Sword and Scale - Episode 149

Episode Date: October 27, 2019

In April 2018, Boca Raton Police Department were alerted of a missing person. James Scandirito II was calling to report that his father, 74-year-old James ‘Skip’ Scandirito was missing from his home and that he had not heard from his father in a few days. Concerned friends also had called in to make a report. But quickly, detectives began to keep an eye on James, as he had mad suspicious statements and acted out unusually while they were trying to conduct their investigation. As they surveilled the 49-year-old man, he ended up leading them to a grisly discovery… See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised By the time that you go home at you know roughly 6.37 o'clock at night How do you decide in your mind? I have and what was that? That I'm going to have the war monsters are real. A little housekeeping before we start.

Last time I said our lapel pins had been shipped out and that you should email us if you haven't gotten yours. What I should have said was that you should email us if you haven't gotten yours and actually qualified for one by signing up before the deadline of July 31st with a valid mailing address and credit card. I did it to myself. And we're under water here trying to keep up with all your emails but that's okay because it let us know that you guys really really really love lapel pins. So we're making another one. In fact we're making a set of four designed by the same artist Lily Bayek or is it Bayek. Anyway one of these pins will be a spitter, and one will be a throwback to one of my favorite episodes

about the heist at Harvey's wagon wheel casino in episode 70. These will go out to various tiers, starting at the $10 level in just a few months, and you'll have to be signed up at the time to get it. Thing is, we're not going to tell you when. You're just going to have to sign up and stay there. That is, after all, the business model. Now, we're still working out the details, but the $50 and up tiers will get the full set of course.

$25 level will get a set of two and $10 will get one randomly selected pin. But if you're a plus member at the time at any level, you'll be able to purchase the set or the ones you're missing at a discounted price. If you're not a plus member, sorry, but you won't be able to get it at all. Your money's no good here. We want you to be a plus member. Again, business model.

So, make sure to keep your address updated and stick around for updates. And now, let's stop talking about pins. And get into a little murder, shall we? Remember when society valued hard work? The term self-made man used to be a thing. A person that others looked up to. Someone who, through hard work and sheer determination, has made something of themselves. In today's entitled society, this term is all but forgotten. Couple that with the inherently American materialistic culture of glitz and glamour and shiny things, and you end up with an overarching

general fog of envy. We no longer expect to work for the things we want. We want them to be given to us. Let someone else pay for it. Give me the check. Give me my universal basic income. It's no longer a handout. It's our birthright to take what should be ours.

And it doesn't matter who we're taking it from. $800,000, the cost of a moderately nice upper middle class home in South Florida. $800,000, Your reward for chopping up and desecrating the body of the man that raised you and took you into his home, and most importantly of all, gave you life. A life which you decided to improve with a trip to Home Depot and a saw in the garage. $800,000. Hey, after all, it is your birthright. A sense of entitlement is a cancerous thought process that is void of gratitude and can

be deadly to our relationships. Take a moment to think about that. Let me read it back to you one more time. A sense of entitlement is a cancerous thought process that is void of gratitude and can be deadly to our relationships. It's unknown where narcissistic behaviors come from, with some sources citing that it is a complex disorder. It's said that it could have come from either overbearing or neglectful parents, or it could derive from a disorder we haven't fully discovered. Growing up in Michigan, James Scanderito, the second, admired his father, James Skip Scanderito,

who was a judge in Mount Clements. His mother Teresa was a process server for the same court in which her husband worked. But in April of 1999, news broke that Skip had been involved piece was a process server for the scene court in which her husband worked. But in April of 1999, news broke that Skip had been involved in quite a scandal. Women began coming forward, claiming that he had been offering to lower sentences and quote, make their lives easier in return for sexual favors. After the accusation surfaced, Skipip resigned from his position and entered into

retirement, with his wife following suit shortly after. The pair decided they needed to get away from Michigan and headed down to Boca Ratan, a city just north of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. James decided to join them and relocated to the Sunshine State. While they may have been retired, Terice went back to work for a brief period at the cricket shop in Del Rey Beach, but her spare time was cooking and entertaining family and friends, something she loved to do. She was happy with the way life was going, and she had her husband by her side, and her son had a degree in law, but had made his wealth in real estate. Not to mention, James had just married a young Brazilian woman.

Unfortunately, Teresa's health rapidly began to decline, and after a series of tests and blood work, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. The years passed, and both Skip and James cherished the time they had with her. On April 28th, 2017, she lost her battle. It was around this time that James himself had suffered not only the loss of his mother, but also his job, and had himself gone through a divorce. So he decided to move in with his dad's skip. And while most would take the time to grieve after a death, the party for James and Skip

had just begun. Between the money, leisure, and the drugs and alcohol, the two were having the time of their life. It was actually somewhat of a relief for the younger Scandorito as he had become accustomed to these things prior to losing his job. That is, until James came home one day to find his father was nowhere to be found. On March 29, 2018, Betty Butcher, a friend of Skips, had plans to attend the Miami Open tennis tournament with him. The night before, she arrived home from a day of playing golf, and noticed she had a

message on her answering machine from Skip. She called him back to converse with him about their plans for the tournament. But then he was having his sentence over the house, but now in the paper watching him very funny movie. And what was the bulk of the conversation about? About the trip. He was just giving him a reality and his dance and his water and all this stuff from the big trip down to Miami.

After his wife's untimely passing, Skip enjoyed spending time with Betty. She was an avid golfer, as he was, and the two enjoyed the same types of events, such as the tennis tournament they would be attending. But the phone call they shared that evening would be their last. On April 1, James called the Boca Raton Police Department and explained he had come to his father's house only to find a missing. After calling the police, he called his father's friend Gary Gooden, who came to the home in support of the younger Scandorito. When detectives arrived at the luxurious home,

they began noticing things out of place right away, especially in the garage. This is the area where the kayak was. That sea was the only one quellary to the garage. It was very helpful that before floor of that area, was much cleaner than the rest of the floor and the ranch. It was good to learn around the west wall. There was a refrigerator and some shelving out of the here that we can try not to waste

the moves as it was rough around. There was much cad here, other things kind of the men at the kitchen table to take a recorded statement. After taking the statements Detective Hanley informed both of the men that they were going to need to vacate the premises as it was going to be considered a crime scene. Ultimately, James agreed to leave the residents as he was gathering items to take with him, Detective Hanley observed as James took a cell phone off a cabinetelon, he can't slip into the pocket. I confronted him, I stopped him, I pulled him out, I explained to him what the reference means. Everything in the reference, he'd stay there

or just the two of them, that he'd exit the restaurant. Neighbors were shocked to hear that skip was missing. For one, especially, as she had seen him just prior to his disappearance. So you talked to skip the day before he went missing? Yes. If he went missing? Yes. If he went missing on Saturday, I spoke to him, my boyfriend spoke to him in our next remember. We were all at the back fence talking about, you know, just saying hi and how nice

it was outside. And I was in a very great mood, you know. And he was introducing us to the neighbor. So you want to ask him? Anything was that of ordinary or? Harold, he was in a great mood. He was so sweet. And he was actually talking to my boyfriend about kayaking and stuff like that, because he likes to kayak.

And just an outgoing person in the neighbor who I know he's lived here for a very long time. Crime scene technicians arrived on scene and began processing the home with the use of a substance called bluestar, similar to what is commonly referred to as lumenol. Throughout the garage, splotches of luminescence were found, indicating the presence of blood and a cleaner. What do we see here? of blood and a cleaner. What do we see on the bottom of the floor? They continued finding illuminated areas into the home and the dining room and hallway guest bathroom.

After processing the home for blood evidence, crime scene technicians were tasked with going through S.U.V. at the police impound. Right away, the smell inside the vehicle had begun to give hints of what could have possibly occurred. First, sometimes I've designed documents for the photographs of the arts and the vehicle, and then as I go through the vehicle, I held an advanced smell of deaconsition. Let me just stop you for a second. You mentioned the advanced smell of deaconsition. Are you familiar with that smell? Yes. How are you familiar with that smell? I work with it. You're awesome.

Okay. Is it a unique smell? Very unique. So that's what you recognize when you open the door to get into the car? Yes. Okay. Why don't you continue and tell us what happened when you went in? As I'm inside the vehicle, look for any clues of evidence, I observed that the rear scenes were folded down. There was physical stains that we had tested to see if they were a positive or a blood. I believe there was about 200 stains that I had tested with the symptoms The symptoms, you know, test and all the times you come back. Okay. Was that the equal also a process for who started? I'll later date not that time.

Okay, not that time. Okay. For all of the evidence they were finding that suggested foul play. They were missing one thing. The body. Based on James' behaviors after the investigation began, detectives Curtis and Hanley began to suspect that the younger Scandorito was involved in his father's disappearance. The fact that there was a lot of physical evidence that indicated foul play began to make their suspicions even stronger. And one of the things that you do as well as you want to read the body language.

Investigators had to look into where James had been between the time he had spoken to Betty and the time they had been alerted to his father's disappearance. To their surprise, it appeared James had been doing his own investigation. We went down, those are down before the end of the day. investigation. or calm or inlets where they had two cars and they didn't kayak both ways, you know, any, right?

So there were many reports that were posed to be caught at tow or something like that. It's a long shot, but we thought it would be thought of by attention. James theorized to the detectives that it was possible his father had gone out kayaking and possibly encountered trouble along the way. He tried to point them in direction of where his vehicle may have been, but they already had it in possession and had processed the vehicle for evidence. After the interview with James, detectives were able to track down the places he had been in the days prior, obtaining video evidence of him shopping at Home Depot, gathering cleaning

items, a hefty dolly, and a saw. During the surveillance operation in the early morning hours of April 4, detectives observed as James drove to the Ocean Breeze Golf Club. The Golf Club was no longer in business, but a place that both Skip and James had spent a lot of time together. It appeared that James was carrying a bag and disappeared into the course. They observed him coming back a short time later, and this time was carrying a suitcase

that he discarded into a dumpster. Inside of the suitcase was blood, maggots, decomposition tissue, as well as some clothing that was soaked in blood. Detectives knew this area was of heavy interest to look into, so other detectives were called out while they searched the defunct golf course. No, two of the infections of myself, we started to sense a strong over gasoline. At that point, we continued to walk a little bit, when the world turned us, we continued to walk into it. At that point, you came upon an area that was like a very crisp sand. And what does law enforcement do when you get to that area with a fresh sand?

I don't invite my supervisor, he and a K-9 dog, a quarter of home, were here in the house. How I was there, they proceeded on the road to the harrier and here we ended up calling the medical examis office and they would spot out in the area. It was actually in. Okay. How old members of the jury were you in the excavated area? We had two plastic bags that were both wrapped in duct tape. And are the bags ever opened in front of you?

Yes, one was partially opened, one was still pretty well seen. Are the bags open in your presence? Yes, they were. Can you tell the members of the jury what you saw in the back? We're open. The first time we opened, I think, in 10 days, torso. I would have heard you be a white male, the torso. The arms were severed. There was no arms on the torso. And the torso was capitated to the head of the torso.

And it was cut right around the Eagle area, a full cut across. Was the second bag that was still secured open as well? Yes it was. And what did you observe was continued inside that bag. Second bag was the Clowidge-Horcell, again that was a severed leg of a lower nameble, and then it was also severed at the knees, the lower throats and the legs's also seven of these, the gold, red, and the black, the gold that he's just missing as well.

Within a few days, the medical examiner's office was able to identify the remains as that of skip scanderido. Dr. Reinhard Motay handled Skip's autopsy. So he's been dismembered from mid thigh. We're looking at the bone here, what's still attached to him. And this just shows this is the cross section. I didn't do this. This is the way he was found.

So the bone has been cut through right here at this level. Now we're on the bomb at thigh. There were two marks, again, solid marks, in structures of the neck. And then through the middle here, through the backbone, but also on the skin. Some of the areas in the skin, the sear is jagged. There we as if somebody is trying to sign for this game, which is kind of hard to do.

They're also areas that look like giving time. With a body, physical evidence, and a slew of other circumstantial evidence, James was brought in to the Boko Raton Police Department on April 9th, and presented with the information the police knew. When he arrived, he was placed in handcuffs and taken into an interrogation room. As a result of our investigation, we have a really good idea of what happened, one thing happened, we're just a little concerned about why certain things had happened. But that's why we came up here today was to kind of let you know that we didn't find your father. He has been identified In conclusively by the medical examiner's office, okay, so we're not dealing with some rapid missing person at this point

And unfortunately based on the information we have we know that you're evolved 100% but I want to be able to at least draft in a report basically that we met with you today and are able to outline some facts to indicate that you're not the monster that people might think you are just based on the facts of the case. Does that make sense? I'm not going to say anything. I think I need to have a lawyer obviously. James Scanderido II was charged with first degree murder in regards to his father's skip, but was everything that detectives had as it appeared. What was the truth behind this grizzly discovery? On March 11, 2019, James went on trial for the murder of Skip, but he testified that he didn't murder his father.

He testified that what happened in the Scandorito home on the evening of March 28th, 2018, wasn't at all what it seemed? During that time that you're here with your dad, you're using a big pen just one time right? Yes. Consuming intervals. That's correct. Your dad is as well.

Yes. Drinking alcohol. Beers at that time. OK. And did your dad use any other brush? He takes pain pills for his knee and hip, I guess. So he took some. OK.

And do you know how long he has been taking the pain pills? I want to say for as long as he's had pain. I know of him taking percuss at for a long time, mainly because he has bad knees and hips. He plays a lot of sports. So I know he takes pain pills, pain pills for his injuries from playing sports all the time. Okay.

Were you aware of other health issues that you've had? I mean, he had, you know, heart problems in the past. He had a triple bypass, had a pre-broke his neck. He was in Brazil and he was body surfing in Brazil and the wave took him down, he landed straight on his neck and he broke his neck. You know, he said he was depressed before, you know, at some time after my mom died.

He doesn't seem depressed, you know, he seemed like he was just a single guy, but, you know, he had talked to some people about that and talked to me about that. I was one of the reasons why we went to the keys for holidays, because at that time, when your mother and your wife is in a round for the first holiday.

So you pooped together that night? I don't do much cooking, no. My dad, my dad does it on the grill and we warm some things up in the microwave. Okay, any aid with that? Yes. Were you present when Betty Wutcher had called out? Yeah, I was like right after we were done eating. Okay. And you were watching TV at that time with your father? We were. I think survivor was on that time. After dinner, the two decided to pass the time using marijuana and kicking back some beers in father's son bonding time. That is, until James decided to pull out a stash of cocaine

You know, we we start probably watching NBA game I I'm chatting with you know girlfriend Probably some other people prior to that I actually started doing some cocaine probably some other people, prior to that, I actually started doing some cocaine. My dad didn't want to do any, he said he had a good buzz, and I knew he was going to get up the next morning early to go play tennis, or go watch the tennis match. So he didn't partake in any, which was an unusual. Okay, well what do you say that you were doing the cocaine? Was there in that family room, right?

Yes. James claimed that he had gone and retrieved a silver platform platter, which both men would typically put the cocaine on to use. When we're just smoking marijuana, it's basically we just set the marijuana on the table there, either the vape pen or the bag of marijuana for smoking. And for when we do cocaine, we have a little bit of a,

I don't know how to call it, it's like a, or a derv server kind of a dish that kind of is raised up a little bit and it's like a platform kind of a circular Maybe sits you know six inches or so high. So that's kind of What we would do cocaine off of so that's what I had set up on that table there. Okay, with the cocaine. Yes. Okay, but at the time that you're talking with your father, he doesn't want to do any because he's getting up in the morning. He said I have a good buzz.

James claimed he wanted to go smoke a cigarette. Something his father didn't like to see due to Toree's passing away from lung cancer. Cocaine, perfectly acceptable though. I smoke cigarettes and my dad doesn't want me to do it in the house. You know, I'm other diet lung cancer, so it's not really a, that should first of all, I shouldn't be, but you know, they do. And so I generally go back out to the back patio, back by the pool. There's an area, there's a little table area, so I'll sit back there. What was your mom and sister? She was her whole life. Okay, until she was diagnosed with the lung pain.

Yes. So, snow pain between you and father was something that he didn't like to see? Not too much. I mean occasionally he'd have that with do it on. I mean we tied smoke cigars on the golf course in front of all the time, but in terms of cigarettes, you know, not much, not much in front of him. Okay. While outside, James had been texting with his girlfriend and watching a soccer game on his iPad and lost track of time while he was out there. During that time from roughly 9.45 to 11.30, do you see your dad at all?

No, I don't see him. Okay, don't have any conversations with them? No. Is there a time that you go back into the house? I think I went into the bathroom one time. I probably cut right through my, back of my dad's bedroom opens up to the pool area, so I probably went and used my dad's bathroom. Okay.

And if you went into that bedroom, would you be able to see where your father was and the family room? No, you wouldn't. Okay. When do you next see your father? I come come inside, I guess you know, was somewhere on 1130 right after I was done communicating with my aura, you know, within 10 minutes probably of that. I come in the back door and I don't see him in the chair, at the back patio door, I don't see him in the chair, as I come around, I see him, he's on the floor, kind of on his side between the table and his chair, kind of grab him and shake him a little bit.

Nothing, I checked his pulse that is neck. There was no pulse at all. I tried to roll him over. It's kind of a tight little quarters there. I kind of tried to roll him over, pushing on his chest. There's no response. He feels like his body temperature isn't what it normally is. It feels not cold, but like it had happened a little bit before then, certainly. He had knocked over all of the cocaine that was on the cake server, the appetizer server. That was on the floor, it was on the couch, it was on him.

And he was just kind of laying in it. And once I saw all of that, my first reaction was that he might have done liner of cocaine and just passed out onto the table. James didn't want to call 911. He began to believe that if his father had done the cocaine he had brought to the home, the younger Scandorito would be to blame. James knew he had to sober up and act quickly. Skip's friend Betty was

supposed to be arriving at the home only hours later. So James retrieved his father's cell phone and sent a message saying that both James and Skip would be attending the Miami Open together. It would hopefully buy him enough time to stage his father's death as if he had died during his sleep. What James wasn't prepared for was the dead weight that he would have to move. So he waited until morning where he went to Home Depot and purchased a dolly along with some other previously mentioned items. I know Home Depot opens up at six and I know they have Dolly's there.

Okay. Do you go to the people? Yes. You're seeing on video, lying, going to Dolly and a gas can. Yes. Why? Well, the gas can... I thought that, you know, if I ever have to explain why I bought a dolly, I can explain it as I needed to move my dad's power washer because it's really a two person job and gets it lifted and to put it in and out of the back of the truck. And I know he has a gas tank that doesn't have a top on it.

So again, I wasn't thinking anything other than, you know, I need to, you know, possibly justify why I would buy a dolly at that time. I'd already started thinking, you know, what, you know, what am I going to say? How, what am I going to do, that kind of stuff? Okay. And so at that point in time, when you buy the box, the dolly, what is your plan for how you're going to handle it? Well, I mean, I, and there's really,

I would never say I ever had a plan, you know. My, my thought was to kind of roll him over onto the dolly and then pull him out. And at that point, you know, it had been seven hours, six or seven hours maybe, since he had passed away. You know, I maybe I should just put him in his bed. That way I could, when I woke up, you know, he was dead in his bed. But after obtaining the Dolly, James realized moving his father was still going to be a lot of work. And that's when his mindset began to change.

Without options, James was going to have to take drastic measures to protect himself. I'm going to have to dismember my dad to be able to move him out of the house. Now, when he is on the dolly, he takes his front or his back part to the racing part of that dolly. Is that? Okay. Do you need him on the dialing, take to the dialing and the garage? Yes. Okay. And do you do that when you are disremperant? Yes. Okay. So you have heard the medical examiner talk about that that the body is cut from essentially back to front. Yes. Okay. Does this body remain on the dolly while you are cutting it? Yeah, I roll the dolly over when I am doing the dismembering of the extremities.

And so you are cutting those portions that are painting long of the dolly. Yes. Okay. There's a space in front of the, of course you've seen it all many times. In front of the refrigerator, when you come out of the garage on the left side

and if you're looking on the left side of the garage, there's a space there. So I had laid a clear tarp down. The dolly was on top of the tarp, and then I had another tarp that went over the top of the dolly and the plastic tarp that was underneath the dolly. After cutting up his father's body into pieces.

He placed the pieces into black garbage bags and attempted to seal the bags by wrapping them thoroughly with duct tape. Eventually ended up putting them all into three suitcases. Suitcases that were out that about half already. Yes. OK. How long does it take for you to do this? It doesn't seem like I was doing it all night. the cases that were out that month already. Yes. Okay. How long does it take you to do this?

It seemed like I was doing it all night. I mean, I know Dr. Motte said it was easy. And maybe it's not physically strenuous, but it wasn't. I would... It was not something that I, it was a quick, it was a long time. I would take frequent breaks, go out through the garage door, in the outside of the house, the inside of the house, have cigarette smoke cigarettes and just, you know, you wish that this was, and this nightmare wasn't happening. James was faced with the problem of trying to hide

the desecrated body. That's when he chose to place the dismembered pieces of skip at the Ocean Breeze Golf Club, where he and his father had spent countless hours together. Some place that was special for the entire family. But would this story be acceptable to a jury? Because he was the sole heir to his $800,000 estate. Couple that with the fact that James had lost his six-figure income and the ability to party and enjoy the company of young women. Fortunately for James, Dr. Motay concluded there was no indication of homicidal violence against Skip.

I found out in Terrell Trowell that parts that I examined, he had heart disease, meaning his cortex's arteries in this heart where full of cholesterol, they have done bypass surgery several years before, the bypass will try to fix that. So they take one vessel, it's like, it's like when you have a plaque tight at home, they'll take a pipe and bypass that area, and that's what they do, that's what they call a bypass surgery, they bypass that bad artery, and connect it to a good spot,

so you can get a lot flowing through the heart again. His heart was a little heavy and it was a little bit large. Did you observe any signs of external trauma on the portions of the body that you observed other than this memory? No. After 10 days of trial, the jury had reached a verdict. As the count 1, we find a defendant's not guilty. As the count 2, we find a defendant guilty of abuse of a deaf human body, ashtarge, and the indictment. Not guilty of murder, but guilty for the dismemberment of his father. On June 21, exactly three months after hearing the verdict, James was back in court to hear

his sentence. James pleaded with the judge for 24 months in prison with probation as a sentence. His attorney spoke on his behalf, stating she had seen her client weep multiple times throughout the time they were working together. But Judge John Castro nakes wasn't having it. You don't consider your father is something that is, you know, running relationship to the father and son between individuals who have never really had a problem with each other.

So it makes it much more, I think, all you've all used to work to spell that you went to that to your own father and to spell for someone who had a close relationship. Yes, the father had his own problems in life. There are many people who love this father, who you know, and this is his own child, all the child is really, really very sad that Mr. Scandorito do this for his own father. James Scandorito Jr. ended up getting 15 years in prison for the dismemberment of his own father. In the aftermath of this absolutely terrible and avoidable tragedy. Skip's sister and niece are fighting for the rights to his estate. They, amongst many others, believe that James should have no rights over the $800,000 in equity and other properties.

His sister and niece have been quoted as saying that even if they get nothing out of the estate, as long as James doesn't get nothing out of the estate, as long as James doesn't get a piece of it, they are happy and okay with whatever is done with the money. $800,000, the cost of a moderately nice upper middle-class home in South Florida. $800,000, your reward for chopping up and desecrating the body of the man that raised you and took you into his home, and most importantly of all, gave you life. A life which you decided to improve with a trip to Home Depot and a saw in the garage.

$800,000. Hey, after all, it is your birthright. Well, that does it for this episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you once again for tuning in and listening. Remember, sign up to Plus, get your pen, get your birthright. See you next time. Stay safe. Hey Mike, I just wanted to say that your podcast is absolutely amazing. I've been a fan since day one and I just wanted to say that after sold 69, you would recommend that you end up at the show, Sister Crayon, on the Liesel Woman.

I love the music you play, and I love the stories you tell. Keep it up, man. Let's go. you