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