and that's why he knew where the body was, etc. But the problem is the description that Thurmond Tool gave of the two men he saw of being in their 30s, under 30s. Sure Leo could have fit it even though he was 19. But guess who doesn't fit it? Leo Senior.

So yeah. Like, I don't know. None of this makes sense. Like we said, it's very, very, very, very likely that Michelle was killed where she was found due to the amount of blood. and how soon after she died she was placed in the water according to the post-mortem. It doesn't make sense that her body was just moved to the canal after she was dead. And it makes even less sense that she was, let's go with it, held alive. So she's taken a couple of days before.

She's held alive somewhere for all that time and then brought to that waterway, not far from the search area where everybody is looking and where her car was found six miles away that very day to be killed. and then dumped in the water. Tool probably did see something, but it seems very unlikely that whatever he saw was to do with this case. Yeah.

But Aguero sticks him on the stand anyway. And again, Jack Edmund, who basically seems to know nothing about this case, just allows it unchallenged. It's a mess. Aguero took a big risk, tying himself to Alice Scott. And he obviously does that

because she's the only one who places Leo with Michelle that night. I can't believe that Aguera spoke to Alice Scott, looked at the case and thought, yeah, she's credible. I think he knew. He knew she was a mess. But he's all he's got. So he needed her,

given how weak his case was, as well continues to see. But Alice Scott was not a reliable person. She had struggled with her mental health for years, and she'd been sectioned before. That doesn't help. No. And it also doesn't help that years after the trial,

Alice Scott's by then ex-husband did an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. And he said that he was actually with her at the times that she claimed to have been looking out of the window on the night that Michelle vanished. And he also stated that his wife liked to exaggerate. And that even if she had taken a trip to the bathroom while they were together that evening, that she wouldn't even have been able to see Leo and Michelle's trailer from their bathroom window at the time. And he also said, to be fair to him, because some people were he's only saying that after he's the ex-husband years later. But to be fair to him, he did tell the police at the time that he was worried his wife was going to involve herself in this case. But coming back to this comment, when the paper asked for Alice to comment, she changed her story once again.

This is crazy, because they're like, your ex-husband said you couldn't have seen what you saw from your bathroom window. Do you have a comment for our article? And she does? She says, she actually went out on to. the screened porch of her trailer to look at what Leo was doing, not through the bathroom window, which is what she's been saying the whole time. Yet again, a totally new version of what supposedly happened. And a totally different version to what she testified in court to years before.

But anyway, let's go back to 1989. Because it just kept getting worse for Leo, when he took the stand for himself. Which again feels like a bad move by. with Jack Edmund. Because Leo floundered. Remember the jury already hate him. So I guess, like, maybe this is his opportunity

to go convince him that he's not a massive piece of shit, but like he just does not look like he knows what he is doing on the stand. And he was absolutely no match for John Aguero, who basically tore him to shreds. Aguero beat Leo over the head with the abuse allegations, the fact that his dad found the body and, of course, Alice Scott's testimony. And with that, the trial was over. The jury took just two hours to deliberate.

There was only ten of them. And they had to reach a unanimous verdict. Because two jurors pulled out, and there were no alternates. Ten jurors. Which, in case you need reminding again, Jack Edmund had allowed that. He could have contested that very easily, and he didn't. Yep. And those 10 people found Leo Schofield guilty.

And honestly, the blame lays at Jack Edmund's feet as much as John Aguero. John Aguero is the one that everybody hates in this case and I understand why, but I'm like, Jack Edmund. Aguero was crooked. There is absolutely no denying that. To me, there is no denying it. He knew his case against Leo Schofield was weak. and he willingly ignored evidence that pointed away from Leo. I don't even feel like this is one of those cases where he's like, I know he did it and the ends justify the means. And as long as I lock this dangerous man up, it doesn't matter.

I don't even think it was that. I think John Aguero knew Leo Schofield didn't do it, but he wanted to lock him up. Yeah. He was like, I don't give a fuck. I need to close this case. And to me, he seemingly unilaterally offered a plea deal to try and convict Leo Senior

if we believe what Leo tells his defense attorney. He comes and tells him, you know, I think your dad really did it, testified to that. And John Aguero comes and does that trying to convict another man, Leo Sr., against who he has absolutely no evidence.

The only thing he has is that he's the one who found the body. So if he's willing to do that, come on. And then when he couldn't do that, because Leo wouldn't play ball, Aguero just doubled down on Leo. But Jack Edmund absolutely helped Aguero

by not even investigating the case in front of him, let alone even just simply challenging obvious issues at trial. Like how the prosecution's theory that Leo killed Michelle in the trailer made no sense because they found no blood, not on the carpet, no cast off, nothing. Which if you start somebody 26 times and left no cast off, okay. All the blood was found by the connection. where Michelle's body was found.

And crucially, Edmund didn't make enough of a big deal about how there was only one hour on the night Michelle vanished where Leo was unaccounted for. It's not impossible, like we said, for Leo to have run into Michelle during that time, killed her in some sort of rage, dumped the body and then cleaned up. But like we talked about last week,

there are lots of issues with that, like how did he get back to Buddy Anderson's house? Lots of questions. It's possible, though. It's possible. But it does feel like a very short window of time to do all of those things. and then turn back up in the same exact clothes you're wearing with no mud or blood on you.

And also no injuries to your hand, which apparently after stabbing somebody 26 times, which is notoriously slippery business. Like how are you not going to get any injuries on your hands? Then there was the rest of the physical evidence that was barely touched upon. On Michelle's body, the police found six hairs that didn't belong to her. And they were never examined. And even more frustratingly, The defence didn't push for them to be tested either.

No. Because look, again, it's the 80s. They don't know what DNA is yet. But like, they could have compared the hair to Leo's hair. And said the six hairs found on Michelle's dead body that don't match the person you're saying is the person who killed her. Whose hairs are these? Yeah. They don't even do that.

Jack Edmund never even brought the hairs up. And that could have created a reasonable doubt for at least one juror. Which is all he would have needed. Mm-hmm. And these hairs were just eventually destroyed by the state. Then there were the fingerprints in the car. Once the state realized that they didn't match Michelle or Leo or Leo Senior, they basically just tossed them aside.

They were like, we don't need to worry about these. And yet again, the defence didn't go hard enough at this at all when it came to the trial. But don't forget them, because we, unlike Jack Edmund, will be bringing them up later on. So Leo's been found guilty and he sent to prison for life. And he only escaped death because one juror couldn't bring herself to go through with it. The entire time he's inside, he fervently denies having killed Michelle. And he tries to appeal. Jack Edmund even admitted to having provided ineffective counsel.

And I have to give Jack Edmund credit for that. He doesn't fight it. He comes to the hearing and he's like, yeah, I did a shit job. and so many mistakes that Jack Edmund made were listed out by Leo's new attorneys, including the lack of preparation that he did, how he allowed 21 witnesses for the state testify to the volatile relationship between Leo and Michelle. And also, this is very important, how crucial witnesses like Michelle's aunt, who, if you remember from last week's episode, Leo called at 2 a.m. from Michelle's dad's house

to ask if she knew where Michelle was, wasn't even called to testify. Why? Because 2 a.m. is a time when Alice Scott placed him at the trailer when he obviously couldn't be at the fucking trailer because he was on the phone to Michelle's aunt from Michelle's dad's house. Why wasn't she called to testify? But still, somehow the appeal based on ineffective counsel was denied. I don't know how. I don't know how. And so, facing the real prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars, Leo Schofield, threw himself into it. He got a GED and started taking legal classes, and even led the God Behind Bars program. He helped teach life skills to other inmates, and this is where he met a woman named Chrissy. Chrissy was there to run the class, and for Leo, it was love at first sight. Slowly he and Chrissy became close, and eventually he told her what he was in for, murdering his wife.

Yeah, in terms of icks. It's a brick-big one. Perfect in every way, but he's in prison for murdering his wife. But he insisted he wasn't guilty. I'm sure Chrissy had heard that plenty of times

before, but Leo told her to go and read the court transcripts from his case. And she did. And by the end of it, it was clear to Chrissy that the prosecution's case made absolutely no fucking sense. The timelines didn't

up. To her, it was very clearly an unsafe conviction. But more than that, by the time she gets to the end of it, Chrissy came to believe that it wasn't just an unsafe conviction, but that it was a miscarriage of justice because she believed that Leah was innocent. Chrissy couldn't believe that the police also still didn't know whose fingerprints had been found in the car. So, she takes upon herself to call a friend of hers who worked at the Hendry County Sheriff's Office. Now this friend and thought that Chrissy was absolutely fucking mad for getting involved with an inmate convicted of murdering his wife. But this friend did help move things along.

So the prince were finally run through Codice in December 2004. Jesus. So 16 years after Michelle was murdered, Anna whopping 14 years after Leo was sent to prison. And bingo. There was a hit. Jeremy Scott. Alexa Chang.

Say what you like about me, but I will beat a joke to death. Do it. Jeremy Scott was born in April, 1969, to a 15-year-old girl, who was not at all keen on being a mum. She had her own challenges at the time, mainly with drugs, and soon after Jeremy was born, she bailed leaving him with her parents. And life for Jeremy was about as rough as it gets for a child. Like, honestly, if you were just like, tick, tick, tick, tick,

all the horrible things that could happen to a child and why Jeremy becomes who he is, this is it. This is the recipe card to make a socially disconnected, violent individual. When he was a toddler, Jeremy Scott was run over by a car, which left him with brain damage.

And then, because you all know what's coming next, his uncle began sexually abusing him. Yeah. Jeremy was then passed from relative to relative, all while suffering more neglect and more abuse. Eventually he ended up in foster care and in 1980 at the age of just 11,

he was already in trouble with the police. And after that, he was basically just in and out of Juvie. And in 1985, two years before Michelle was killed, an elderly woman named Jewel Johnson was found murdered in her own home. The 75-year-old had suffered blunt-forced trauma to the head and a roll of coins had been stolen from her. And guests who had been living,

with Jewel at the time. A 16-year-old Jeremy Scott. While no prints were recovered on a gun found at the crime scene, there were some on a coin wrapper and a pair of Jewel's glasses. And they were a match for her teenage lodger. Jeremy was arrested and put on trial for murder, but there wasn't actually that much evidence against him. In court he admitted to stealing the coins, which explained the prince, but he accused Smokey Johnson, Jules' son, of killing her. And even though Smoky had a rock-solid alibi of being at work surrounded by colleagues, Jeremy Scott was acquitted.

Yeah, it's confusing to me how he is acquitted of Joel Johnson's murder. It seems that the jury basically didn't think he was smart enough to do it and to get away with it and like wipe things down. I don't know. Is that enough? What is clear, however, is that he was not doing very well mentally at the time. Jeremy was cutting himself prolifically in prison and he also set fire to his own bed. But he was eventually let back out onto the streets and he found his way to Lakeland,

just two months before Michelle Schofield was killed on the 24th of February 1987. Obviously, at the time of Michelle's murder, Jeremy Scott wasn't on anyone's radar because he'd only just got there and the Prince and the Orange Master weren't traced back to him. No, there's no criminal database. at the time. So they have the prints. Jeremy Scott already has a record, but there's no database

for them to run the prints through. So they can only test the people that are there. But I'm also like, could you have looked at like people who were in the area who had, you know, records from violent crimes and check the fingerprints against them? They don't do that. They don't do that. The next we hear of Jeremy Scott is the following year, November 1988. It was then that Jeremy Scott and a friend of his, Brian Hall, went to the trailer of a man named Donald Moorhead. They were there to collect money from Donald Moorhead, but they ended up hanging out with him drinking and smoking weed. Allegedly, at some point that day, Moorhead made a move on Brian Hall, who rejected him.

Eventually that day, Moorhead passed out, and Jeremy Scott decided that they should rob him. But he told Hall that if they did, then they had to kill Moorhead too, so that he didn't. come after them. According to Brian Hall, Jeremy then smashed the sleeping man over the head with a bottle of juice and then forced him, Hall, to also deliver a blow so that they were in it together. However, when it became clear that Moorhead wasn't dead, according to Hall, Jeremy took a telephone cable and strangled the man to death. Brian Hall got life, and while Jeremy Scott was originally sentenced to death. This was also later reduced to life. So, if we zoom out and look at the timeline of his offending, Jeremy Scott was acquitted of the murder of Joel Johnson. He ends up in

Lakeland in 87 and weeks later, Michelle is killed. Soon after that, Jeremy leaves the area. The following year, 1988, he's convicted of the murder of Donald Morehead, for which he's already in prison by the time Leo is sentenced for Michelle's murder. But that's nowhere near the end of Jeremy Scott's suspected rap sheet. On the 10th of April, 1987, so six weeks after Michelle was killed, and I appreciate we're jumping all over the place timeline

wise, but it's because some of this can be attributed to him because, you know, he gets sent to prison, some of it like Michelle, they don't have him on the radar and things like what I'm about to talk about now, we don't know if he did. So yeah, six weeks after Michelle was killed, but a year before Moorhead was murdered,

someone shot a 25-year-old old cabbie named Joseph Lever in Intersection City, Florida, which is just like the most lazy name for a city I can imagine. It's just in the middle of something. So yes, a man named Dan Odie was actually arrested and tried for the murder of Lever, but eventually released after two mistrials. And to be honest, the description of the killer that eyewitnesses gave being average build average height with brown hair was not a match for Dan Odie, who was absolutely huge. Sounded a lot more like Jeremy Scott. And people got a decent look at the killer because the man who shot Leverre stole his cab

and drove off at high speed before crashing into a nearby electrical pole. He then got out and as people were rushing over to see what had happened, he shouts, run away, it's going to blow and then he flees. But people saw him. Jeremy Scott would later admit to killing a cabby in that area under similar circumstances to other people and he also says in Bone Valley that he allegedly left his cousin's distinctive baseball cap in the backseat of LaVere's cab but like there's no more information that I highly think he did do this but there's no confirmation but what it proves is he is capable of like random acts of violence

and trying to seal a car afterwards and fleeing also just to just just to. an interesting fact. Guess who Dan Odie's lawyer was? Johnny Cochran. Jack Edmund. Johnny Cochran would have got him off. Then we have Jamie Nellams. She was Jeremy Scott's girlfriend and she had a baby with him.

She revealed that the spot where Michelle's body was found was also where Jeremy used to take her to have sex. Jamie also claimed that Jeremy would be violent towards her and that she'd seen him threatened people with his knife. And interestingly, Jamie met Jeremy shortly after Joseph Leverre was murdered. And if you remember, the witnesses said the man had brown hair. When she met Jeremy, he'd bleached his hair blonde. Something he never did again after it grew out.

Was it just a poor fashion choice, or was it because he's trying to cover up for the fact that people were looking for a man with brown hair? I don't know. Now in Bone Valley, Gilbert King also interviews a woman who claimed to have been raped by Jeremy Scott when she was just 14 years old. She said that she didn't report it because her family didn't want to go to the police, but she said that it ruined her life. So yeah, lots and lots and lots of, like, crime and violence swirling around Jeremy Scott his entire life.

But coming back to Jeremy Scott and the possible role that he plays in Michelle Schofield's death, when he's first confronted with the fact that his fingerprints were found in her car, because, look, it gets done legitly, it goes through CODIS, it's a match, the police have to look into it. And when they go and speak to him, Jeremy just says, I must have stolen her radio. But as soon as investigators left, Jeremy Scott phoned his grandma, who is pretty much the only person who visits him, who talks to him, who seems to give a singular shit about him. But he calls his grandma and says, if anyone comes around asking about murder, don't say anything. Obviously, that doesn't mean he's guilty.

You know, he has been through the justice system many a time. He is quite paranoid. He even says in it, like, they're coming after me. And grandma's like all too happy to play a lot. She's like, I won't say anything. These people are animals. Like, they're in it together. Doesn't mean he's good.

He doesn't say, I did it and don't say anything. He just says don't say anything. Now, obviously, yeah, he could have just tried to steal the radio out of a broken down, abandoned car. That is very possible. But it does mean that we have to accept the massive coincidence that the fingerprints of a convicted murderer and suspected rapist were found in Michelle Schofield's car, a killer who was in the Lakeland area,

specifically in Cumbie, staying with his grandma at the time that Michelle was killed. This could have changed everything for Leo at this point. They found his prince, they know who he is, he's in prison. But despite the match, nothing happened. It took seven years for Lio, for Lio. Leo to even get an evidentiary hearing of the back of these prints being identified.

That is wild. Seven years in prison when they know those prints belong to Jeremy Scott. To even get a hearing. This case is really wild. Especially like Jeremy Scott's got acquitted of Joel Johnson's murder because they were like, eh, he probably didn't do it. It's mad.

Since Jeremy Scott was already in prison, Donald Morehead's murder, it was pretty easy to get him in to testify at Leo's hearing. And this is the other thing. It's not even like, we know either the prince of a man who was a killer, but like we don't know where he is. He's somewhere in the country. We can't even find him to get him to the truck. They're just like, bring him in. He has to fucking testify. Like, they have everything they need. Only guilty man is Shawshank. And Jeremy said that he had been in the area at the time and he'd seen the orange car.

and he even remembered and admitted to stealing the speakers. But he said he had no idea about Michelle Schofield and he certainly didn't kill her. And unbelievably, that was it. I just took his word for it and totally ignored his history of violence and his past conviction for actual murder. Yeah.

Guess who else testified at this hearing? It was John O'Grower. And I wrote that with a lot of drama, but obviously it does make sense that he would testify at this hearing because he prosecuted Leo Segofield, but it's because he also prosecuted Jeremy Scott. I see. So he's there, and he knows both these cases. Now, Aguero's testimony at this hearing was actually really interesting

because even he couldn't ignore the fact that a convicted killer's fingerprints had turned up at another crime scene. Right. If they were just there and the car had been wiped down, maybe, maybe, and maybe look, you could say, somebody else killed her, wipe the whole car down, Jeremy Scott comes along and he tries to seal the radio. That's why you only find two of his prints. Okay, well, why there are only two of Jeremy Scott's prints? Are you saying he also wiped the car down and then just missed two of his prints?

There's just so much you have to believe to not just look at the fucking obvious situation in this case. And I'm not saying that's enough to convict a person. But like, come on. So yeah, even Aguero can't ignore this fact. So instead, he decides to cast him. himself as the Honourable Truth Seeker. Aguero claimed at this hearing that when he heard about the fingerprints that he had, bearing in mind, refused to run through CODIS.

Codys had existed before they were run through CODIS, right? He could have done it sooner, but he doesn't. He claims that once he heard that these fingerprints belonged to Jeremy Scott, he had Jeremy brought to his office so they could have a little chat, where he says, quote, I just want to know the truth. If you killed Michelle Schofield and we put the wrong man away, I need to know. We?

Yeah. Aguero told the hearing that he offered Jeremy Scott full immunity for Michelle's murder if he admitted to killing her. So basically saying, Aguero is telling the hearing. I told Jeremy Scott, tell me if you killed her. We will let this innocent man out of prison and you won't serve any extra time. He's already in prison for life. It wouldn't make a difference anyway. I just need to know the truth.

Apparently, Jeremy Scott simply told him that he stole the speakers and he tried to steal the radio, but that was it. Aguero claimed that Jeremy must therefore be telling the truth because he had no reason to lie at that point. Big problem with this, first of all, is that there's no evidence at all for how any of that went down.

Aguero said that a detective had accompanied Jeremy and stayed in the room for the entire conversation but the detective he named was on holiday that week and there was also no paperwork at all to confirm that Aguero had any sort of immunity offer in place and presumably you can't just fling those around no you can't just say I'll give you immunity admit it to me you can't make an offer like that

until you've got the paperwork cleared because then what say Jeremy Scott was like yeah I did did it. And they'd be like, ah, jokes. Jokes. I'm not actually going to give you immunity sue in court. No. And it is the type of thing that Aguero had done before. If you remember from last week, he gave Leo a secret plea deal. Well, at least Leo accused him of offering him a plea deal. That's why I believe Leo more, because what now we're expected to believe that he said this to Jeremy Scott, but he didn't say that to Leo Schofield. It's also weird to me that he's admitting in this hearing to having offered Jeremy Scott

is because there's no evidence of an immunity plea deal that was put together. Is that just a massive like misstep on his part? Because it can easily be proved there was no paperwork. So why were you offering Jeremy Scott that immunity deal? Anyway, he's dodgy. Yeah. It's dodgy. It's probable that Aguero did meet with Jeremy Scott, but we don't know what was really said. and Jeremy himself would tell a very different story later on but you're going to have to hold on yeah for now after that pretty weak and weird hearing

the appeal judge decided that there would be no new trial for Leo which again I'm shocked by I'm shocked by because let's just be clear Leo's defence team aren't demanding that he just be immediately released because they found the fingerprints of a killer in that car that's not what they're saying

they are saying he deserves a new trial due to new information regarding vital evidence. The decision should have been made based on whether that new information, so whether a convicted killer's fingerprints being found in the car, Michelle was driving, would have swayed the jury in the original trial to have reasonable doubt over Leo's guilt. And I think it's safe to say that it may have swayed at least one of them. But once again for Leo, another door was slam shot. But he wasn't about to give up. Leo's new attorney, Andrew Crawford, got to work.

He sent letters to Jeremy Scott pleading with him to talk. And finally, a year later in July 2016, they heard back. Jeremy Scott agreed to a call with Crawford. And on this call, he said, it wasn't Leo. Leo doesn't deserve to be there. Jeremy even detailed what happened the night he saw Michelle. He said, it was raining, she offered me a lift. I was drugged up that night. I lost it. I'm sorry.

And crucially, Jeremy Scott told Crawford, that prosecutor lied to me. Is he referring to the meeting he had with John Aguari? It must be. It must be. The question is, what is it that John Aguero lied to Jeremy Scott about? We know that John Aguero lied about a detective being there. But Jeremy says he lied to me. Yeah.

Not he lied to the court. He lied to me. Did John Aguero offered Jeremy something that he didn't follow through on? We find out later that John Aguero told Jeremy that Leo was a bad guy who had killed and hurt other women. So he needed his help to keep Leo locked up. And look, at this point, Jeremy Scott, as we will see, he is a killer and he's done terrible, terrible things. But he is not a man free of a conscience. He is struggling with his guilt at things he has done in prison.

And he's not doing mentally well. I could see how that narrative of you've got nothing to lose, like you're in prison. Like, let's keep this man in prison. Because if you come and say that, you know, something about this car or these fingerprints or even if you really did it, don't tell me. he's going to walk and he's done bad things. Maybe. Maybe there's some manipulation there. And also there were reports of other women having been found murdered in the area. Apparently one even in the same place Michelle was found a few months before.

Though I haven't been able to piece together anything super clear on that, it seems all quite nebulous. And also, Kambi was a dangerous place. Like I said last week, I don't know if it's all connected. But maybe Jeremy found out. that what Aguero had told him wasn't true, or at least that Leo wasn't some sort of serial killer, and maybe he felt guilty. And like I said, I think it would be really easy to think of Jeremy Scott

as this cold-blooded killer, of which there definitely exists that brand of killer. But I think he shows remorse. I think he's messed up, I think he's highly, highly dangerous, and he hurt a lot of people. But he does tell Gilbert King, and I do believe him, he says, I sleep with dead people every night. he's haunted and rightfully so. So after hearing this confession, Crawford put together an affidavit and sent it straight to Jeremy

asking him to sign it. But when he sent it back, Jeremy had just written the word no across it. Running out of options, Leo's team hired a PI and sent him to Jeremy Scott to try and get the confession on tape. They also reported it to police and investigators were actually sent to talk to Jeremy. But all he told them was that Leo Schofield didn't do it. Yeah, he stops talking about the version he told Crawford on the phone. Interestingly though, Jeremy brought up the cabby murder of his own volition and just said that he didn't know anything about it. Or Michelle. He does say that he would confess if he got paid or if there was something in it for him, which obviously

just undermines his credibility. Yeah. But then, Leo's attorney got another letter from Jeremy Scott, this time saying, I can tell you stuff that only the killer of Michelle Schofield knows. And it must have felt like, this is it. Finally, this is it. He has put it in writing he has said,

I can tell you things that only the killer would know. And it must be so infuriating because Jeremy Scott is a very uneven person, and it's just like one minute he says this, then he says this, and it's all over the place. But they get excited this time. But in another very infuriating turn of events, Jeremy Scott had been very busy with that pen of his because alongside this letter that he had sent to Crawford,

he had also sent out more letters to the judge and the state attorney's office at the same time, saying that he was responsible for all of the murders in Polk County between 1987 and 1988, which just makes him look crazy. And then again just undermines his credibility. But at least now, Jeremy offered up a more rounded story for what happened the night Michelle vanished. He said that he saw Michelle at Sparkies using the payphone.

It was dark and raining, and he was off his head. Apparently, Michelle recognised him from a party of something. But Jeremy said he wasn't sure that he knew her. She asked him if he was waiting to use the phone. He said no. He just needed a lift, only down the road. 18-year-old Michelle agreed to drive him Jeremy Scott got in the Orange Mazda and directed Michelle

they went past the trailer park he had been heading to where his grandma lived and he led her to the clearing by the ditch I know this is the 80s it's a different time, she's very young but I think it's interesting the point that Jeremy Scott makes as to Michelle thinking she knows him

because like we said she hangs out with a lot of people different crowds that Leo hangs out with and she likes to party she likes to go out So the fact that she thinks she recognises him to me makes it more plausible why she would invite him into our car. And he doesn't need to add that point of the story in for any other reason. So Michelle, when they get to this clearing in the woods, apparently looked around confused and said to Jeremy,

there's no one here. To which Jeremy told her, this is where people come to make out. And he admits that Michelle rejected him. at which point Jeremy claims that he just went into the pocket of his coat to get out a cigarette, but that his knife fell out. Michelle saw it, panicked and started screaming. Jeremy said, I lost it and stabbed her. Then he said he dragged her body into the ditch and covered it up.

He then got back in the car and tried to drive away, but he said there was something wrong with it. It was struggling, so he said he pulled up on the side of the road, but he couldn't get it to start again. And again, this story that he says about the car is very consistent with what we know about Michelle's car. The radiator, when they find it, was basically empty and also it had a broken flex plate.

I don't know what that is, but apparently that's what explains why the car was broken down. So again, it's very, very consistent with the physical evidence. So Jeremy said that he just abandoned the car on the side of the road after wiping it down, stealing the speakers, trying to steal the radio, failing, and then he says he walked to a nearby store, and there was indeed a nearby store.

He said he went up to the big bins that were outside, where he dumped the knife that he had used to kill Michelle, as well as a bloody towel. He said he then went and found a trailer in which he passed out until the next day. Leo finally got another evidentiary hearing set for October 2017. And again, Jeremy Scott testified. This time he was hostile, but he stuck to him. his confession. The state fought back, though, saying that Jeremy was a liar who had told various

different stories and that he'd been off his medication when he wrote his latest letter. And then when he was shown pictures of Michelle's body during the hearing, Jeremy exclaimed, I didn't do that. It's hard to know what he means by this, because by the end of the hearing he was still saying that he had killed her. But for the judges, it wasn't enough. And again, A new trial for Leo was denied. Yeah, I really don't know what he means when he says, I didn't do that. I mean, I think he's, as you said, haunted by all of the things he's done. And decades later, being shown a picture of it, probably set off all sorts of things.

Yeah. And a lot of people at the time basically print that he's saying he didn't do it because he says, I didn't do that. That's not what he says. By the end, he's still saying, like, it'll. her. He just has a visceral reaction when he sees the picture. I also wonder if it's because Michelle's body is found after it's been in the water for days. And so the way she would have looked in the picture would have been very different to the last time Jeremy Scott probably saw her. And I wonder if he's like, I didn't do that because there would have been skin slippage,

there would have been decompot, there would have been all sorts of things. I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, a new trial is denied, but Leo's defence team appealed and they won. And they got another hearing in September 2019. So not another new trial, just another new hearing. And in a bid to help, Gilbert King, who by this point is deeply involved, is making Bone Valley is very, very involved in the case, starts writing to Jeremy Scott. And this is the game changer.

This is the point at which the story changes. The Innocence Project also get involved to help Leo but sadly it's still at this point wasn't enough the appeal was again denied and the deciding factor at all these hearings as to why the appeal was denied because look the defence are bringing in all this evidence they're like look Jeremy Scott is confessing

we found his fingerprints there all of this evidence the thing that causes it to keep being denied is because Leo's dad found Michelle's body and because of what he said about God that is the reason So Leo's attorney turned his focus to parole. It wouldn't exonerate him, but it would at least get him out of prison. And after 20 years, Leo was desperate.

He and Chrissy had got married and even adopted a baby girl who had been in her 20s by the time Jeremy Scott confessed. By this point, she had children of her own. Inside, Leo had been a model prisoner, and ahead of his parole hearing, he even got a letter from Jessie. Michelle's brother. Jesse asked for it to be read out at the hearing. It said that he supported Leo's parole

because he had no confidence in the case against him. This letter was not read out. You have a letter from the victim's brother saying, I don't believe he did it, and they just don't read it out. And Leo was denied parole because he didn't show remorse, which you can't do if you're innocent.

I'm sorry, did I wake up in the trial by Franz Kafka? Like, fuck. It really makes you feel quite sick, doesn't it? Yeah. Now look, I am not going to go into all the information that Gilbert King got from Jeremy Scott in all the letters that they exchange, in all the communication they have,

all the phone calls, the visits, everything. You have to go and listen to Bone Valley for that. It is really, really well done. There is so much information. They have the call recordings with Jeremy Scott. But what I will say is it's highly convincing. And Jeremy Scott said he was finally confessing because he couldn't deal with the guilt anymore

and because, again, he had been lied to by the prosecution. And this, we find out, through Gilbert King, is because Aguera had told Jeremy to keep quiet and if he did, he would help Jeremy get parole. Which never happened. and was never going to happen. And after a long, drawn-out process, during which time Bone Valley came out,

a series that, by the way, took five years to make, it lit this case on fire. Like outside of Florida, nobody had heard this case. Outside of Polk County, probably nobody had heard about this case. But now the whole world was listening. And that is like the power of a really, really well-done true crime podcast series. And it was finally looking. impossible for the state to just continue ignoring Leo Schofield and pushing him to one side.

And in May 23, Leo was finally granted parole and moved into a halfway house. And in April 2024, after 36 years, my entire life in prison, Leo Schofield was finally free. But not from the label of convicted murderer, because remember, he's only been paroled, not exonerated. rated. And one thing I will say from Bone Valley, which I just loved, Leo doesn't have like, I don't know if his parents are even alive at this point, but he doesn't have any contact with them anymore. And he's very much, Chrissy is his family, their daughter, Ashley, her children, her partner. And they say he has like a new dad. I don't know who that is exactly, but that new dad comes to pick Leo up in a Tesla. And I'm like, Leo Schofield went to prison in 1989. The last car before the police car, that he was arrested was probably that fucking orange Mazda that had a pop-out radio. And he gets picked up in a Tesla. It's like how far the world has moved

since he went to prison and how much he has missed out. It's crazy. Leo was finally able to come home and live a normal life with Chrissy and their daughter, Ashley. And be the father, husband and grandfather he had always wanted to be. Nine months after his release, in January 2025

Leo and Ashley were involved in a serious motorcycle accident their injuries were life-threatening but it appears that they are both now okay and continuing to recover thank God I don't think I could have taken that

imagine yes it's horrific for Leo Schofield but if he had died imagine Chrissy You spend decades trying to get your husband out of prison and then you do and then he and your daughter die.

Oh, it's horrific. But they don't. He's fine. They're alive. And I think, look, we're going to wrap this story up. I think what really is at the crux of this entire case with Leo and Michelle is that it gives you a horrific peek behind the curtain as to how,

the wheels of justice can be jammed with the spanner of corruption. Because I absolutely think that John Aguero was as crooked and bent as they come. I don't think, like I said earlier or in last week's episode, I can't remember, that like he's just doing it because he thinks the end to justify the means. He fucking knew what he was doing. Yeah. And he wasn't interested in the truth. He was only concerned, I think, with closing cases and covering his ass. And sadly, John Aguero, died before Bone Valley came out. So we never had to publicly face scrutiny for what he did. I think the people like that doesn't make a difference.

No. And look, I was harsh on Jack Edmund, and rightfully so, because I do think he did a piss poor job. But I'd have to say at least Jack Edmund fell on his sword at the first appeal. It's the fucking least he could have done. Oh, totally. But because of them, Leo Schofield lost 36 years of his life. and Michelle Schofield also never really got justice.

No. Because Jeremy Scott died of heart failure, alone in his cell in September 2025, just last year, never having been convicted of her matter. So it's just pretty like unsatisfying all round, really. Yeah. But, yeah, the power also of fantastic podcasting and storytelling

and the work that Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker, and also everybody else involved. There are so many people involved. involved in this case, like the judge who, I can't even go into it. But basically, you remember Chrissy when she first meets Leo and she goes and gets her friend who works at the sheriff's department to be like, can you run these fingerprints through? That friend, I believe I might be getting this wrong, but I believe that friend was married to another lawyer. And they're like, she's doing what now? She's dating who? And they think she's absolutely bonkers. But then she's like,

to her friend's husband, please read these court transcripts. And then he becomes one of Leo's biggest defenders and he actually is like working with Leo for ages as a lawyer trying to get through all of these appeals and hearings and whatnot and then he actually gets promoted is that the word he gets made a judge and so he can no longer be Leo's attorney and he is like I found it so hard to make that decision it was a huge career move for me to become a judge but I wanted to help Leo but Leo's like no do it no one else should suffer because of what's happened to me as it becomes a judge He's a judge for decades. And then he hands in his notice to come back and be Leo's attorney.

It's just such an incredible story. And I think it's also a story that points to the fact that podcasts like this or stories like this don't have to only defend people who you think are worthy of defending in that Leo Schofield didn't have a squeaky clean record. He did hit Michelle. But it doesn't mean it justifies him being in prison for a crime he didn't commit for his entire life. Yeah. And yeah, that's it. That's all I got for you guys.

Go listen to Bowen Valley. Yeah. Wow. Oh, man. Don't get on a motorbike. Oh. Especially you. No.

Never never. You're on borrowed time as it is. I know. Fucking never. So that's it, guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you for joining us for our two parts into the case of Leo Schofield and the murder of Michelle Schofield. And we will see you next time for something else.

Goodbye. We good.