June 7, 2024 • 45 mins
Leo Schofield takes his first steps outside prison in 36 years. Gilbert and Kelsey spend the day with him.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yesterday, I went out in the afternoon, going out for
my last you know time on the Red Field. It's
so contained and it's so secure, it has to be right.
I mean, it's a high level security institution. You can't
look far without having to look to a fence, steel
(00:33):
bar reinforced glass door, tall twelve foot defences covered in
razor wire. There's something there that's going to remind you
that you're not free, you know, you are confined. My
mind was whirling, you know, thinking about all of what ifs,
the possibilities, what am I going to do? What's this
(00:53):
going to be like? Is it really going to happen?
Because I'm going to tell you something. Right up to
the last minute, I was holding my breath waiting for
a hammer to drop.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
You, my minness, I have to hise my feel.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Saw rose deep.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Sorry lists in this VALI teas. I want to see
RelA show great rish to the old day stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So stop.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I know it just upsets everybody, but I saw this coming.
To be honest with you, I saw this coming.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Kelsey and I are sitting in a hotel room in
Miami along with Scott Cup. Just two weeks earlier, Leo
had been officially granted parole. Since then, I'd been in
near constant contact with Chrissy and Scott as they coordinated
plans for Leo's first day out of prison. Here's what
we were expecting. Leo was scheduled to walk out of
(03:10):
the gates at Everglade's Correctional Institution at nine AM, where
a crowd of family, friends and supporters would be gathered
to cheer him on and witness his first steps of
freedom after spending thirty six years behind bars. Leo's lawyers
from years past were also planning to attend, and so
was Jonathan Martin. He's the Florida senator who spoke at
(03:32):
Leo's parole hearing last year, and it has been in
discussions with Scott Cupp about Leo's prospects for exoneration. Chrissy
had planned a whole day for him. First, there would
be a luncheon at the hotel where Leo would say
some words and play some music. Then he'd get into
a car and drive with Chrissy to see his daughter, Ashley,
(03:52):
who had just given birth to his third grandson. Then
he'd head to the Halfway House in Tampa, where he'd
unpack and settle in and begin the adjustment to life
outside of prison. Kelsey and I flew into Miami and
headed over to the Mikasuki Hotel the night before the release.
This hotel is right on the outskirts of Miami and
(04:13):
less than a mile from where Leo would spend his
final night in prison. We were feeling pretty excited as
we headed to the Mikasuki Hotel, but just as we
were walking up to the front desk to check in,
I got a call from Chrissy.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
I feel like I didn't really get the full story
of what she told you on that call.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
Actually, she basically said, this is what I've heard.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I don't know anything else. I'm on my way over.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
But they have moved the walkout time to six am,
number one, number two. Only three people are going Chrissy, Dave,
and Pam picking up Leo.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
No media.
Speaker 7 (04:48):
The other thing they said is, as far as we know,
no Mikasuki, you can't stop there, got to go straight
to the Noah's house.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
So yeah, we.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
Don't know who issued the orders. Was it the prison
overwhelmed with the logistics of a high profile release, or
did this come from higher up in the Florida Department
of Corrections. There was no way to know, but after
that phone call from the prison, we did know that
all of Chrissy's plans for Leo's release were done.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
For If they say get in the car and go
straight to Naas, he better get in the car and
goes straight to Naas because at this point, as upset
as everybody is, if that's what they're telling him to do, better,
he better do it.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Sitting in the hotel room with Scott Kupp, we tried
to figure out what to do next. We exchanged a
few texts with Seth Miller, Leo's lawyer from the Innocents
Project of Florida. Since he's been through this process many times.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
Yeah, I'm curious, has he ever experienced this before? He
just told me he's done like thirty walkouts.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Like, what the fuck is going on?
Speaker 7 (05:55):
You know, Jonathan Martin was supposed to be here when
Leo got out, and now at six am, its kind
of hard for him to leave at three thirty to
get from Fort Myers or where the hell he's coming from.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So there's a lot of.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Stuff that's The prison has set these last minute conditions
for Leo's release and it's final. It seems like just
one more reminder that walking through that gate might look
like freedom, but parole is still basically prison without bars.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
We have records, and we'll see.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Who is it.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Dave and Pam, Leo's family from Massachusetts, find their way
to Gilbert's hotel room, where everyone seems to be congregating.
It's nice to see them at least. This is a
long and complicated story, but since you haven't really heard
their voices before, here's some quick backstory to get you
caught up. The woman Leo called mom growing up is
(06:44):
really his stepmother. Cheryl married Leo's dad when Leo was
a toddler, and she raised him. It was never hidden
from Leo that his biological mother was out there, but
he had never met her until twenty eighteen. That's when Leo,
with Chrissy's health, finally reconnected with his birth mother, Sandy.
I can't imagine that it's already nerve racking to reach
(07:06):
out to a biological parent who you've been separated from
since you were three, But reaching out to a biological
parent and saying you're convicted of killing your wife and
you're innocent, I could see how that might not go
over well, But actually she quickly embraced Leo, and along
with Sandy, came Dave and Pam. Sandy referred to her husband,
Dave as the love of her life, and Pam is
(07:29):
the half sister Leo never knew existed. Sandy, Dave, and
Pam traveled down from Massachusetts to visit Leo frequently. They
had a couple years of family reunions in the Hardy
Correctional Visitation Park, and then Sandy passed away in April
of twenty twenty. Since then, Dave and Pam have truly
become Leo's family, so much so that Dave has legally
(07:52):
adopted Leo, his deceased wife's adult son, and Pam and
Leo are lovingly referred to as the twins because although
they've spent a lifetime apart, they have so much in common,
and their shared sense of humor means they are almost
always laughing in each other's presence. So that's Dave and Pam.
Speaker 9 (08:11):
And Chrissy was saying that only the three of us
can pick him up and talk tomorrow morning and take
him away. They wait, way, what the hell the object
was to have something here? And then take him to
Fort Myers so he can see Ashley, his grandchildren. They
(08:31):
said to him, you can have a target on your
back because of the notoriety and everything out there. They're
going to be watching it. Be careful, absolutely everything by
the book, steady on. Whatever you need us to do
will do. So stay focused, get all of the rules
(08:53):
they forgive you.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
That's our focus.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
I'm glad you two are at least included with the.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But how sad is it that.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
I'm the one that can go.
Speaker 10 (09:05):
It makes me feel bad just because that's me, and
I really want to see him walk.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
Out of that door, like that's totally what I want
to do.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
But we wanted to see him walk out too. It's
a moment we've been imagining for five years. But there's
no time to think about that now. Plans are still
shifting and it's getting late. There is one thing that
hasn't changed. The vehicle that Leo will ride in to
leave prison property Dave's black Tesla.
Speaker 9 (09:34):
I wanted him to ride in my car. I didn't
want him to ride in some rental car from home mother.
I want him to ride in my car. My daughter's
written in my car, my grandkids are written in my
com My son in law's written my car and I
want my car.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
We don't even know what Leo knows at this point
about the change in plans. The prison had already taken
away as tablets, so we can't get in touch with him.
All we could do was hope that he'd be able
to make a phone call. We meet up with Chrissy
(10:14):
in her hotel room and watch the sunset from her balcony.
Leo would take his first steps outside the barbed wire
gate before the sun would rise again. We set our
alarms for four am and try to get some sleep.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Quarter to three, quarter three, I was awake. I didn't
sleep two hours.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It doesn't make sense to get up, now, you know
what I mean, Cause I'm locked in this eight by
ten cell, my roommates sleeping, and uh, I said, now
I'm gonna just lay here for a minute.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
And I lay there and let.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
My mind just burn out, you know, think about everything
I was gonna do. And then like quarter after three,
I said, man, get out of bed, just get.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Out of bed.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And I slowly, you know, got ready, and uh, I
was already dressed in my blues, brushed my teeth. Four o'clock,
my door rolled open. I knew why it was open,
and the sage came and and uh. I came out
carry my little blue bag and all that had in
it was my Bible and the Koran and UH some journals.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
They brought me to the front and they put me
in a holding cell by myself at four o'clock in
the morning. And I knew I was gonna be sitting
there a while because I'm not leaving till six. My
wife was giving permission to bring my clothes no earlier
than five forty five, So now I'm gonna be sitting
there and just sitting there from four to five forty five.
(12:12):
I had my Bible with me, so that was good.
And I sat in this little cell, locked in a cage,
and just prayed and waited.
Speaker 11 (12:36):
All right, I'm about to head downstairs. It's five point
fifteen in the morning, and today is the day Leo's
gonna walk out of prison. We're not gonna be able
to see it, but it's still gonna happen, and that's
(12:56):
the good thing.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
We head outside. It's been raining since we got up.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
For Leo's gonna be released in the dark and in
the rain.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
We see Chrissy with Dave and Pam packing up the
car with all the food that was supposed to be
spread out in a buffet for guests. She's also packed
a bag with clothes for Leo to change into since
he'll have to leave his prison blues behind.
Speaker 12 (13:24):
So we're on away.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
We're gonna go get him.
Speaker 12 (13:26):
Yeah, yeah, I can't wait.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Once Chrissy, Dave, and Pam load up and take off,
we jump in the car and are right behind them.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
That's them.
Speaker 13 (13:44):
We're there right there.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah. Oh my gosh, don't.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Get like I'm The drive lasts all of two minutes.
Speaker 9 (13:59):
We want.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Dave, Pam and Chrissy drive onto prison grounds in the
Tesla and I pull over and flip the hazards on.
Speaker 12 (14:06):
So we turn into the prison property and get around
a curve and there's like three or four cars with
their lights on and a barricade. So they all come
running to these officers and they are on walkie talkies
and they come to the door and they say, we
roll down the window and they take our driver's license
(14:29):
and check our names, and then they ask for his clothes.
And I had him in a bag next to me,
so we open the window and give him the clothes,
and I hear on the walkie talkie Majors taking the clothes,
taking the clothes, and then comes back to us and
is following the major.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
We're parked on the side of the road across from
the prison entrance. The shoulder isn't wide enough to keep
us out of the lane while cars fly past us.
Speaker 14 (14:53):
I don't know if there's a fucking spot.
Speaker 11 (14:57):
I mean used to have like three feet over there. God,
it's really just.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Fully dark out.
Speaker 11 (15:08):
I mean, like, how much are we into the lane?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
A little bit? So fucking depressing like this, you.
Speaker 11 (15:20):
Can't believe they're making it do it this way? What
did the headlights of a tesla look like?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
The night before, we all decided that even if we
couldn't witness those first steps of freedom, we still wanted
to be as close as we could to the moment.
More cars filled with friends and family members line up
behind us. We're all peering through the dark waiting for
the outline of the black tesla to appear.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
And time went by like that, and before I knew it,
and they bought the clothes to me. I changed out
of everything, and.
Speaker 12 (15:59):
Then we go to another checkpoint and there's another guard gate,
and officers come and they check our driver's license, they
check the trunk, and then they say go to the
front pavilion where we normally go for a visit.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
No, I was able to go out the gate. No
inmates for any reason walk to that gate because that's
the front gate.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And so went through there and then they took me
directly out.
Speaker 12 (16:32):
So the car stops and I jump out and I
run up to this pavilion area. It's like a covered
area and there's two wardens and suits and they're standing
there and I was kind of We're just kind of
chit chatting, casual conversation, you know, like just trying to
be polite, and it's still raining, and the intensity is
(16:52):
just building for me, building, building building.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I'm like, okay, guys, so they're gonna let me go
open front gate. And I went through it. It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (17:06):
Yeah, And next thing I know, in the rain, in
the dark, the wardens turned around and there he was,
and I saw him in his clothes and his little
blue bag, and he just walked really fast to me
and we just like like the intensity of that hug
(17:28):
was magical, like we did it, We did it, we
did it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
So Chrissy was like hugging and crying, and the hugging
was a great hug and all I'm like, okay, let's go.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Can we hug somewhere else please? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
These people got guns and I want to go, and
I want to say, you know what's going fee.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I want to change my mind. You know, I'm in
jeans now, we're not going back to those.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
As tighter as these are than those I was wearing.
I'm not putting those back on, never again. And then
the door closes and.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It was just quiet, just quiet. Prisons are utterly noisy places.
They echo people.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yelling and screaming, laughing, whatever, and it's constant noise, you know.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
And it's all day, every day.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And I've got in that car and uh, you know,
it's very very quiet. And then started moving and it
was still quiet, like the car doesn't make any noise.
I mean, it doesn't sound like anything. And he used
to have like some guy running. I was waiting for him.
We just started moving.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I'm like, what the hell, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
It comes head lighters.
Speaker 14 (18:47):
It's it's a fan with blinkers on. M m no,
it's that does look like a tesla, though.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Oh I think that's them?
Speaker 11 (19:04):
Is that them?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
A car comes out and takes a left. We're not
sure it's them. It's so dark out. I try to
follow them on no, no, no, I gotta two traffic first.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Decline. But what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (19:29):
I mean I hope I was them. It looks like
a toss summer.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Oh, by what you said, I can't imagine what Leo's thinking.
If that is him up ahead. My heart is pounding
trying to catch up. Something about this moment feels more
like an escape than a walk out. I just want
to get as far away from this prison as fast
(19:58):
as possible.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
I mean, let me text proceed. I don't know if
she's gonna fly.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
And so I'm driving down the road a little bit,
and I said, I think there's some people following us,
and that.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Looks like a Massachusetts plight dinners.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Get closer because I'm power they're gonna follow us all
the way to the Tampa Okay.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
Kursy said, yes, okay, Oh my god, we're gonna car
behind Leo.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
And the rain's letting up a little. And when she
told me it was was you, guys. I was like, okay, okay,
that that made me feel a lot better.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Lea must be freaked out in that car. It's like,
all it is is a big computer screen.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
There's no but you know, like.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Knobs or I mean, I'm freaked out by it. So
I spend thirty six years in persons.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I can't believe he's up there. We head west as
the sun rises behind us. We drive out of the rain.
As our little caravan cuts across the Tammiami Trail led
by the black Tesla with Leo inside.
Speaker 12 (21:05):
The rain stopped and the day brightened as we were driving,
and the sun came out and the rains just stopped
and we started to breathe. So it was the most
magical moment of my life.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
About twenty miles down the road, the Tesla's left turn
signal starts blinking in front of us. Chrissy says she
needs to pull over for a bathroom stop, and we
all stopped too, and everyone gets out. The back door
of the tesla swings open, and suddenly there's Leo standing
in street clothes in a parking lot miles from prison.
(21:49):
No handcuffs, no barbed wire, no guards in sight. It
may not be the walkout from the main gate that
everyone was imagining, but he's here.
Speaker 10 (22:00):
He's out.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Oh my gosh. Hi mm hmm, hey buddy, mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
H.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Here come the boys.
Speaker 15 (22:27):
Hey, hey, hi, hey buddy, Hey buddy.
Speaker 10 (22:35):
Come here, buddy, Hollo you buddy, don't.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
You made it?
Speaker 6 (22:46):
I want to meet the new one.
Speaker 15 (22:48):
Yeah, you got your little Holly Davidson jacket on.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah that's nice.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Leo's family and friends gather around him, hugging and taking photos.
But it's a quick stop. Leo was anxious to get
back on the road and get to Tampa.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Buddy, okay, all right, yeah, you know I'm still still
fearing us as hell.
Speaker 6 (23:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, I'm not sure what I feel, to be honest,
I just I think once you get there and get
settled exactly, thinks it'd be better.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Right now, back on the road, we continue to follow
Leo to Noah's house, where he's required to check in.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
By the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I'm still kind of in shock that I'm in this car.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Test me.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking it's count time right now.
Speaker 13 (23:55):
That's pretty though, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You have no idea, you know, it's you know, it's crazy.
And I imagined this for a long time, many years.
I thought about this is being able to look out
at the horizon and be able to see far without
having to look through fence or or raise a wire
or you know.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Anything like that. That's just amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
There was a time where we were driving across a bridge.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
The water has sew me on the boat.
Speaker 15 (24:30):
Wow, that is crazy how far you can see.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Just to be able to see that far, that far
and not have to look through anything, it was absolutely
extraordinary that it was amazing and and it made my
heart race, keep waiting to wake up from a dream
(24:58):
that would not be real, that would really suck.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
The drive from the prison to the halfway house is
a little over four hours. Inside our car, we spend
time listening to podcasts, of course, but within the tesla,
Leo was learning how to work his first smartphone.
Speaker 13 (25:23):
And then there's should be a gallery for your pictures.
Speaker 12 (25:27):
So Lee had bottom a phone, and before he got
the phone, before he got out of prison, he's like,
I don't I don't know why you people are on
the phone all the time, and I'm just gonna have
a phone attached to the wall like I always did.
And I'm like, no, no, no, You're gonna have a phone
and it has everything in it. We had pre programmed
his phone numbers and some apps.
Speaker 13 (25:49):
There's your camera, okay.
Speaker 12 (25:52):
So when I gave it to him, he was it
was definitely foreign to him, and so it was super
fun just to show them know what to do.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
What a snapchat?
Speaker 13 (26:06):
It's an dumbass social you can you can send little
snaps picture or a little text and then it goes
to the other person and then it's erased after thirty.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Somethings or something.
Speaker 12 (26:20):
I told him, I said, you use that phone for everything.
I said, when you want to go to the gym,
you gotta beep, when you go to buy stuff, you
beep on here.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Can you put Google Earth on it? There? I love that.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
It probably goes without saying, but a lot has changed
in those thirty six years Leo spent locked up.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
I was looking at the pictures we took and I'm like,
we're old compared to well, compared to I.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Can't see what I look old.
Speaker 13 (26:53):
I look gold.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And then the other thing, this is crazy. We don't
have mirrors in the prison. I don't have mirrors.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
We have these.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Little pieces of shiny plastic that you can buy out
of the canteen if you want them. They gotta They
got a stainless steel thing that's bolted to the to
the concrete.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
But I mean it's as reflective as a hubcap. Mm
you know what I mean? Literally, I mean you.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Might see a shadow of yourself in it. You're not
gonna shave it. And so they sell these little shiny
plastic things that have you know, some type of uh
adhesive silver thing that and it's better than the hub
cap y, but it still doesn't show a true reflection.
And so when you see yourself in the mirror after
(27:41):
thirty six years, it's shocking. It's literally shocking because the
m the little plastic thing is softens you know, lines
and you know, blemishes and all that. You don't really
see it in that cause it's not true reflection. And
so you see how I look, And I said, oh damn,
I god old. Remember what I told you when we
first met.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It was a long road.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, well I didn't even know be this long. You
don't expect justice to be this slow, but we didn't
even know half of what that was actually going on.
Speaker 13 (28:24):
Yeah, we had to do the time to find the truth.
Speaker 14 (28:27):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
One thing we can definitely say is and has been meaningful.
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
I'm kind of vine absorbing that, the fact that it
it's over for me, you know, I'm.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
At least that part of it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
H m hmm.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
And then the experience. We stopped at the bird King.
I need to use the bathroom.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Are we going in?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (29:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
M this is very very weird.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Do I look like a prisoner?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I don't love for sure?
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Should we get one of those hats?
Speaker 7 (29:40):
Lot of time?
Speaker 10 (29:41):
No, thank you?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Oh, it's will be in here.
Speaker 15 (29:47):
So this is the.
Speaker 16 (29:47):
Venue, and you choose what you.
Speaker 11 (29:49):
Would like and then you go up there.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Let me just get a whap on the cheese. I
look obvious for sure.
Speaker 14 (30:00):
That was a little fun.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
I'm freaking scared to death here.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
He had a chicken sandwich and she had some other
little thing of wrap. And the girl said thirty something
dollars and exchange. I'm like, Holy Mother of God, is
it to come with a back massage or something?
Speaker 4 (30:29):
That's crazy? Thirty thirty something dollars? I said, a whopper, whopper,
one whopper with cheese. That's it, just cheese. What else
is on there gold thirty something dollars. That's crazy, unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
By early afternoon, we pull up behind the tesla at
Noah's Community Outreach, the Halfway House, where Leah will spend
the next year. Right, Yeah, Leah and Pam walk into
the office when he needs to check.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
In, I just walk in. Yes, I'm not used to this.
Speaker 11 (31:30):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Hey, hey man, I am so scared. I don't even
know what to do.
Speaker 10 (31:35):
Don't be scared.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Don't be scared.
Speaker 10 (31:37):
I'm a sister. I'm just to be scared.
Speaker 8 (31:41):
Uh huh.
Speaker 17 (31:41):
We'll be here tomorrow.
Speaker 13 (31:44):
Yeah, don't be scared.
Speaker 11 (31:45):
You did the right place.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Come on, it's okay, it's okay, come on.
Speaker 10 (31:52):
You.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 15 (31:55):
That's all that matters right now, and we're here to
help you.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Here, it's the Parker Sister.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Okay, my name is Leo Schofield. Is my sister, Pamela.
Speaker 14 (32:05):
But you're going to the new house.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Is good?
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Leo shown to the house, one that's newly built where
a bed has been reserved for him.
Speaker 13 (32:23):
I love let me tell you the new house off
the chain.
Speaker 18 (32:25):
I love it.
Speaker 15 (32:26):
But we have eight ministry houses and we just finished
building that one.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
I mean it's brand okay.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
But first he stopped by some familiar faces.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
There's Greg right there.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
There's my buddy Greg. You know all these guys.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
There's Jimmy right here.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
What's happening? My sister family, what's happening right?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Most of the guys here are also recent graduates of
the Everglade CI Corrections Transition Program. Leo spent a total
of ten months there, and in that time, thirty nine
men were released on parole. Today, with Leo walking out,
he's the fortieth.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Ye, that's right.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Leo moves his stuff into his new home, which is clean,
freshly painted, and sparse.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
All this stuff pop.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Now that Leo is here and checked in, he's finally
able to breathe, and he begins to reflect on his
new surroundings and new existence.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
No, I think I was out of my element until
we got here. You know, I needed to get here.
What is strange to me?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Leo spins around in his seat to knock on the
dry wall behind him.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I could probably run through that with no problem, for real.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
I mean, I sign it.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
See, I've been in a concrete and steel block, right
solid unit for thirty six years and you're not getting
through that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
You feel it, you can just.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
The sound of your voice inside something like that, the
way it's so enclosed and encased. You know, inside those cells,
there's a sense of security. You know, you have a
sense of safety in that as compared to this, because
if I can break.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
Through it, who can break in it?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
You know? And nobody's breaking in money see one, two
or one cell. You're not coming through that door. If
the door is locked, you're not coming through unless it
gets open. You know, you can run and crash into
it all you want. You know, you're not coming in.
The walls are solid concrete, they're not even blocked, they're
just slabs. The single unit, I mean, the whole fabricated
(34:51):
that way. And so there's a sense of am I secure?
Am I safe?
Speaker 10 (35:00):
You know?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
So I don't feel secure. I'm outside my element right now,
and so you know that's when all you guys go,
you know what I mean, And I gotta be by myself.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
I think I'm gonna have a lot of time.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Tonight, after seeing what will be his new home for
the next year, we all head over to the airbnb
that David rented right down the block. It's still about
a half hour too early to check in, so we
all gather on the back porch. Leo pulls his new
guitar out of the case to inspect it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
This thing up really quick.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
For weeks, Leo had been anticipating the opportunity to say
a few words of gratitude and share some stories after
his release.
Speaker 11 (35:45):
Can maybe the.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Super song.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
We're a smaller group than what would have been back
at the hotel, but Leo still wanted to play something,
even if it was just for a few people he
was close to years ago. On one of our first
visits to Hardy, Leo told us about the days and
(36:32):
weeks after Michelle was killed, how he never really had
the chance to properly grieve her death and the loss
of the future they'd imagined together. Almost immediately he was
a suspect having to fight for his own life, and
once he was locked up, he told us showing grief, sadness, fear,
(36:55):
anything else than anger really could make him a target
and put him in danger. And anyway, he was young
and had already struggled to express his emotions in a
healthy way even before all that, but playing music helped
I couldn't tell you what I was feeling, he told us.
(37:16):
But I could sing it. I could play it through
the guitar, And before his arrest in nineteen eighty eight,
he'd written a song for Michelle Sunset Mickey.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
He called it.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
The title references the nickname he'd had for Michelle a
lifetime ago. The lyrics, he thinks now, are juvenile, but
they reflect who he was at the time, a young man,
immature with his world turned upside down.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Sunset and nicky.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Where here are you now?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I can hear your life and in my heart somehow.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
I miss you in the morning and I love of.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
You and night.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
You are too young to.
Speaker 18 (38:20):
Die, and a justingbody, And now that you're going on,
my life hain't been the same.
Speaker 15 (38:32):
I still hear your calling, I can calling out my
name alive and well her.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
But where are you now?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
You will always be either time after time.
Speaker 15 (38:54):
But will soon be together with a love died last, broken,
hearts mended, and troubles put to the past. So think
of me always wherever you maybe, and look to the future,
(39:18):
because it's me you will see me.
Speaker 16 (39:21):
Sunset, the sunset making the sunset, sunset, Mager.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Sunset magging.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
He told us that he'd sat at her graveside all
those years ago before he ever set foot in a
jail or prison, and played the song for her. Leo
never forgot the words. He said he'd tried playing it
a few times in prison, but it was too painful
and he wasn't sure he could make it all the
way through. We weren't sure we'd.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
Ever hear it.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Leos said recently that he was feeling conflicted about parole.
He was worried it meant he was giving in settling
for parole when he deserves exoneration. I've had my own
moments of internal conflict about this, not about parole itself,
but about celebrating before the fight is over. But this moment,
(41:17):
seeing Leo openly grieving his wife thirty seven years later,
while comforted by a family who drove halfway across the
country to be here for him during this enormous life transition,
this moment made me feel the magnitude of what has changed.
To be able to kiss your wife and not be
(41:37):
watched by a guard, to be able to visit with
family and not have them subjected to a pat down,
to be able to call a friend and not be
announced by the facility you're locked up in to open
a drawer first thing in the morning and make a
choice about what you want to wear that day, to
play with your grandchildren, and not be confined to a
single patch of grass to be able to measure t
(42:00):
I'm on your own terms, not by the prison count,
and us it outside at the end of the evening,
watching the color of the sky change as the sun
vanishes beneath the horizon, allowing yourself to finally grieve after
thirty six years.
Speaker 10 (42:15):
Finally, thank you, I love you, guys, Thank you, thanks
for sharing that with Yeah Yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
in association with Signal Company Number One. Our executive producers
are Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wurdis. Cara Krnhaber
is our senior producer. Brit Spangler is our sound designer,
Roxandra Guidy is our editor, and our researcher and producer
(43:10):
is Kelsey Decker. Sunset Mickey was written and performed by
Leo Schofield. Our theme song, The One Who's Holding the Stars,
was written by Kevin Herrick and Leo Schofield. And performed
in this episode by Lee Bob in The Truth and
Leo Schofield. Bone Valley Halfway Home was written by Kelsey
(43:30):
Decker and produced by me Gilbert King.
Speaker 10 (43:34):
Do you hear my mindness?
Speaker 2 (43:39):
Laughter hides my views? Sorrow's depths are endless.
Speaker 17 (43:50):
In Miss Bally of DearS, I wanna see reation.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I want to know live a be ching out and desperation.
Speaker 19 (44:10):
To the one NEOs holding the stars, to the one
news holding the stars, to one whose holding the star.
Speaker 15 (44:34):
Till you know who my brooming?
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Will you touch me? Can you see my longing.
Speaker 19 (44:50):
To be free from the dog.
Speaker 17 (44:55):
I want to see your relation die long of no
reaching gal in desperation.
Speaker 6 (45:10):
To the one brooms.
Speaker 19 (45:12):
Holding the stars.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Turn one booms.
Speaker 19 (45:17):
Holding the star.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Took one booms holding the star, Turn.
Speaker 4 (45:26):
One loose Holding the star took one booms holding the
star
Yesterday, I went out in the afternoon, going out for
my last you know time on the Red Field. It's
so contained and it's so secure, it has to be right.
I mean, it's a high level security institution. You can't
look far without having to look to a fence, steel
(00:33):
bar reinforced glass door, tall twelve foot defences covered in
razor wire. There's something there that's going to remind you
that you're not free, you know, you are confined. My
mind was whirling, you know, thinking about all of what ifs,
the possibilities, what am I going to do? What's this
(00:53):
going to be like? Is it really going to happen?
Because I'm going to tell you something. Right up to
the last minute, I was holding my breath waiting for
a hammer to drop.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
You, my minness, I have to hise my feel.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Saw rose deep.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Sorry lists in this VALI teas. I want to see
RelA show great rish to the old day stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So stop.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I know it just upsets everybody, but I saw this coming.
To be honest with you, I saw this coming.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Kelsey and I are sitting in a hotel room in
Miami along with Scott Cup. Just two weeks earlier, Leo
had been officially granted parole. Since then, I'd been in
near constant contact with Chrissy and Scott as they coordinated
plans for Leo's first day out of prison. Here's what
we were expecting. Leo was scheduled to walk out of
(03:10):
the gates at Everglade's Correctional Institution at nine AM, where
a crowd of family, friends and supporters would be gathered
to cheer him on and witness his first steps of
freedom after spending thirty six years behind bars. Leo's lawyers
from years past were also planning to attend, and so
was Jonathan Martin. He's the Florida senator who spoke at
(03:32):
Leo's parole hearing last year, and it has been in
discussions with Scott Cupp about Leo's prospects for exoneration. Chrissy
had planned a whole day for him. First, there would
be a luncheon at the hotel where Leo would say
some words and play some music. Then he'd get into
a car and drive with Chrissy to see his daughter, Ashley,
(03:52):
who had just given birth to his third grandson. Then
he'd head to the Halfway House in Tampa, where he'd
unpack and settle in and begin the adjustment to life
outside of prison. Kelsey and I flew into Miami and
headed over to the Mikasuki Hotel the night before the release.
This hotel is right on the outskirts of Miami and
(04:13):
less than a mile from where Leo would spend his
final night in prison. We were feeling pretty excited as
we headed to the Mikasuki Hotel, but just as we
were walking up to the front desk to check in,
I got a call from Chrissy.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
I feel like I didn't really get the full story
of what she told you on that call.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
Actually, she basically said, this is what I've heard.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I don't know anything else. I'm on my way over.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
But they have moved the walkout time to six am,
number one, number two. Only three people are going Chrissy, Dave,
and Pam picking up Leo.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
No media.
Speaker 7 (04:48):
The other thing they said is, as far as we know,
no Mikasuki, you can't stop there, got to go straight
to the Noah's house.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
So yeah, we.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
Don't know who issued the orders. Was it the prison
overwhelmed with the logistics of a high profile release, or
did this come from higher up in the Florida Department
of Corrections. There was no way to know, but after
that phone call from the prison, we did know that
all of Chrissy's plans for Leo's release were done.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
For If they say get in the car and go
straight to Naas, he better get in the car and
goes straight to Naas because at this point, as upset
as everybody is, if that's what they're telling him to do, better,
he better do it.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Sitting in the hotel room with Scott Kupp, we tried
to figure out what to do next. We exchanged a
few texts with Seth Miller, Leo's lawyer from the Innocents
Project of Florida. Since he's been through this process many times.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
Yeah, I'm curious, has he ever experienced this before? He
just told me he's done like thirty walkouts.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Like, what the fuck is going on?
Speaker 7 (05:55):
You know, Jonathan Martin was supposed to be here when
Leo got out, and now at six am, its kind
of hard for him to leave at three thirty to
get from Fort Myers or where the hell he's coming from.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So there's a lot of.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Stuff that's The prison has set these last minute conditions
for Leo's release and it's final. It seems like just
one more reminder that walking through that gate might look
like freedom, but parole is still basically prison without bars.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
We have records, and we'll see.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Who is it.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Dave and Pam, Leo's family from Massachusetts, find their way
to Gilbert's hotel room, where everyone seems to be congregating.
It's nice to see them at least. This is a
long and complicated story, but since you haven't really heard
their voices before, here's some quick backstory to get you
caught up. The woman Leo called mom growing up is
(06:44):
really his stepmother. Cheryl married Leo's dad when Leo was
a toddler, and she raised him. It was never hidden
from Leo that his biological mother was out there, but
he had never met her until twenty eighteen. That's when Leo,
with Chrissy's health, finally reconnected with his birth mother, Sandy.
I can't imagine that it's already nerve racking to reach
(07:06):
out to a biological parent who you've been separated from
since you were three, But reaching out to a biological
parent and saying you're convicted of killing your wife and
you're innocent, I could see how that might not go
over well, But actually she quickly embraced Leo, and along
with Sandy, came Dave and Pam. Sandy referred to her husband,
Dave as the love of her life, and Pam is
(07:29):
the half sister Leo never knew existed. Sandy, Dave, and
Pam traveled down from Massachusetts to visit Leo frequently. They
had a couple years of family reunions in the Hardy
Correctional Visitation Park, and then Sandy passed away in April
of twenty twenty. Since then, Dave and Pam have truly
become Leo's family, so much so that Dave has legally
(07:52):
adopted Leo, his deceased wife's adult son, and Pam and
Leo are lovingly referred to as the twins because although
they've spent a lifetime apart, they have so much in common,
and their shared sense of humor means they are almost
always laughing in each other's presence. So that's Dave and Pam.
Speaker 9 (08:11):
And Chrissy was saying that only the three of us
can pick him up and talk tomorrow morning and take
him away. They wait, way, what the hell the object
was to have something here? And then take him to
Fort Myers so he can see Ashley, his grandchildren. They
(08:31):
said to him, you can have a target on your
back because of the notoriety and everything out there. They're
going to be watching it. Be careful, absolutely everything by
the book, steady on. Whatever you need us to do
will do. So stay focused, get all of the rules
(08:53):
they forgive you.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
That's our focus.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
I'm glad you two are at least included with the.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But how sad is it that.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
I'm the one that can go.
Speaker 10 (09:05):
It makes me feel bad just because that's me, and
I really want to see him walk.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
Out of that door, like that's totally what I want
to do.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
But we wanted to see him walk out too. It's
a moment we've been imagining for five years. But there's
no time to think about that now. Plans are still
shifting and it's getting late. There is one thing that
hasn't changed. The vehicle that Leo will ride in to
leave prison property Dave's black Tesla.
Speaker 9 (09:34):
I wanted him to ride in my car. I didn't
want him to ride in some rental car from home mother.
I want him to ride in my car. My daughter's
written in my car, my grandkids are written in my
com My son in law's written my car and I
want my car.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
We don't even know what Leo knows at this point
about the change in plans. The prison had already taken
away as tablets, so we can't get in touch with him.
All we could do was hope that he'd be able
to make a phone call. We meet up with Chrissy
(10:14):
in her hotel room and watch the sunset from her balcony.
Leo would take his first steps outside the barbed wire
gate before the sun would rise again. We set our
alarms for four am and try to get some sleep.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Quarter to three, quarter three, I was awake. I didn't
sleep two hours.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It doesn't make sense to get up, now, you know
what I mean, Cause I'm locked in this eight by
ten cell, my roommates sleeping, and uh, I said, now
I'm gonna just lay here for a minute.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
And I lay there and let.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
My mind just burn out, you know, think about everything
I was gonna do. And then like quarter after three,
I said, man, get out of bed, just get.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Out of bed.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And I slowly, you know, got ready, and uh, I
was already dressed in my blues, brushed my teeth. Four o'clock,
my door rolled open. I knew why it was open,
and the sage came and and uh. I came out
carry my little blue bag and all that had in
it was my Bible and the Koran and UH some journals.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
They brought me to the front and they put me
in a holding cell by myself at four o'clock in
the morning. And I knew I was gonna be sitting
there a while because I'm not leaving till six. My
wife was giving permission to bring my clothes no earlier
than five forty five, So now I'm gonna be sitting
there and just sitting there from four to five forty five.
(12:12):
I had my Bible with me, so that was good.
And I sat in this little cell, locked in a cage,
and just prayed and waited.
Speaker 11 (12:36):
All right, I'm about to head downstairs. It's five point
fifteen in the morning, and today is the day Leo's
gonna walk out of prison. We're not gonna be able
to see it, but it's still gonna happen, and that's
(12:56):
the good thing.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
We head outside. It's been raining since we got up.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
For Leo's gonna be released in the dark and in
the rain.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
We see Chrissy with Dave and Pam packing up the
car with all the food that was supposed to be
spread out in a buffet for guests. She's also packed
a bag with clothes for Leo to change into since
he'll have to leave his prison blues behind.
Speaker 12 (13:24):
So we're on away.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
We're gonna go get him.
Speaker 12 (13:26):
Yeah, yeah, I can't wait.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Once Chrissy, Dave, and Pam load up and take off,
we jump in the car and are right behind them.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
That's them.
Speaker 13 (13:44):
We're there right there.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah. Oh my gosh, don't.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Get like I'm The drive lasts all of two minutes.
Speaker 9 (13:59):
We want.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Dave, Pam and Chrissy drive onto prison grounds in the
Tesla and I pull over and flip the hazards on.
Speaker 12 (14:06):
So we turn into the prison property and get around
a curve and there's like three or four cars with
their lights on and a barricade. So they all come
running to these officers and they are on walkie talkies
and they come to the door and they say, we
roll down the window and they take our driver's license
(14:29):
and check our names, and then they ask for his clothes.
And I had him in a bag next to me,
so we open the window and give him the clothes,
and I hear on the walkie talkie Majors taking the clothes,
taking the clothes, and then comes back to us and
is following the major.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
We're parked on the side of the road across from
the prison entrance. The shoulder isn't wide enough to keep
us out of the lane while cars fly past us.
Speaker 14 (14:53):
I don't know if there's a fucking spot.
Speaker 11 (14:57):
I mean used to have like three feet over there. God,
it's really just.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Fully dark out.
Speaker 11 (15:08):
I mean, like, how much are we into the lane?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
A little bit? So fucking depressing like this, you.
Speaker 11 (15:20):
Can't believe they're making it do it this way? What
did the headlights of a tesla look like?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
The night before, we all decided that even if we
couldn't witness those first steps of freedom, we still wanted
to be as close as we could to the moment.
More cars filled with friends and family members line up
behind us. We're all peering through the dark waiting for
the outline of the black tesla to appear.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
And time went by like that, and before I knew it,
and they bought the clothes to me. I changed out
of everything, and.
Speaker 12 (15:59):
Then we go to another checkpoint and there's another guard gate,
and officers come and they check our driver's license, they
check the trunk, and then they say go to the
front pavilion where we normally go for a visit.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
No, I was able to go out the gate. No
inmates for any reason walk to that gate because that's
the front gate.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And so went through there and then they took me
directly out.
Speaker 12 (16:32):
So the car stops and I jump out and I
run up to this pavilion area. It's like a covered
area and there's two wardens and suits and they're standing
there and I was kind of We're just kind of
chit chatting, casual conversation, you know, like just trying to
be polite, and it's still raining, and the intensity is
(16:52):
just building for me, building, building building.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I'm like, okay, guys, so they're gonna let me go
open front gate. And I went through it. It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (17:06):
Yeah, And next thing I know, in the rain, in
the dark, the wardens turned around and there he was,
and I saw him in his clothes and his little
blue bag, and he just walked really fast to me
and we just like like the intensity of that hug
(17:28):
was magical, like we did it, We did it, we
did it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
So Chrissy was like hugging and crying, and the hugging
was a great hug and all I'm like, okay, let's go.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Can we hug somewhere else please? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
These people got guns and I want to go, and
I want to say, you know what's going fee.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I want to change my mind. You know, I'm in
jeans now, we're not going back to those.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
As tighter as these are than those I was wearing.
I'm not putting those back on, never again. And then
the door closes and.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It was just quiet, just quiet. Prisons are utterly noisy places.
They echo people.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yelling and screaming, laughing, whatever, and it's constant noise, you know.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
And it's all day, every day.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And I've got in that car and uh, you know,
it's very very quiet. And then started moving and it
was still quiet, like the car doesn't make any noise.
I mean, it doesn't sound like anything. And he used
to have like some guy running. I was waiting for him.
We just started moving.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I'm like, what the hell, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
It comes head lighters.
Speaker 14 (18:47):
It's it's a fan with blinkers on. M m no,
it's that does look like a tesla, though.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Oh I think that's them?
Speaker 11 (19:04):
Is that them?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
A car comes out and takes a left. We're not
sure it's them. It's so dark out. I try to
follow them on no, no, no, I gotta two traffic first.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Decline. But what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (19:29):
I mean I hope I was them. It looks like
a toss summer.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Oh, by what you said, I can't imagine what Leo's thinking.
If that is him up ahead. My heart is pounding
trying to catch up. Something about this moment feels more
like an escape than a walk out. I just want
to get as far away from this prison as fast
(19:58):
as possible.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
I mean, let me text proceed. I don't know if
she's gonna fly.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
And so I'm driving down the road a little bit,
and I said, I think there's some people following us,
and that.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Looks like a Massachusetts plight dinners.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Get closer because I'm power they're gonna follow us all
the way to the Tampa Okay.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
Kursy said, yes, okay, Oh my god, we're gonna car
behind Leo.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
And the rain's letting up a little. And when she
told me it was was you, guys. I was like, okay, okay,
that that made me feel a lot better.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Lea must be freaked out in that car. It's like,
all it is is a big computer screen.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
There's no but you know, like.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Knobs or I mean, I'm freaked out by it. So
I spend thirty six years in persons.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I can't believe he's up there. We head west as
the sun rises behind us. We drive out of the rain.
As our little caravan cuts across the Tammiami Trail led
by the black Tesla with Leo inside.
Speaker 12 (21:05):
The rain stopped and the day brightened as we were driving,
and the sun came out and the rains just stopped
and we started to breathe. So it was the most
magical moment of my life.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
About twenty miles down the road, the Tesla's left turn
signal starts blinking in front of us. Chrissy says she
needs to pull over for a bathroom stop, and we
all stopped too, and everyone gets out. The back door
of the tesla swings open, and suddenly there's Leo standing
in street clothes in a parking lot miles from prison.
(21:49):
No handcuffs, no barbed wire, no guards in sight. It
may not be the walkout from the main gate that
everyone was imagining, but he's here.
Speaker 10 (22:00):
He's out.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Oh my gosh. Hi mm hmm, hey buddy, mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
H.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Here come the boys.
Speaker 15 (22:27):
Hey, hey, hi, hey buddy, Hey buddy.
Speaker 10 (22:35):
Come here, buddy, Hollo you buddy, don't.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
You made it?
Speaker 6 (22:46):
I want to meet the new one.
Speaker 15 (22:48):
Yeah, you got your little Holly Davidson jacket on.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah that's nice.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Leo's family and friends gather around him, hugging and taking photos.
But it's a quick stop. Leo was anxious to get
back on the road and get to Tampa.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Buddy, okay, all right, yeah, you know I'm still still
fearing us as hell.
Speaker 6 (23:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, I'm not sure what I feel, to be honest,
I just I think once you get there and get
settled exactly, thinks it'd be better.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Right now, back on the road, we continue to follow
Leo to Noah's house, where he's required to check in.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
By the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I'm still kind of in shock that I'm in this car.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Test me.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking it's count time right now.
Speaker 13 (23:55):
That's pretty though, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You have no idea, you know, it's you know, it's crazy.
And I imagined this for a long time, many years.
I thought about this is being able to look out
at the horizon and be able to see far without
having to look through fence or or raise a wire
or you know.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Anything like that. That's just amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
There was a time where we were driving across a bridge.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
The water has sew me on the boat.
Speaker 15 (24:30):
Wow, that is crazy how far you can see.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Just to be able to see that far, that far
and not have to look through anything, it was absolutely
extraordinary that it was amazing and and it made my
heart race, keep waiting to wake up from a dream
(24:58):
that would not be real, that would really suck.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
The drive from the prison to the halfway house is
a little over four hours. Inside our car, we spend
time listening to podcasts, of course, but within the tesla,
Leo was learning how to work his first smartphone.
Speaker 13 (25:23):
And then there's should be a gallery for your pictures.
Speaker 12 (25:27):
So Lee had bottom a phone, and before he got
the phone, before he got out of prison, he's like,
I don't I don't know why you people are on
the phone all the time, and I'm just gonna have
a phone attached to the wall like I always did.
And I'm like, no, no, no, You're gonna have a phone
and it has everything in it. We had pre programmed
his phone numbers and some apps.
Speaker 13 (25:49):
There's your camera, okay.
Speaker 12 (25:52):
So when I gave it to him, he was it
was definitely foreign to him, and so it was super
fun just to show them know what to do.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
What a snapchat?
Speaker 13 (26:06):
It's an dumbass social you can you can send little
snaps picture or a little text and then it goes
to the other person and then it's erased after thirty.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Somethings or something.
Speaker 12 (26:20):
I told him, I said, you use that phone for everything.
I said, when you want to go to the gym,
you gotta beep, when you go to buy stuff, you
beep on here.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Can you put Google Earth on it? There? I love that.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
It probably goes without saying, but a lot has changed
in those thirty six years Leo spent locked up.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
I was looking at the pictures we took and I'm like,
we're old compared to well, compared to I.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Can't see what I look old.
Speaker 13 (26:53):
I look gold.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And then the other thing, this is crazy. We don't
have mirrors in the prison. I don't have mirrors.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
We have these.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Little pieces of shiny plastic that you can buy out
of the canteen if you want them. They gotta They
got a stainless steel thing that's bolted to the to
the concrete.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
But I mean it's as reflective as a hubcap. Mm
you know what I mean? Literally, I mean you.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Might see a shadow of yourself in it. You're not
gonna shave it. And so they sell these little shiny
plastic things that have you know, some type of uh
adhesive silver thing that and it's better than the hub
cap y, but it still doesn't show a true reflection.
And so when you see yourself in the mirror after
(27:41):
thirty six years, it's shocking. It's literally shocking because the
m the little plastic thing is softens you know, lines
and you know, blemishes and all that. You don't really
see it in that cause it's not true reflection. And
so you see how I look, And I said, oh damn,
I god old. Remember what I told you when we
first met.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It was a long road.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, well I didn't even know be this long. You
don't expect justice to be this slow, but we didn't
even know half of what that was actually going on.
Speaker 13 (28:24):
Yeah, we had to do the time to find the truth.
Speaker 14 (28:27):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
One thing we can definitely say is and has been meaningful.
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
I'm kind of vine absorbing that, the fact that it
it's over for me, you know, I'm.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
At least that part of it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
H m hmm.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
And then the experience. We stopped at the bird King.
I need to use the bathroom.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Are we going in?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (29:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
M this is very very weird.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Do I look like a prisoner?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I don't love for sure?
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Should we get one of those hats?
Speaker 7 (29:40):
Lot of time?
Speaker 10 (29:41):
No, thank you?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Oh, it's will be in here.
Speaker 15 (29:47):
So this is the.
Speaker 16 (29:47):
Venue, and you choose what you.
Speaker 11 (29:49):
Would like and then you go up there.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Let me just get a whap on the cheese. I
look obvious for sure.
Speaker 14 (30:00):
That was a little fun.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
I'm freaking scared to death here.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
He had a chicken sandwich and she had some other
little thing of wrap. And the girl said thirty something
dollars and exchange. I'm like, Holy Mother of God, is
it to come with a back massage or something?
Speaker 4 (30:29):
That's crazy? Thirty thirty something dollars? I said, a whopper, whopper,
one whopper with cheese. That's it, just cheese. What else
is on there gold thirty something dollars. That's crazy, unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
By early afternoon, we pull up behind the tesla at
Noah's Community Outreach, the Halfway House, where Leah will spend
the next year. Right, Yeah, Leah and Pam walk into
the office when he needs to check.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
In, I just walk in. Yes, I'm not used to this.
Speaker 11 (31:30):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Hey, hey man, I am so scared. I don't even
know what to do.
Speaker 10 (31:35):
Don't be scared.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Don't be scared.
Speaker 10 (31:37):
I'm a sister. I'm just to be scared.
Speaker 8 (31:41):
Uh huh.
Speaker 17 (31:41):
We'll be here tomorrow.
Speaker 13 (31:44):
Yeah, don't be scared.
Speaker 11 (31:45):
You did the right place.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Come on, it's okay, it's okay, come on.
Speaker 10 (31:52):
You.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 15 (31:55):
That's all that matters right now, and we're here to
help you.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Here, it's the Parker Sister.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Okay, my name is Leo Schofield. Is my sister, Pamela.
Speaker 14 (32:05):
But you're going to the new house.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Is good?
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Leo shown to the house, one that's newly built where
a bed has been reserved for him.
Speaker 13 (32:23):
I love let me tell you the new house off
the chain.
Speaker 18 (32:25):
I love it.
Speaker 15 (32:26):
But we have eight ministry houses and we just finished
building that one.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
I mean it's brand okay.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
But first he stopped by some familiar faces.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
There's Greg right there.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
There's my buddy Greg. You know all these guys.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
There's Jimmy right here.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
What's happening? My sister family, what's happening right?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Most of the guys here are also recent graduates of
the Everglade CI Corrections Transition Program. Leo spent a total
of ten months there, and in that time, thirty nine
men were released on parole. Today, with Leo walking out,
he's the fortieth.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Ye, that's right.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Leo moves his stuff into his new home, which is clean,
freshly painted, and sparse.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
All this stuff pop.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Now that Leo is here and checked in, he's finally
able to breathe, and he begins to reflect on his
new surroundings and new existence.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
No, I think I was out of my element until
we got here. You know, I needed to get here.
What is strange to me?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Leo spins around in his seat to knock on the
dry wall behind him.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I could probably run through that with no problem, for real.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
I mean, I sign it.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
See, I've been in a concrete and steel block, right
solid unit for thirty six years and you're not getting
through that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
You feel it, you can just.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
The sound of your voice inside something like that, the
way it's so enclosed and encased. You know, inside those cells,
there's a sense of security. You know, you have a
sense of safety in that as compared to this, because
if I can break.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
Through it, who can break in it?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
You know? And nobody's breaking in money see one, two
or one cell. You're not coming through that door. If
the door is locked, you're not coming through unless it
gets open. You know, you can run and crash into
it all you want. You know, you're not coming in.
The walls are solid concrete, they're not even blocked, they're
just slabs. The single unit, I mean, the whole fabricated
(34:51):
that way. And so there's a sense of am I secure?
Am I safe?
Speaker 10 (35:00):
You know?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
So I don't feel secure. I'm outside my element right now,
and so you know that's when all you guys go,
you know what I mean, And I gotta be by myself.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
I think I'm gonna have a lot of time.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Tonight, after seeing what will be his new home for
the next year, we all head over to the airbnb
that David rented right down the block. It's still about
a half hour too early to check in, so we
all gather on the back porch. Leo pulls his new
guitar out of the case to inspect it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
This thing up really quick.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
For weeks, Leo had been anticipating the opportunity to say
a few words of gratitude and share some stories after
his release.
Speaker 11 (35:45):
Can maybe the.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Super song.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
We're a smaller group than what would have been back
at the hotel, but Leo still wanted to play something,
even if it was just for a few people he
was close to years ago. On one of our first
visits to Hardy, Leo told us about the days and
(36:32):
weeks after Michelle was killed, how he never really had
the chance to properly grieve her death and the loss
of the future they'd imagined together. Almost immediately he was
a suspect having to fight for his own life, and
once he was locked up, he told us showing grief, sadness, fear,
(36:55):
anything else than anger really could make him a target
and put him in danger. And anyway, he was young
and had already struggled to express his emotions in a
healthy way even before all that, but playing music helped
I couldn't tell you what I was feeling, he told us.
(37:16):
But I could sing it. I could play it through
the guitar, And before his arrest in nineteen eighty eight,
he'd written a song for Michelle Sunset Mickey.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
He called it.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
The title references the nickname he'd had for Michelle a
lifetime ago. The lyrics, he thinks now, are juvenile, but
they reflect who he was at the time, a young man,
immature with his world turned upside down.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Sunset and nicky.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Where here are you now?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I can hear your life and in my heart somehow.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
I miss you in the morning and I love of.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
You and night.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
You are too young to.
Speaker 18 (38:20):
Die, and a justingbody, And now that you're going on,
my life hain't been the same.
Speaker 15 (38:32):
I still hear your calling, I can calling out my
name alive and well her.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
But where are you now?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
You will always be either time after time.
Speaker 15 (38:54):
But will soon be together with a love died last, broken,
hearts mended, and troubles put to the past. So think
of me always wherever you maybe, and look to the future,
(39:18):
because it's me you will see me.
Speaker 16 (39:21):
Sunset, the sunset making the sunset, sunset, Mager.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Sunset magging.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
He told us that he'd sat at her graveside all
those years ago before he ever set foot in a
jail or prison, and played the song for her. Leo
never forgot the words. He said he'd tried playing it
a few times in prison, but it was too painful
and he wasn't sure he could make it all the
way through. We weren't sure we'd.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
Ever hear it.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Leos said recently that he was feeling conflicted about parole.
He was worried it meant he was giving in settling
for parole when he deserves exoneration. I've had my own
moments of internal conflict about this, not about parole itself,
but about celebrating before the fight is over. But this moment,
(41:17):
seeing Leo openly grieving his wife thirty seven years later,
while comforted by a family who drove halfway across the
country to be here for him during this enormous life transition,
this moment made me feel the magnitude of what has changed.
To be able to kiss your wife and not be
(41:37):
watched by a guard, to be able to visit with
family and not have them subjected to a pat down,
to be able to call a friend and not be
announced by the facility you're locked up in to open
a drawer first thing in the morning and make a
choice about what you want to wear that day, to
play with your grandchildren, and not be confined to a
single patch of grass to be able to measure t
(42:00):
I'm on your own terms, not by the prison count,
and us it outside at the end of the evening,
watching the color of the sky change as the sun
vanishes beneath the horizon, allowing yourself to finally grieve after
thirty six years.
Speaker 10 (42:15):
Finally, thank you, I love you, guys, Thank you, thanks
for sharing that with Yeah Yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
in association with Signal Company Number One. Our executive producers
are Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wurdis. Cara Krnhaber
is our senior producer. Brit Spangler is our sound designer,
Roxandra Guidy is our editor, and our researcher and producer
(43:10):
is Kelsey Decker. Sunset Mickey was written and performed by
Leo Schofield. Our theme song, The One Who's Holding the Stars,
was written by Kevin Herrick and Leo Schofield. And performed
in this episode by Lee Bob in The Truth and
Leo Schofield. Bone Valley Halfway Home was written by Kelsey
(43:30):
Decker and produced by me Gilbert King.
Speaker 10 (43:34):
Do you hear my mindness?
Speaker 2 (43:39):
Laughter hides my views? Sorrow's depths are endless.
Speaker 17 (43:50):
In Miss Bally of DearS, I wanna see reation.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I want to know live a be ching out and desperation.
Speaker 19 (44:10):
To the one NEOs holding the stars, to the one
news holding the stars, to one whose holding the star.
Speaker 15 (44:34):
Till you know who my brooming?
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Will you touch me? Can you see my longing.
Speaker 19 (44:50):
To be free from the dog.
Speaker 17 (44:55):
I want to see your relation die long of no
reaching gal in desperation.
Speaker 6 (45:10):
To the one brooms.
Speaker 19 (45:12):
Holding the stars.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Turn one booms.
Speaker 19 (45:17):
Holding the star.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Took one booms holding the star, Turn.
Speaker 4 (45:26):
One loose Holding the star took one booms holding the
star
Host
Gilbert King
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