April 19, 2023 • 42 mins
In preparation for the upcoming parole hearing in Tallahassee on May 3rd, Gilbert and Kelsey travel to Florida to preview what’s at stake for Leo. They visit a halfway house in Tampa, and speak to Crissie, Ashley, Jessie Saum, and Seth Miller. They also accompany Scott Cupp to meetings with Florida Senator Jonathan Martin and parole commissioners.
Leo Schofield’s parole hearing will be at 9:00 am on May 3, 2023, and is open to the public:
Florida Commission on Offender Review
Betty Easley Conference Center
4075 Esplanade Way, Room #152
Tallahassee, FL 32399
For photos, images, and full transcripts of each episode visit: https://lavaforgood.com/bone-valley/
To read and sign the petition from the Innocence Project of Florida visit: http://bit.ly/BringLeoHome
PLEASE TO TAKE PART IN OUR LISTENER SURVEY. YOUR FEEDBACK WILL HELP INFORM HOW WE MAKE PODCASTS IN THE FUTURE. AND YOUR COMPLETE AND CANDID ANSWERS WILL HELP US CONTINUE TO BRING YOU UNPARALLELED ACCESS AND INSIGHT INTO THE HEART OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA. SO PLEASE GO TO:
AND PARTICIPATE TODAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.
Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
See this is all our spot here we have from
it's thirty fourth. Thirty fifth is the next Greek, So
we go from thirty four to thirty fifth, all of
these houses.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Kelsey and I are talking to Pastor Tony Parker. He's
the director of a halfway house, a re entry program
called Noah's Community Outreach.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And we got houses on both sides.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
How many houses do you have it all?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We got eight houses in, we got nine under construction.
You finished the ninth one under construction, and I'm gonna
show you some lots.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We've been talking about this program with Leo and Scott
Cup a lot lately. People refer to this place as
Noah's House, but it's certainly not a single house. It's
a whole community spread across four city blocks in the
Jackson Heights neighborhood of East Tampa. Each building houses four
or six recently incarcerated individuals. Most of the men are
(00:58):
older and have served a few decad in prison, but
there's a house for women as well. They all need
the support system from Pastor Parker, the program, and most importantly,
each other as they attempt to find jobs and learn
how to adjust to a life outside prison.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Walls. You know, at first, the commission did not want
to a lot of them to come here altogether because
they thought they would buddy up and start committing crime again.
So they would send one over there and one over here,
and they could make it because they had no support.
(01:36):
But look at the support. Look at the support.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Leo already has a letter of acceptance from Pastor Tony Parker,
and he has a parole hearing coming up on May third.
If everything goes the way Leo is hoping, he'll be
granted parole by the Commissioners, released from prison and sent
directly to Noah's house.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Leo, have you begun to imagine what you're life might
look like if you're paroled and sent to this halfway house?
Speaker 6 (02:03):
Like?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
What are you imagining freedom will look like?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
And feel?
Speaker 6 (02:07):
Like? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (02:09):
You know, I tell myself every day, Gilbert, every day
I wake up and I'm just gonna go to work.
I'm gonna bury myself in work and tasks and stuff
so I don't have to think about that very thing.
And then I go to work and I spend the
rest of them that day, thanks doing nothing but thinking, Bob,
what wouldn't be like? You know what? My life would
look like on the other side.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
If he's granted parole and released, Leo will arrive at
Noah's house, where he'll maintain regular visits with a parole
officer who will monitor his progress and his transition. He'll
have curfews and random drug tests, but Lea would be
starting his life over a freeman after thirty five years
behind bars.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Hey y'all, Hey Joe, y'all come on his side.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, minute, man, they won't ask y'all a few questions.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Tony Parker shows us around one of the houses and
introduces us to a guy named Joe. He's a resident
at Noah's house. He's in his fifties, tan fit, and
has soft blue eyes. I could easily see him being
friends with Leo.
Speaker 8 (03:14):
After thirty five years behind the fence. When I got out,
it was overwhelming. It was the first about the first
couple of weeks. It was overwhelming because it was like
something new. Being here helped me out, and I just
started slowly, but I transitioned in back into society. Now
I feel like I'm part of society.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Joe was paroled nine months ago, and he told us
that Noah's house has helped shield him from some of
the stigma of coming out of prison.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
If the neighborhood knew I come out of prison and
what I was in prison for, they'd be looking at
me like I had three heads. But here they welcome
you and they give you that chance, and being in
this community helps you. It helps you because everybody that
lives here, we've all been there. So that's why we
(04:03):
help each other out because none of us want to
go back. I I know I'll never go back. I
love society.
Speaker 9 (04:12):
Yeah, I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 8 (04:12):
I love it out here, you know what I mean,
And it's a blessing to me, and I wake up
every morning blessed.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
In a few months, he's been at Noah's house, Joe
found a job and bought a jeep, and when his
year is up, he'll be moving on from Noah's to
Daytona Beach, where he grew up and where his elderly
mother still lives. I got the feeling he'd had dark
thoughts in prison, imagining maybe that he'd never have the
opportunity to see her again.
Speaker 8 (04:40):
So I'm wont to spend some time on my mom
before it's too late, and just give her love.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
She needs.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Kelsey and I spent about three hours with Pastor Tony
Parker and the men we met in the program. Tony
spoke a lot about the community and the culture, about
God and spirituality, and about all the stories these men
bring with them. He's clearly very proud of what they've built.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
You should have see him on Saturday morning. You gotta
come around on Saturday morning. That's when you see him
on the porch. They sit out on the porch and drank.
Speaker 9 (05:13):
Coffee and I say, hey, I say it is good
to come home and be able to sit on his
porch and just watch the cars come by, and so
you can think you see and they do.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
If Leo comes here to transition from his life in prison,
he'll likely share a room with a few guys and
sleep in a bunk bed. He'll need to find a
job and pay one hundred dollars a week, which covers
room and board as well as his meals, but he'll
also be able to do longer visits with Chrissy Ashley
and his two grandsons.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Obviously, if you got released through a halfway house, it
would be a certain amount of freedom, but you know
you haven't been exonerated, and do you still think about
that when when you're thinking abound.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Parole as well.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
Yes, absolutely, parole is just a means of getting home
and being able to interact more with my family less
you know, strict and the ability to work really is
what's really hopeful for me. I appreciate the oversight because
(06:21):
there'll be people will say, hey, no, you can't do
this here, you can't do that here, or you should
do this, you should do that, And I welcome that
kind of thing because I haven't been out there in
a long, long time. The last thing I want to
do is violate parole because I was standing on a
sidewalk that you made a law that says you can't
stand in this spot anymore. And I have no idea, but.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
All of this is a big if. For Leo to
get out of prison and into a re entry program
like Noah's House, he'll need the Florida Commission on a
Fender Review to grant him parole, something they've denied him
in his last three attempts. The stakes for Leo and
(07:02):
his family have never been higher. If parole is denied
yet again in Tallahassee on May third, it will likely
be years before Leo gets another chance at freedom. This
is a special bonus episode of Bone Valley.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
All right, you're read ready?
Speaker 10 (07:47):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Last month I flew down to Florida to join Scott
cup for some meetings he'd scheduled in the state capital
of Tallahassee.
Speaker 10 (07:57):
Turn right onto West.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And Miss Street Internet, Ama John's Pizza.
Speaker 11 (08:02):
It has been so long since I've worn this the coat.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, Scott's wearing a suit, a suit that has been
tucked in the back of his closet for a while.
Once he became a judge. The jackets that were a
staple of Scott's career as a prosecutor and defense attorney
got switched out for a black robe.
Speaker 11 (08:22):
How many robes do you have one? It's retired, dry cleaned,
and cut away.
Speaker 12 (08:29):
Now it's the robe.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
That's been pushed to the back of the closet because
about a week before I met him in Tallahassee, Scott
Cupp resigned from the bench to represent Leo Schofield to
do everything in his power to get Leo out of prison,
and he's committed to fulfilling that promise. Scott's been speaking
to people in positions of power in Florida who are
(08:51):
sympathetic to the injustice of Leo Schofield's case. The goal
in Scott's meetings is always the same, liberation then exoneration,
and that first step liberation is most likely going to
come through parole.
Speaker 11 (09:07):
Because I've said all along that if they take it
upon themselves to read the Trout transcript, you have to
walk away with the overwhelming belief that Leo's innocent. So
I guess it's not that big of a logical leap
that if he's innocent, Yeah, he needs to be paroled
(09:28):
at a minimum, and then we can get to the
next step.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
The first meeting Scott lined up was with a newly
elected state senator from Lee County, Florida, Senator Jonathan Martin.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
And where did you meet, Jonathan?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
By the way, was that was that prosecutor.
Speaker 11 (09:45):
I'm gonna have to ask him. I don't know if
we met.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The former judge persuaded Senator Martin to listen to Bone Valley,
which he did on his long drives to and from Tallahassee.
Speaker 11 (09:58):
He actually said that this guy shouldn't just be parole,
he should be exonerated. Oh man, He's said to keep
him in the loop. It's gonna help bal He can.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Nin probably a five minute walk.
Speaker 13 (10:23):
Oh you kinda know where you're going.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
First.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Kelsey came down too, But since some of the meetings
Scott is bringing me along to her sensitive we knew
we weren't going to be able to record like this
meeting with Senator Martin. We're just hoping he'll give us
some insight into the Tallahassee political landscape so Scott can
form a legal strategy going into Leo's upcoming parole hearing.
(10:53):
If Leo is granted parole, he will be released from
prison after serving a decade longer than his minimum sentence
of twenty five years. Getting paroled is no guarantee, though,
and Leo's next parole hearing is coming up.
Speaker 14 (11:08):
Quick Bone Valley is sponsored by Stand Together. Stand Together
is a philanthropic.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Community that partners with America's boldest change makers to tackle
the root causes of our country's biggest problems, including the
failed War on drugs that has criminalized addiction, fueled over incarceration,
and shattered communities. At eleven years old, Scott Strode drank
his first beer. At fifteen, Scott went to a mental
(11:44):
health facility because of suicidal thoughts where he tried cocaine.
Like many others who experience addiction, Scott was using drugs
and alcohol to numb the pain he was trying to
numb childhood trauma. In his early twenties, Scott was invited
into a boxing gym by a friend. That's where he
discovered the healing power of sport and community that helped
(12:07):
propel him towards sobriety. In two thousand and six, Scott
founded The Phoenix, a free, sober active community that uses
the transformative power of sport to help people treat and
heal from addiction and imagine new possibilities for their lives
through fitness. The program restores compassion to a system that
(12:27):
has long relied on locking people up to solve.
Speaker 12 (12:30):
The addiction crisis. Scott Strode is one of many entrepreneurs
partnering with Stand Together to drive solutions in education, healthcare, poverty.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
And criminal justice.
Speaker 12 (12:43):
To learn more about addiction and the War on Drugs,
listen to the War on Drugs podcast on Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 10 (12:58):
Okay, I just got word that Gilbert and Scott are
done with their meeting I am about to drive over
and pick them up, and they're gonna tell me how
it went. Okay, let it go.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
It was interesting.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
He's a really friendly guy, and he's just you could
tell he was concerned about this, Like he did talk about,
you know, things happened in the past and they need
to be corrected.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And I think he just really understands.
Speaker 11 (13:30):
That he's committed. He gets it. He will be as
engaged as he needs to be.
Speaker 10 (13:40):
Ah.
Speaker 11 (13:42):
Gave us a lot of good insight about what's probably
going on with the Parole Commission right now.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Senator Martin oversees the Florida Commission on a Fender Review
or f Corps. It's a panel of three commissioners, the
three people who will be making the decision on Leo's parole.
They'll either vote to release him or vote to keep
him in prison. Senator Jonathan Martin has had conversations about
Leo's case with one of the commissioners.
Speaker 10 (14:12):
What's what's going on with them?
Speaker 11 (14:16):
Well, he indicated that the chairwoman, Miss Coonrod, has already
listened to the podcast. Ah, and is believe you indicated
that she said she read the trial transcript. Yeah, so
she knows that that they're going to be hearing a
(14:37):
parole case on an innocent man, So what is that type?
Speaker 13 (14:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Melinda Kuhnrod is the chair of the Parole Commission. She's
a former assistant state attorney, a prosecutor from the Second
Circuit in Florida's Panhandle. She was appointed to the commission
by Governor Rick Scott, the same governor that appointed Scott
Cupp to the bench. Even before this meeting with Senator Martin,
Scott and I were aware that Commissioner Kunrod had been
(15:06):
diving into Leo's case in a much deeper way than
the typical parole case that shows up on her docket.
Speaker 11 (15:13):
I'm still belonging away by the fact she read the
transcript that is such a big lift. That's a big
ask to get somebody to do that.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
This is definitely a good sign for Leo. The state
often misrepresents the evidence from Leo's case to protect his
conviction and to keep him from being granted parole. So
anytime a judge or a parole commissioner goes to the
primary documents and transcripts instead of the States briefs, it's
an advantage for Leo. The questions Commissioner Kunrod asked, were
(15:44):
centered on Jeremy Scott, So she's definitely doing her due diligence.
But there are two other commissioners who will be voting,
and we don't know what they think about Leo's case
and his chances for parole.
Speaker 10 (15:57):
So what else did he say about the other two commissioners?
Speaker 11 (16:02):
To be honest, he I don't think he knows much
about them. I mean, he knows who they are, he
doesn't know much about their backgrounds. He's just, you know,
kind of getting up to speed with things.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
We did some of our own research on the other
two commissioners, like Richard Davison, who, like Melinda Kunrod, was
also a prosecutor. I know for a fact that he
read my book Devil in the Grove because he wrote
a report for the Attorney General's Office supporting the posthumous
pardons for the Groveland Four back in twenty nineteen. And
(16:35):
then there's Commissioner David Wyant, who was appointed in twenty sixteen.
He had a twenty year career in law enforcement and
before retiring in twenty fourteen, he worked his way up
to sergeant of detectives at the Bartow Police Department, which
is in the heart of Polk County. In this role,
he had a long professional relationship with former State Attorney
(16:57):
Jerry Hill, the man who argued against Leo's parole back
in twenty twenty. This will be Leo's fourth attempt at parole.
At each of his past three hearings, a representative from
the Tenth Circuit State Attorney's Office has shown up to
argue against Leo's release.
Speaker 15 (17:17):
Commissioners John Aguero on behalf of the State Attorney's Office
of the Tenth Circle.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
At Leo's first parole hearing in twenty twelve, John Aguero,
the man with the electric chair tie clip who prosecuted Leo,
showed up to argue against Leo's parole.
Speaker 16 (17:35):
I sought the.
Speaker 15 (17:36):
Death penalty against Leo's Sofield for a arrendous murder of
a young eighteen year old girl in nineteen eighty seven.
He was a tremendously violent human being.
Speaker 16 (17:54):
I think that the commissioners should use every aggravation that
is an available legal to keep mister Stokefield prison.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
In twenty fifteen, it was Victoria Avalon's turn.
Speaker 17 (18:11):
He has no remorse for what he did. He didn't
even help plan Michelle's funeral. These votracks are from our file.
They will show you where she was found.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
I think you should see it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
She told the commissioners that she was concerned about Leo's
relationship with Chrissy, asking how safe is she really.
Speaker 17 (18:34):
Really if he is released?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
The autopsy show then Avalon went into graphic detail about Michelle's.
Speaker 17 (18:42):
Murder seventeen r twenty sixth with wood were d some
as much as four and a half inches of d
where the defendant plunge at the knife into her over
and over and over. The autopsy before shows that her
chest was full of blood. She essentially round flow.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
In Leo's last hearing in twenty twenty, the one that
Kelsey was able to attend, Leo's lawyer, Seth Miller, thought
things might be different.
Speaker 18 (19:14):
I was able to argue on behalf of Leo at
his parole hearing, and we were asking for the commissioners
to reduce his PPRD by one year to twenty twenty
two and send him to Everglades to the Correction Transition Program.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
PPRD stands for presumptive parole release date. That's the date
the commissioners set for an inmates eventual release from prison,
as long as no disciplinary infractions get in the way.
A decade ago, Leo's PPRD was set for June of
twenty twenty three, and it hasn't changed. So in twenty twenty,
(19:51):
Seth was hoping to convince commissioners to transfer Leo to Everglades'
correctional institution and the lifer's program there. Everglades another prison,
but it's an institution with a program that prepares inmates
who have been institutionalized for decades to re enter society.
The program has a very high success rate, and very
(20:12):
few of the program graduates who are released go on
to re offend. We've been told that the commissioners rarely
parole someone who hasn't been through the program. If Leo
had been transferred to Everglades back in twenty twenty, he
would likely have been released by the June twenty twenty
three date that the commissioners had set. Seth and Leo's wife, Chrissy,
(20:34):
met with commissioners the night before the last hearing to
discuss Leo's parole possibilities.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
We met with Davidson, Commissioner Davidson, and he was very
willing to ask questions and listen to the plan and
our expectations. And I left that meeting and I'm pretty
(21:01):
sure that Davidson said that he would be supportive of
moving forward. So that night I felt so positive, so positive,
like this is it, this is it, We're doing it.
We've got this one.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
The parole hearing was the following day. Everyone there in
support of Leo was hopeful because the commissioners were showing
signs of being on board, was sending Leo to the
Lifer's program at Everglades. His release was now in sight.
Speaker 18 (21:35):
And I gave a presentation about his high quality model
citizen time in prison, all his programs, what he would
do if he was paroled, and it went pretty well
until Jerry Hill got his ten minutes and provided the
parle commission with factually erroneous information about the case and
(21:55):
about Leo.
Speaker 7 (21:57):
Leo said he was driven by an inver, forced to
go back to the pit area again.
Speaker 19 (22:02):
Leo said he felt drown to that area and felt
Michelle was calling out.
Speaker 18 (22:05):
To him, and then gave them a folder and no
one could see what was in it, but we believe
that it was autopsy photos of the victim, which is
both inappropriate because they're only allowed to consider new information
from the last hearing, but also incredibly incendiary, and we
had no ability because we got no additional time to
(22:27):
rebut anything that he said, there's no.
Speaker 7 (22:30):
Remorse, there's no sorrow.
Speaker 8 (22:32):
How do you put a man in a program getting
him ready to be released into society when he can't
say I'm sorry, when he can't say I do.
Speaker 20 (22:43):
Do I know this is a subsequent and I'm sorry.
Speaker 11 (22:47):
I'm so emotional that I.
Speaker 8 (22:49):
Just feel very strongly that this is a cold, calculating
first degree murder.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
He's a manipulator and he's exactly where we'll be.
Speaker 10 (23:00):
At that point.
Speaker 18 (23:01):
The Parle Commissioners, after looking at hearing that presentation from
Jerry Hill and looking at what was in that folder,
voted to make no change to his prole status, leaving
his PPRD at twenty twenty three and leaving him at
his current incarcerator facility. Jerry Hill has been part of
a group of people who recommends people who are going
to be pointed to the pro commission He has a
(23:24):
lot of sway with the Parle Commissioners and so when
he comes up and he says things, they might change
their mind about what they want to do, even if
they were going to do something that was favorable to
the potential parolie.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And Jerry Hill has a strong stance on the parole
process in Florida, and he's been clear about why he
still shows up at these hearings. The jobs not finished
as long as someone's sentenced to life hasn't completed that sentence,
he once told the press. Not only did Jerry Hill
mistate the facts of Leo's case, he also didn't read
(23:59):
a letter from Michelle's brother, Jesse Sam, who requested that
it be read to the commission. Jesse's letter said that
he did not have confidence in the conviction of Leo
Schofield and that as a member of Michelle's family, he
was supporting Leo's parole.
Speaker 19 (24:15):
I wasn't really sure why the letter was suppressed. There
wasn't I really didn't feel like a reason to suppress it,
and I felt like it kind of really didn't work
in his favor because of it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
We don't know whether Victoria Avalon or Jerry Hill, or
another representative from the Tenth Circuit State Attorney's Office will
show up at Leo's hearing this time, but the tenth
Circuit State Attorney's office continues to double down in defending
the conviction.
Speaker 11 (24:45):
Of Leo Schofield.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
The commissioners put a lot of weight behind statements from
the victim's family when considering an inmates parole. So Assistant
State Attorney Victoria Avalon recently called Jesse Salm.
Speaker 19 (25:00):
I don't know why she reached out to me. She
just felt like she needed to call me and and
I guess set the story straight in her mind. It
just seems like to me that someone who's so dead
set on the result of the original conviction that there's
no sense for me to even try to, you know,
battle that's just going to be a one sided argument.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
You know.
Speaker 19 (25:22):
It's just so I just listened to what she said,
and she talked a lot for about an hour. Yeah,
So it went into you know, deep detail about things
about the case and things like that and so and
you know, and I just listened the whole time.
Speaker 10 (25:39):
So did you find any of that persuadesive?
Speaker 19 (25:43):
Not really. I mean it seemed to have a lot
of holes in it. There's a lot of, like I said,
just missing data, you know, and things that are you
can almost tell they're kind of fluffed in a way
to make it seem to tilt against Leo. You know,
(26:05):
I think honestly, she was probably trying to gather information
about how I felt about it, but I wasn't really
interested in sharing with her my opinions, so I just
listened a lot.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
I mean, what do you think, do you think that
there'll be this outcome for the next hearing will be
different this time and just your basic thoughts.
Speaker 19 (26:32):
I think he deserves another chance from a different perspective,
you know. And I think there's there was a lot
of missing data that people really didn't talk about. I
think that your podcast helped shine a light on a
lot of that stuff that you know, was just not talked.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
About this time. I feel I feel like it's not
(27:27):
just my desperation, and that there's an army coming.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
People around the world are now familiar with Leo's case.
We hear from them every day, people who believe that
Leo is innocent, who believe that the State of Florida
has put the wrong man in prison for the murder
of Michelle Schofield.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I don't have to feel desperate because it's not just
my voice, you know. It's like it is it does
feel like there's huge army. Chrissy, you don't even have
to say anything. We got you, We feel it, we
know it. So you just sit back and what That's
(28:11):
kind of how I feel, which is tremous, such a
huge relief after.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Three decades of fighting for justice for her husband. Because
of her persistence in her cracking Leo's case wide open
with her discovery of Jeremy Scott's fingerprints at the crime scene,
Chrissy gets so many letters and phone calls. They're from
old friends, law students, politicians, members of law enforcement, and
(28:38):
just ordinary listeners who are moved to contact her to
show their support and to state their belief in Leo's innocence.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
It was weird, like, you know, for thirty five years,
I've been carrying this thing and to step back and
go okay, like to step back it was hard. It
was like a whole kinds of mixed kind of emotions
in my head about it. But now I'm like, okay,
now I'm I'm gonna I'll take it. I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
A transfer to Everglades and the Lifer's Program would have
been a win for Leo in past hearings, but this
time that decision would feel like more of the same,
more time passing with Leo still in prison, waiting indefinitely
to be released.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
We're getting older and older. You know, we don't have
a whole lot of time left over, you know, like
you know, I mean really because think about it. He
if he he'd have to get out, try to get
some sort of job so that someday he can have
some security. And older you get, the harder that is
(29:54):
to you know, do and you know, our kid's grown now,
we got grandkids. We're just getting older. It's just time, Like,
what's the point let him go.
Speaker 11 (30:09):
I'm not a parole expert. I don't specialize in parole hearings,
never did. This is one of those where I probably
should know more than I do, But part of me
is like I don't want to get immersed in their
procedures because I think we're beyond that.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
At this upcoming hearing, it'll be Scott Cupp who will
advocate on Leo's behalf. He's going to tell the Parole
Commission that Leo should not spend another day in prison,
that Leo should be paroled immediately released from the gates
of Hardy Correctional institution straight to Noah's house.
Speaker 11 (30:49):
Now it's almost on a more you know, human being,
one person to another person. Okay, what are you going
to do about it? To get this man out of prison?
You know, however you want to term it and phrase it.
And I, you know, think back to when I listened
when they denied him the last time, and you know,
(31:10):
citing that this rule and this, you know, based upon
thirteen A, this, this factor and that factor. It's like,
screw that, screw that. You know, we're past that. Let's
just let's just get him out.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Scott thinks that because of all the attention Leo's case
has gotten, that this hearing is different and it needs
a different approach. The commissioners will know ahead of time
that Leo is standing on a claim of innocence and
that he has a lot of people standing with him,
people who now believe what Scott Cup has believed ever
(31:49):
since he read the trial transcript Chrissy gave him decades ago,
that Leo Schofield is not just wrongfully convicted, He's an
innocent man.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I've already picked out the boots and keeps telling me
the belty ones and the kind of jeans and the shirt,
so at least I'll get him enough clothes to get
them home.
Speaker 10 (32:10):
What does he want?
Speaker 5 (32:11):
What is he requesting?
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Oh, let's see jeans and then the shirt. It's one
of those like what are they Henley shirts? You know
where the push up sleeves like that and a belt
but not shiny and boots. The ones that picked out
are brown with black souls and kind of ankle tops
(32:37):
and and no white underwear. That's not the list. So
but yeah, yeah that the clothes has changed because the
last time I got closed, I got suits, right, But
no suits this time? No, No, just jeans.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
I like that.
Speaker 10 (33:00):
You're gonna look good.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yeah he will, he will look good.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
But Leo, his wife Chrissy, and his daughter Ashley have
had their hopes crushed by this process before.
Speaker 21 (33:13):
I'm still not like ready to get my hopes up.
I'm still not there yet.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Since she was a child, Ashley has seen her father's
parole get denied time after time. She never did get
that normal childhood with a dad who could come to
school plays or take prom pictures in the front yard.
Now she's twenty two years old with children of her own.
Speaker 21 (33:39):
I'm still holding on to that child. You know that
and her child because you know, I'm waiting for that
dad and to be able to do things. So I
don't know, it's very yeah, very weird, and I don't
know if where it's the right word, but but I
do know, like I'm super super excited because I'm like,
(34:00):
at least my boys get to experience it. Now I
might not have, but at least my kids get to
experience it. So I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Ashley talks on the phone a lot with her dad,
and she says that even though Leo doesn't say much
about his hopes for parole, he's making changes that show
where his head's at, like stepping down from some of
the leadership roles at Hardy, passing them on to other
inmates in the prison just in case he does get out.
Speaker 21 (34:31):
You know, he doesn't really talk about it, but there's
some things that he does that shows there's hope and
that's one of them, you know, him passing down the
torch to someone else's that's huge, especially knowing how much
those men mean to him. I'm just kind of taking
everything as they go. I don't want to get hopeful.
I don't want to say this is what I want,
and then it doesn't happen and it's something else. And
(34:53):
obviously we all know he needs to come home. We
all know that.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And aside from his wife, his and his two grandsons,
there's something else waiting for Leo at home. Christy keeps
it in the garage.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
WHOA, this is pretty I don't know anything about motorcycles.
What is it?
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Oh yeah, it's a Harley.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
M Okay ready, I feel like this is the feeling
(35:44):
of freedom in a little vehicle. I don't know, this
is crazy.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, we've heard that there are guards and prison administrators
who are jockeying to be at Leo's side on the
day of his release, walking him through the prison doors
at Hardy to his long awaited freedom. Maybe that white
Harley will be there waiting for him, and he'll ride
(36:11):
west towards the sun, roaring down the open roads of
Bone Valley. We don't know what's going to happen on
May third and Tallahassee, but we're going to be there
right alongside Chrissy Ashley, Scott cup Seth Miller, and many
(36:36):
of Leo's friends and supporters who are hopeful that this
is the day that finally ends Leo's wrongful incarceration.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
So I'm hoping this time the voices are heard loud
and clear, you know, foot stomping loud. You know, enough's enough.
I know the door opens out. I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Know that.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I actually have seen people walk out of prison, so
I know that it's possible that door does open that way.
It's not just an end. That door does open out.
Sometimes during the visitation, you know, you'll see guys get out,
their families waiting for them, and everybody collapse and stuff,
and some way some visitors get sad, like they shouldn't
(37:27):
do that in front of us because it make them sad.
I'm like, oh, no, that door does open that way.
It does.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Leo's parole hearing will be open to the public. It
will be held on May third in Tallahassee, Florida, at
the Office for the Commission on a Fender Review. You
can check our show notes and social media for further details.
Speaker 20 (38:10):
Letter dated February twentieth, twenty twenty three, to the Florida
Commission on a Fender Review, Dear.
Speaker 13 (38:16):
Commissioners, Dear honorable members of the Parole Board.
Speaker 20 (38:20):
I'm writing in support of the immediate parole of Leo Schofield.
Speaker 13 (38:24):
I would like to extend my support for parole for
Leo Schofield.
Speaker 22 (38:27):
I am writing on behalf of Leo Scholfield.
Speaker 13 (38:31):
Once again, I am writing in regards to Leo Robert
Schofield Junior.
Speaker 20 (38:36):
I truly believe this man is innocent.
Speaker 13 (38:38):
The hardest part is that my brother Leo has been
wrongfully imprisoned for over three decades.
Speaker 22 (38:45):
He has a devoted husband, father, and grandfather.
Speaker 14 (38:49):
I have followed the progression of his journey, and I
have shared the highs and lows with him and his family.
Speaker 13 (38:56):
He's almost fifty seven now and has survived, arrived, learned, worked, reached, mentored,
and performed his way through it all.
Speaker 22 (39:05):
I truly cannot imagine a better person to be granted parole.
Speaker 13 (39:10):
If you truly knew the man he was is and
has become, you would be doing your very best to
set him free.
Speaker 22 (39:17):
But it is up to you to allow him to
be able to serve outside the walls of a prison.
Speaker 20 (39:24):
I am willing to offer mister Schofield ongoing support after
his release.
Speaker 13 (39:29):
There are so many of us out here wanting to
take extra special care of him, especially me.
Speaker 22 (39:35):
I thank you for your consideration and ask that you
grant him his freedom.
Speaker 7 (39:42):
Dear Commissioners, let me begin by expressing my gratitude for
being able to present myself for you for the purpose
of being considered for parole. When June of this year arrives,
I will have been incarcerated for thirty five years. I
understand that parole is not based upon guilter. Since having
shared that I must stay once again for the record
(40:04):
that I am, in fact, completely innocent of the crime
I am charged with. Lease understand that I am not
stating this back to Americans. The only reason I am
emphatically stating my position here is because I cannot make
a state for the remose for this crime. As the
state has highlighted in my last appearance before you in
twenty nineteen. This is a very difficult position to assume.
(40:26):
As I do know that you rightly look for the
remorse in the potential paroli. I ask only that you
consider the fact that I have stood on my innocence
in the face of plea agreements that would have allowed
me to go home many years ago without parole of probation.
A back to the record that is known in the state.
No inmate that knows he or she is guilty of
(40:46):
a heinous crime, fakes into debt penalty, turns down a
plea agreement that would have allowed freedom in less than
four years, and instead stays in prison for over three decades,
holding to a claim of innocence. Here she does not
actually is that in the hopes of one day convincing
a permission that does not operiate, guilty of innocence to
let them go based upon that bony innocence that simply
(41:10):
does not make sense. The only right conclusion that can
be arrived at with my situation is that I'm forced
to maintain my innocence simply because I am actually actually innocent.
I may not be able to share remorse for a
con I did not commit, but I can wholeheartedly promise
you that if you will take a chance on me
and grant me parule, your grace will never come back
(41:33):
to you an embarrassment or write. I pray that counts
to something. I also make this promise to you that
by the end of this year, you will be proud
of me as a parole. I am wholeheartedly hoping that
you will take advantage of my talents and abilities and
use them within the prison system to help other inmates
whom you may be considering a parole in the future.
(41:54):
The fact is many of the friends I've met here
are like family to me, and I wish to stay
involved in theli to continue guiding them under my path.
I can travel wherever you need me to go on demand.
I honestly look forward to working for and with you
in this endeavor, and of course your impact in my
life is most needed and appreciated. Thank you for your
time for consideration. THEO, Robert Schofield, Junior
See this is all our spot here we have from
it's thirty fourth. Thirty fifth is the next Greek, So
we go from thirty four to thirty fifth, all of
these houses.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Kelsey and I are talking to Pastor Tony Parker. He's
the director of a halfway house, a re entry program
called Noah's Community Outreach.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And we got houses on both sides.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
How many houses do you have it all?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We got eight houses in, we got nine under construction.
You finished the ninth one under construction, and I'm gonna
show you some lots.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We've been talking about this program with Leo and Scott
Cup a lot lately. People refer to this place as
Noah's House, but it's certainly not a single house. It's
a whole community spread across four city blocks in the
Jackson Heights neighborhood of East Tampa. Each building houses four
or six recently incarcerated individuals. Most of the men are
(00:58):
older and have served a few decad in prison, but
there's a house for women as well. They all need
the support system from Pastor Parker, the program, and most importantly,
each other as they attempt to find jobs and learn
how to adjust to a life outside prison.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Walls. You know, at first, the commission did not want
to a lot of them to come here altogether because
they thought they would buddy up and start committing crime again.
So they would send one over there and one over here,
and they could make it because they had no support.
(01:36):
But look at the support. Look at the support.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Leo already has a letter of acceptance from Pastor Tony Parker,
and he has a parole hearing coming up on May third.
If everything goes the way Leo is hoping, he'll be
granted parole by the Commissioners, released from prison and sent
directly to Noah's house.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Leo, have you begun to imagine what you're life might
look like if you're paroled and sent to this halfway house?
Speaker 6 (02:03):
Like?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
What are you imagining freedom will look like?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
And feel?
Speaker 6 (02:07):
Like? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (02:09):
You know, I tell myself every day, Gilbert, every day
I wake up and I'm just gonna go to work.
I'm gonna bury myself in work and tasks and stuff
so I don't have to think about that very thing.
And then I go to work and I spend the
rest of them that day, thanks doing nothing but thinking, Bob,
what wouldn't be like? You know what? My life would
look like on the other side.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
If he's granted parole and released, Leo will arrive at
Noah's house, where he'll maintain regular visits with a parole
officer who will monitor his progress and his transition. He'll
have curfews and random drug tests, but Lea would be
starting his life over a freeman after thirty five years
behind bars.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Hey y'all, Hey Joe, y'all come on his side.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, minute, man, they won't ask y'all a few questions.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Tony Parker shows us around one of the houses and
introduces us to a guy named Joe. He's a resident
at Noah's house. He's in his fifties, tan fit, and
has soft blue eyes. I could easily see him being
friends with Leo.
Speaker 8 (03:14):
After thirty five years behind the fence. When I got out,
it was overwhelming. It was the first about the first
couple of weeks. It was overwhelming because it was like
something new. Being here helped me out, and I just
started slowly, but I transitioned in back into society. Now
I feel like I'm part of society.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Joe was paroled nine months ago, and he told us
that Noah's house has helped shield him from some of
the stigma of coming out of prison.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
If the neighborhood knew I come out of prison and
what I was in prison for, they'd be looking at
me like I had three heads. But here they welcome
you and they give you that chance, and being in
this community helps you. It helps you because everybody that
lives here, we've all been there. So that's why we
(04:03):
help each other out because none of us want to
go back. I I know I'll never go back. I
love society.
Speaker 9 (04:12):
Yeah, I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 8 (04:12):
I love it out here, you know what I mean,
And it's a blessing to me, and I wake up
every morning blessed.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
In a few months, he's been at Noah's house, Joe
found a job and bought a jeep, and when his
year is up, he'll be moving on from Noah's to
Daytona Beach, where he grew up and where his elderly
mother still lives. I got the feeling he'd had dark
thoughts in prison, imagining maybe that he'd never have the
opportunity to see her again.
Speaker 8 (04:40):
So I'm wont to spend some time on my mom
before it's too late, and just give her love.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
She needs.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Kelsey and I spent about three hours with Pastor Tony
Parker and the men we met in the program. Tony
spoke a lot about the community and the culture, about
God and spirituality, and about all the stories these men
bring with them. He's clearly very proud of what they've built.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
You should have see him on Saturday morning. You gotta
come around on Saturday morning. That's when you see him
on the porch. They sit out on the porch and drank.
Speaker 9 (05:13):
Coffee and I say, hey, I say it is good
to come home and be able to sit on his
porch and just watch the cars come by, and so
you can think you see and they do.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
If Leo comes here to transition from his life in prison,
he'll likely share a room with a few guys and
sleep in a bunk bed. He'll need to find a
job and pay one hundred dollars a week, which covers
room and board as well as his meals, but he'll
also be able to do longer visits with Chrissy Ashley
and his two grandsons.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Obviously, if you got released through a halfway house, it
would be a certain amount of freedom, but you know
you haven't been exonerated, and do you still think about
that when when you're thinking abound.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Parole as well.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
Yes, absolutely, parole is just a means of getting home
and being able to interact more with my family less
you know, strict and the ability to work really is
what's really hopeful for me. I appreciate the oversight because
(06:21):
there'll be people will say, hey, no, you can't do
this here, you can't do that here, or you should
do this, you should do that, And I welcome that
kind of thing because I haven't been out there in
a long, long time. The last thing I want to
do is violate parole because I was standing on a
sidewalk that you made a law that says you can't
stand in this spot anymore. And I have no idea, but.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
All of this is a big if. For Leo to
get out of prison and into a re entry program
like Noah's House, he'll need the Florida Commission on a
Fender Review to grant him parole, something they've denied him
in his last three attempts. The stakes for Leo and
(07:02):
his family have never been higher. If parole is denied
yet again in Tallahassee on May third, it will likely
be years before Leo gets another chance at freedom. This
is a special bonus episode of Bone Valley.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
All right, you're read ready?
Speaker 10 (07:47):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Last month I flew down to Florida to join Scott
cup for some meetings he'd scheduled in the state capital
of Tallahassee.
Speaker 10 (07:57):
Turn right onto West.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And Miss Street Internet, Ama John's Pizza.
Speaker 11 (08:02):
It has been so long since I've worn this the coat.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, Scott's wearing a suit, a suit that has been
tucked in the back of his closet for a while.
Once he became a judge. The jackets that were a
staple of Scott's career as a prosecutor and defense attorney
got switched out for a black robe.
Speaker 11 (08:22):
How many robes do you have one? It's retired, dry cleaned,
and cut away.
Speaker 12 (08:29):
Now it's the robe.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
That's been pushed to the back of the closet because
about a week before I met him in Tallahassee, Scott
Cupp resigned from the bench to represent Leo Schofield to
do everything in his power to get Leo out of prison,
and he's committed to fulfilling that promise. Scott's been speaking
to people in positions of power in Florida who are
(08:51):
sympathetic to the injustice of Leo Schofield's case. The goal
in Scott's meetings is always the same, liberation then exoneration,
and that first step liberation is most likely going to
come through parole.
Speaker 11 (09:07):
Because I've said all along that if they take it
upon themselves to read the Trout transcript, you have to
walk away with the overwhelming belief that Leo's innocent. So
I guess it's not that big of a logical leap
that if he's innocent, Yeah, he needs to be paroled
(09:28):
at a minimum, and then we can get to the
next step.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
The first meeting Scott lined up was with a newly
elected state senator from Lee County, Florida, Senator Jonathan Martin.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
And where did you meet, Jonathan?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
By the way, was that was that prosecutor.
Speaker 11 (09:45):
I'm gonna have to ask him. I don't know if
we met.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The former judge persuaded Senator Martin to listen to Bone Valley,
which he did on his long drives to and from Tallahassee.
Speaker 11 (09:58):
He actually said that this guy shouldn't just be parole,
he should be exonerated. Oh man, He's said to keep
him in the loop. It's gonna help bal He can.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Nin probably a five minute walk.
Speaker 13 (10:23):
Oh you kinda know where you're going.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
First.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Kelsey came down too, But since some of the meetings
Scott is bringing me along to her sensitive we knew
we weren't going to be able to record like this
meeting with Senator Martin. We're just hoping he'll give us
some insight into the Tallahassee political landscape so Scott can
form a legal strategy going into Leo's upcoming parole hearing.
(10:53):
If Leo is granted parole, he will be released from
prison after serving a decade longer than his minimum sentence
of twenty five years. Getting paroled is no guarantee, though,
and Leo's next parole hearing is coming up.
Speaker 14 (11:08):
Quick Bone Valley is sponsored by Stand Together. Stand Together
is a philanthropic.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Community that partners with America's boldest change makers to tackle
the root causes of our country's biggest problems, including the
failed War on drugs that has criminalized addiction, fueled over incarceration,
and shattered communities. At eleven years old, Scott Strode drank
his first beer. At fifteen, Scott went to a mental
(11:44):
health facility because of suicidal thoughts where he tried cocaine.
Like many others who experience addiction, Scott was using drugs
and alcohol to numb the pain he was trying to
numb childhood trauma. In his early twenties, Scott was invited
into a boxing gym by a friend. That's where he
discovered the healing power of sport and community that helped
(12:07):
propel him towards sobriety. In two thousand and six, Scott
founded The Phoenix, a free, sober active community that uses
the transformative power of sport to help people treat and
heal from addiction and imagine new possibilities for their lives
through fitness. The program restores compassion to a system that
(12:27):
has long relied on locking people up to solve.
Speaker 12 (12:30):
The addiction crisis. Scott Strode is one of many entrepreneurs
partnering with Stand Together to drive solutions in education, healthcare, poverty.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
And criminal justice.
Speaker 12 (12:43):
To learn more about addiction and the War on Drugs,
listen to the War on Drugs podcast on Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 10 (12:58):
Okay, I just got word that Gilbert and Scott are
done with their meeting I am about to drive over
and pick them up, and they're gonna tell me how
it went. Okay, let it go.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
It was interesting.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
He's a really friendly guy, and he's just you could
tell he was concerned about this, Like he did talk about,
you know, things happened in the past and they need
to be corrected.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And I think he just really understands.
Speaker 11 (13:30):
That he's committed. He gets it. He will be as
engaged as he needs to be.
Speaker 10 (13:40):
Ah.
Speaker 11 (13:42):
Gave us a lot of good insight about what's probably
going on with the Parole Commission right now.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Senator Martin oversees the Florida Commission on a Fender Review
or f Corps. It's a panel of three commissioners, the
three people who will be making the decision on Leo's parole.
They'll either vote to release him or vote to keep
him in prison. Senator Jonathan Martin has had conversations about
Leo's case with one of the commissioners.
Speaker 10 (14:12):
What's what's going on with them?
Speaker 11 (14:16):
Well, he indicated that the chairwoman, Miss Coonrod, has already
listened to the podcast. Ah, and is believe you indicated
that she said she read the trial transcript. Yeah, so
she knows that that they're going to be hearing a
(14:37):
parole case on an innocent man, So what is that type?
Speaker 13 (14:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Melinda Kuhnrod is the chair of the Parole Commission. She's
a former assistant state attorney, a prosecutor from the Second
Circuit in Florida's Panhandle. She was appointed to the commission
by Governor Rick Scott, the same governor that appointed Scott
Cupp to the bench. Even before this meeting with Senator Martin,
Scott and I were aware that Commissioner Kunrod had been
(15:06):
diving into Leo's case in a much deeper way than
the typical parole case that shows up on her docket.
Speaker 11 (15:13):
I'm still belonging away by the fact she read the
transcript that is such a big lift. That's a big
ask to get somebody to do that.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
This is definitely a good sign for Leo. The state
often misrepresents the evidence from Leo's case to protect his
conviction and to keep him from being granted parole. So
anytime a judge or a parole commissioner goes to the
primary documents and transcripts instead of the States briefs, it's
an advantage for Leo. The questions Commissioner Kunrod asked, were
(15:44):
centered on Jeremy Scott, So she's definitely doing her due diligence.
But there are two other commissioners who will be voting,
and we don't know what they think about Leo's case
and his chances for parole.
Speaker 10 (15:57):
So what else did he say about the other two commissioners?
Speaker 11 (16:02):
To be honest, he I don't think he knows much
about them. I mean, he knows who they are, he
doesn't know much about their backgrounds. He's just, you know,
kind of getting up to speed with things.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
We did some of our own research on the other
two commissioners, like Richard Davison, who, like Melinda Kunrod, was
also a prosecutor. I know for a fact that he
read my book Devil in the Grove because he wrote
a report for the Attorney General's Office supporting the posthumous
pardons for the Groveland Four back in twenty nineteen. And
(16:35):
then there's Commissioner David Wyant, who was appointed in twenty sixteen.
He had a twenty year career in law enforcement and
before retiring in twenty fourteen, he worked his way up
to sergeant of detectives at the Bartow Police Department, which
is in the heart of Polk County. In this role,
he had a long professional relationship with former State Attorney
(16:57):
Jerry Hill, the man who argued against Leo's parole back
in twenty twenty. This will be Leo's fourth attempt at parole.
At each of his past three hearings, a representative from
the Tenth Circuit State Attorney's Office has shown up to
argue against Leo's release.
Speaker 15 (17:17):
Commissioners John Aguero on behalf of the State Attorney's Office
of the Tenth Circle.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
At Leo's first parole hearing in twenty twelve, John Aguero,
the man with the electric chair tie clip who prosecuted Leo,
showed up to argue against Leo's parole.
Speaker 16 (17:35):
I sought the.
Speaker 15 (17:36):
Death penalty against Leo's Sofield for a arrendous murder of
a young eighteen year old girl in nineteen eighty seven.
He was a tremendously violent human being.
Speaker 16 (17:54):
I think that the commissioners should use every aggravation that
is an available legal to keep mister Stokefield prison.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
In twenty fifteen, it was Victoria Avalon's turn.
Speaker 17 (18:11):
He has no remorse for what he did. He didn't
even help plan Michelle's funeral. These votracks are from our file.
They will show you where she was found.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
I think you should see it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
She told the commissioners that she was concerned about Leo's
relationship with Chrissy, asking how safe is she really.
Speaker 17 (18:34):
Really if he is released?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
The autopsy show then Avalon went into graphic detail about Michelle's.
Speaker 17 (18:42):
Murder seventeen r twenty sixth with wood were d some
as much as four and a half inches of d
where the defendant plunge at the knife into her over
and over and over. The autopsy before shows that her
chest was full of blood. She essentially round flow.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
In Leo's last hearing in twenty twenty, the one that
Kelsey was able to attend, Leo's lawyer, Seth Miller, thought
things might be different.
Speaker 18 (19:14):
I was able to argue on behalf of Leo at
his parole hearing, and we were asking for the commissioners
to reduce his PPRD by one year to twenty twenty
two and send him to Everglades to the Correction Transition Program.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
PPRD stands for presumptive parole release date. That's the date
the commissioners set for an inmates eventual release from prison,
as long as no disciplinary infractions get in the way.
A decade ago, Leo's PPRD was set for June of
twenty twenty three, and it hasn't changed. So in twenty twenty,
(19:51):
Seth was hoping to convince commissioners to transfer Leo to Everglades'
correctional institution and the lifer's program there. Everglades another prison,
but it's an institution with a program that prepares inmates
who have been institutionalized for decades to re enter society.
The program has a very high success rate, and very
(20:12):
few of the program graduates who are released go on
to re offend. We've been told that the commissioners rarely
parole someone who hasn't been through the program. If Leo
had been transferred to Everglades back in twenty twenty, he
would likely have been released by the June twenty twenty
three date that the commissioners had set. Seth and Leo's wife, Chrissy,
(20:34):
met with commissioners the night before the last hearing to
discuss Leo's parole possibilities.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
We met with Davidson, Commissioner Davidson, and he was very
willing to ask questions and listen to the plan and
our expectations. And I left that meeting and I'm pretty
(21:01):
sure that Davidson said that he would be supportive of
moving forward. So that night I felt so positive, so positive,
like this is it, this is it, We're doing it.
We've got this one.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
The parole hearing was the following day. Everyone there in
support of Leo was hopeful because the commissioners were showing
signs of being on board, was sending Leo to the
Lifer's program at Everglades. His release was now in sight.
Speaker 18 (21:35):
And I gave a presentation about his high quality model
citizen time in prison, all his programs, what he would
do if he was paroled, and it went pretty well
until Jerry Hill got his ten minutes and provided the
parle commission with factually erroneous information about the case and
(21:55):
about Leo.
Speaker 7 (21:57):
Leo said he was driven by an inver, forced to
go back to the pit area again.
Speaker 19 (22:02):
Leo said he felt drown to that area and felt
Michelle was calling out.
Speaker 18 (22:05):
To him, and then gave them a folder and no
one could see what was in it, but we believe
that it was autopsy photos of the victim, which is
both inappropriate because they're only allowed to consider new information
from the last hearing, but also incredibly incendiary, and we
had no ability because we got no additional time to
(22:27):
rebut anything that he said, there's no.
Speaker 7 (22:30):
Remorse, there's no sorrow.
Speaker 8 (22:32):
How do you put a man in a program getting
him ready to be released into society when he can't
say I'm sorry, when he can't say I do.
Speaker 20 (22:43):
Do I know this is a subsequent and I'm sorry.
Speaker 11 (22:47):
I'm so emotional that I.
Speaker 8 (22:49):
Just feel very strongly that this is a cold, calculating
first degree murder.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
He's a manipulator and he's exactly where we'll be.
Speaker 10 (23:00):
At that point.
Speaker 18 (23:01):
The Parle Commissioners, after looking at hearing that presentation from
Jerry Hill and looking at what was in that folder,
voted to make no change to his prole status, leaving
his PPRD at twenty twenty three and leaving him at
his current incarcerator facility. Jerry Hill has been part of
a group of people who recommends people who are going
to be pointed to the pro commission He has a
(23:24):
lot of sway with the Parle Commissioners and so when
he comes up and he says things, they might change
their mind about what they want to do, even if
they were going to do something that was favorable to
the potential parolie.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And Jerry Hill has a strong stance on the parole
process in Florida, and he's been clear about why he
still shows up at these hearings. The jobs not finished
as long as someone's sentenced to life hasn't completed that sentence,
he once told the press. Not only did Jerry Hill
mistate the facts of Leo's case, he also didn't read
(23:59):
a letter from Michelle's brother, Jesse Sam, who requested that
it be read to the commission. Jesse's letter said that
he did not have confidence in the conviction of Leo
Schofield and that as a member of Michelle's family, he
was supporting Leo's parole.
Speaker 19 (24:15):
I wasn't really sure why the letter was suppressed. There
wasn't I really didn't feel like a reason to suppress it,
and I felt like it kind of really didn't work
in his favor because of it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
We don't know whether Victoria Avalon or Jerry Hill, or
another representative from the Tenth Circuit State Attorney's Office will
show up at Leo's hearing this time, but the tenth
Circuit State Attorney's office continues to double down in defending
the conviction.
Speaker 11 (24:45):
Of Leo Schofield.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
The commissioners put a lot of weight behind statements from
the victim's family when considering an inmates parole. So Assistant
State Attorney Victoria Avalon recently called Jesse Salm.
Speaker 19 (25:00):
I don't know why she reached out to me. She
just felt like she needed to call me and and
I guess set the story straight in her mind. It
just seems like to me that someone who's so dead
set on the result of the original conviction that there's
no sense for me to even try to, you know,
battle that's just going to be a one sided argument.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
You know.
Speaker 19 (25:22):
It's just so I just listened to what she said,
and she talked a lot for about an hour. Yeah,
So it went into you know, deep detail about things
about the case and things like that and so and
you know, and I just listened the whole time.
Speaker 10 (25:39):
So did you find any of that persuadesive?
Speaker 19 (25:43):
Not really. I mean it seemed to have a lot
of holes in it. There's a lot of, like I said,
just missing data, you know, and things that are you
can almost tell they're kind of fluffed in a way
to make it seem to tilt against Leo. You know,
(26:05):
I think honestly, she was probably trying to gather information
about how I felt about it, but I wasn't really
interested in sharing with her my opinions, so I just
listened a lot.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
I mean, what do you think, do you think that
there'll be this outcome for the next hearing will be
different this time and just your basic thoughts.
Speaker 19 (26:32):
I think he deserves another chance from a different perspective,
you know. And I think there's there was a lot
of missing data that people really didn't talk about. I
think that your podcast helped shine a light on a
lot of that stuff that you know, was just not talked.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
About this time. I feel I feel like it's not
(27:27):
just my desperation, and that there's an army coming.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
People around the world are now familiar with Leo's case.
We hear from them every day, people who believe that
Leo is innocent, who believe that the State of Florida
has put the wrong man in prison for the murder
of Michelle Schofield.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I don't have to feel desperate because it's not just
my voice, you know. It's like it is it does
feel like there's huge army. Chrissy, you don't even have
to say anything. We got you, We feel it, we
know it. So you just sit back and what That's
(28:11):
kind of how I feel, which is tremous, such a
huge relief after.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Three decades of fighting for justice for her husband. Because
of her persistence in her cracking Leo's case wide open
with her discovery of Jeremy Scott's fingerprints at the crime scene,
Chrissy gets so many letters and phone calls. They're from
old friends, law students, politicians, members of law enforcement, and
(28:38):
just ordinary listeners who are moved to contact her to
show their support and to state their belief in Leo's innocence.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
It was weird, like, you know, for thirty five years,
I've been carrying this thing and to step back and
go okay, like to step back it was hard. It
was like a whole kinds of mixed kind of emotions
in my head about it. But now I'm like, okay,
now I'm I'm gonna I'll take it. I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
A transfer to Everglades and the Lifer's Program would have
been a win for Leo in past hearings, but this
time that decision would feel like more of the same,
more time passing with Leo still in prison, waiting indefinitely
to be released.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
We're getting older and older. You know, we don't have
a whole lot of time left over, you know, like
you know, I mean really because think about it. He
if he he'd have to get out, try to get
some sort of job so that someday he can have
some security. And older you get, the harder that is
(29:54):
to you know, do and you know, our kid's grown now,
we got grandkids. We're just getting older. It's just time, Like,
what's the point let him go.
Speaker 11 (30:09):
I'm not a parole expert. I don't specialize in parole hearings,
never did. This is one of those where I probably
should know more than I do, But part of me
is like I don't want to get immersed in their
procedures because I think we're beyond that.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
At this upcoming hearing, it'll be Scott Cupp who will
advocate on Leo's behalf. He's going to tell the Parole
Commission that Leo should not spend another day in prison,
that Leo should be paroled immediately released from the gates
of Hardy Correctional institution straight to Noah's house.
Speaker 11 (30:49):
Now it's almost on a more you know, human being,
one person to another person. Okay, what are you going
to do about it? To get this man out of prison?
You know, however you want to term it and phrase it.
And I, you know, think back to when I listened
when they denied him the last time, and you know,
(31:10):
citing that this rule and this, you know, based upon
thirteen A, this, this factor and that factor. It's like,
screw that, screw that. You know, we're past that. Let's
just let's just get him out.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Scott thinks that because of all the attention Leo's case
has gotten, that this hearing is different and it needs
a different approach. The commissioners will know ahead of time
that Leo is standing on a claim of innocence and
that he has a lot of people standing with him,
people who now believe what Scott Cup has believed ever
(31:49):
since he read the trial transcript Chrissy gave him decades ago,
that Leo Schofield is not just wrongfully convicted, He's an
innocent man.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I've already picked out the boots and keeps telling me
the belty ones and the kind of jeans and the shirt,
so at least I'll get him enough clothes to get
them home.
Speaker 10 (32:10):
What does he want?
Speaker 5 (32:11):
What is he requesting?
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Oh, let's see jeans and then the shirt. It's one
of those like what are they Henley shirts? You know
where the push up sleeves like that and a belt
but not shiny and boots. The ones that picked out
are brown with black souls and kind of ankle tops
(32:37):
and and no white underwear. That's not the list. So
but yeah, yeah that the clothes has changed because the
last time I got closed, I got suits, right, But
no suits this time? No, No, just jeans.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
I like that.
Speaker 10 (33:00):
You're gonna look good.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yeah he will, he will look good.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
But Leo, his wife Chrissy, and his daughter Ashley have
had their hopes crushed by this process before.
Speaker 21 (33:13):
I'm still not like ready to get my hopes up.
I'm still not there yet.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Since she was a child, Ashley has seen her father's
parole get denied time after time. She never did get
that normal childhood with a dad who could come to
school plays or take prom pictures in the front yard.
Now she's twenty two years old with children of her own.
Speaker 21 (33:39):
I'm still holding on to that child. You know that
and her child because you know, I'm waiting for that
dad and to be able to do things. So I
don't know, it's very yeah, very weird, and I don't
know if where it's the right word, but but I
do know, like I'm super super excited because I'm like,
(34:00):
at least my boys get to experience it. Now I
might not have, but at least my kids get to
experience it. So I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Ashley talks on the phone a lot with her dad,
and she says that even though Leo doesn't say much
about his hopes for parole, he's making changes that show
where his head's at, like stepping down from some of
the leadership roles at Hardy, passing them on to other
inmates in the prison just in case he does get out.
Speaker 21 (34:31):
You know, he doesn't really talk about it, but there's
some things that he does that shows there's hope and
that's one of them, you know, him passing down the
torch to someone else's that's huge, especially knowing how much
those men mean to him. I'm just kind of taking
everything as they go. I don't want to get hopeful.
I don't want to say this is what I want,
and then it doesn't happen and it's something else. And
(34:53):
obviously we all know he needs to come home. We
all know that.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And aside from his wife, his and his two grandsons,
there's something else waiting for Leo at home. Christy keeps
it in the garage.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
WHOA, this is pretty I don't know anything about motorcycles.
What is it?
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Oh yeah, it's a Harley.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
M Okay ready, I feel like this is the feeling
(35:44):
of freedom in a little vehicle. I don't know, this
is crazy.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, we've heard that there are guards and prison administrators
who are jockeying to be at Leo's side on the
day of his release, walking him through the prison doors
at Hardy to his long awaited freedom. Maybe that white
Harley will be there waiting for him, and he'll ride
(36:11):
west towards the sun, roaring down the open roads of
Bone Valley. We don't know what's going to happen on
May third and Tallahassee, but we're going to be there
right alongside Chrissy Ashley, Scott cup Seth Miller, and many
(36:36):
of Leo's friends and supporters who are hopeful that this
is the day that finally ends Leo's wrongful incarceration.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
So I'm hoping this time the voices are heard loud
and clear, you know, foot stomping loud. You know, enough's enough.
I know the door opens out. I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Know that.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I actually have seen people walk out of prison, so
I know that it's possible that door does open that way.
It's not just an end. That door does open out.
Sometimes during the visitation, you know, you'll see guys get out,
their families waiting for them, and everybody collapse and stuff,
and some way some visitors get sad, like they shouldn't
(37:27):
do that in front of us because it make them sad.
I'm like, oh, no, that door does open that way.
It does.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Leo's parole hearing will be open to the public. It
will be held on May third in Tallahassee, Florida, at
the Office for the Commission on a Fender Review. You
can check our show notes and social media for further details.
Speaker 20 (38:10):
Letter dated February twentieth, twenty twenty three, to the Florida
Commission on a Fender Review, Dear.
Speaker 13 (38:16):
Commissioners, Dear honorable members of the Parole Board.
Speaker 20 (38:20):
I'm writing in support of the immediate parole of Leo Schofield.
Speaker 13 (38:24):
I would like to extend my support for parole for
Leo Schofield.
Speaker 22 (38:27):
I am writing on behalf of Leo Scholfield.
Speaker 13 (38:31):
Once again, I am writing in regards to Leo Robert
Schofield Junior.
Speaker 20 (38:36):
I truly believe this man is innocent.
Speaker 13 (38:38):
The hardest part is that my brother Leo has been
wrongfully imprisoned for over three decades.
Speaker 22 (38:45):
He has a devoted husband, father, and grandfather.
Speaker 14 (38:49):
I have followed the progression of his journey, and I
have shared the highs and lows with him and his family.
Speaker 13 (38:56):
He's almost fifty seven now and has survived, arrived, learned, worked, reached, mentored,
and performed his way through it all.
Speaker 22 (39:05):
I truly cannot imagine a better person to be granted parole.
Speaker 13 (39:10):
If you truly knew the man he was is and
has become, you would be doing your very best to
set him free.
Speaker 22 (39:17):
But it is up to you to allow him to
be able to serve outside the walls of a prison.
Speaker 20 (39:24):
I am willing to offer mister Schofield ongoing support after
his release.
Speaker 13 (39:29):
There are so many of us out here wanting to
take extra special care of him, especially me.
Speaker 22 (39:35):
I thank you for your consideration and ask that you
grant him his freedom.
Speaker 7 (39:42):
Dear Commissioners, let me begin by expressing my gratitude for
being able to present myself for you for the purpose
of being considered for parole. When June of this year arrives,
I will have been incarcerated for thirty five years. I
understand that parole is not based upon guilter. Since having
shared that I must stay once again for the record
(40:04):
that I am, in fact, completely innocent of the crime
I am charged with. Lease understand that I am not
stating this back to Americans. The only reason I am
emphatically stating my position here is because I cannot make
a state for the remose for this crime. As the
state has highlighted in my last appearance before you in
twenty nineteen. This is a very difficult position to assume.
(40:26):
As I do know that you rightly look for the
remorse in the potential paroli. I ask only that you
consider the fact that I have stood on my innocence
in the face of plea agreements that would have allowed
me to go home many years ago without parole of probation.
A back to the record that is known in the state.
No inmate that knows he or she is guilty of
(40:46):
a heinous crime, fakes into debt penalty, turns down a
plea agreement that would have allowed freedom in less than
four years, and instead stays in prison for over three decades,
holding to a claim of innocence. Here she does not
actually is that in the hopes of one day convincing
a permission that does not operiate, guilty of innocence to
let them go based upon that bony innocence that simply
(41:10):
does not make sense. The only right conclusion that can
be arrived at with my situation is that I'm forced
to maintain my innocence simply because I am actually actually innocent.
I may not be able to share remorse for a
con I did not commit, but I can wholeheartedly promise
you that if you will take a chance on me
and grant me parule, your grace will never come back
(41:33):
to you an embarrassment or write. I pray that counts
to something. I also make this promise to you that
by the end of this year, you will be proud
of me as a parole. I am wholeheartedly hoping that
you will take advantage of my talents and abilities and
use them within the prison system to help other inmates
whom you may be considering a parole in the future.
(41:54):
The fact is many of the friends I've met here
are like family to me, and I wish to stay
involved in theli to continue guiding them under my path.
I can travel wherever you need me to go on demand.
I honestly look forward to working for and with you
in this endeavor, and of course your impact in my
life is most needed and appreciated. Thank you for your
time for consideration. THEO, Robert Schofield, Junior
Host
Gilbert King
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com