WEBVTT - Dog with a Bone 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:11.880 You're none class. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:13.440 Go next door. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.200 Yeah, at least that's safe. 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:20.520 It's a private road. Keep out. 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:24.599 Kelsey and I are in a rural area on the 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.680 outskirts of Lakeland, Florida, looking for a woman named pam Reynolds. 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:37.840 Right here, CEO, I get the ledger delivered back here. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.320 All we have is her address from nineteen eighty nine, 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.360 when she was the youngest juror on the Leo Schofield trial. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:52.240 I'm not going to open any gates though, Oh you know' 0:00:52.280 --> 0:01:07.240 hear any dogs there? Let's give it a try. I'm 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.120 not hearing anything, Okay. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.240 Is this a kind of situation where we want to 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.039 leave a note or let's just go. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.399 Oh hello, yeah, oh, hi sir. My name is Gilbert King, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.200 and I'm a writer and I'm looking to see a 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.080 Pamela Reynolds. Does she live in this neighborhood or. 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:29.160 Who are you now? 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:31.720 My name is Gilbert King, and I'm a writer and 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.080 I'm researching a case from the nineteen eighties and there's 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.640 a woman named Pamela Reynolds who was who served on 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.360 a trial. And I don't know where she lives, but 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.679 we've tracked it down to back here. But we couldn't 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:43.959 figure out where she might be. 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:46.759 Oh, she's not here, right. 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:49.000 She was involved in. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.120 A very big trial back in nineteen eighty nine. 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.840 She was, Yeah, she sat on a jury. 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:57.240 She was on the jury. 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.240 By the end of Leo's trial, there were only ten 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:05.800 jurors that deliberated and eventually convicted him. Many of these 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.680 ten jurors were already retired or nearing retirement age during 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.560 the trial in nineteen eighty nine, so when we tried 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.639 to track them down thirty years later, we weren't surprised 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.080 to find that many had passed away. But Pam Reynolds 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:21.120 was just twenty two years old when she was called 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.160 to serve on Leo's trial. We wanted to find her 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.880 to ask her what went on in that jury room, 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.080 what made those ten jurors vote to convict Leo? 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.840 Yeah, very nice, Yeah it is. 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:40.280 We find out that the man we are talking to 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:44.200 is Pam's dad, Kelsey, and I leave a card with him, 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.760 but we don't get a call. So we go back 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.880 to Pam's house a few more times. One time her 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.200 mom is there and she tells us Pam had a 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:58.280 hard time with the trial, has nightmares about it. We 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.200 aren't sure we'll hear from her. But then one day 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.080 we get a call and Kelsey goes to meet. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:08.640 Pam Okay, testing, testing, testing. 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.040 I just need it to the Lakeland Square mall here 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:14.600 to meet Pamela Reynolds. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:21.640 She lives one of the jurors that leads trial. And 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.239 I'm really hoping I can find the quiet space in 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:24.560 the mall. 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:31.960 Okay, Hi are you, Pamela? 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.360 I'm good. How are you so cute? How young are you? 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:35.600 Oh? 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:36.960 Thank you? I'm twenty three? 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:37.880 Really? 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.280 Yeah, well you know you were very young at the trial, 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:42.080 oh child? 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.840 Yeah, that was the way back when I'm the one 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.320 that I didn't believe in the capital punishment part where 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:52.440 you know, you send him up and let him burn 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.440 and whatever. I just didn't believe in that. And if 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.160 you think about it, I kind of saved the guy's 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.320 life if he's going to get all is he getting 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:00.880 out or what. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:10.520 Do you? 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:23.600 My maness move to have my feels so rustps sorry 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:38.240 lists In this valiity, I see relation. 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.600 Who water. 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:44.800 A bride? 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:52.680 Dspage to the world, who's holding. 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:52.839 The s. 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.400 To the warm soldings? 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:32.480 St Bone Valley Chapter four, Dog with a Bone. When 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.599 pam is twenty two. She's by far the youngest juror 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.120 on the case, and she takes her role seriously. 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.479 Back then, I was more quiet and I took notes. 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:43.400 I remember taking notes. 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.599 She listened to all of the testimony. She watched John 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:52.479 Aguero's aggressive theatrics, Jack Edmund's folksy style, She heard about 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:58.000 Leo Senior's premonition, Alice Scott's eyewitness testimony, Leo's temper and 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:02.360 volatile relationship with Michelle, And after two weeks of testimony, 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:04.200 this is what she thought of Leo. 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:05.800 I don't know. 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.040 To me, he just didn't I didn't feel like he 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:10.760 did it or whatever. 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.600 When Kelsey sent me this interview to listen to, I 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.800 was not expecting to hear that Pam didn't think Leo 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:22.160 did it, but she still voted to convict him. I 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.960 try to imagine Pam going back into the jury room 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.360 after the trial to deliberate on Leo's case. I can 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.040 see her sitting at a table surrounded by people she 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.200 probably considered to be the adults. 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:33.160 In the room. 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.080 It was scary because I was the only young one 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:38.440 on the jury too. 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.000 Pam was told during the jury questioning process that a 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.120 guilty verdict must be unanimous. She knew that even her 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.800 single vote to acquit Leo would have been enough to 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.120 deadlock the jury and trigger a mistrial. When the jury 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:59.560 was deliberating, Pam went along with the majority to convict Leo. Then, 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.040 since the judge Davis read their verdict in court and 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:05.360 she watches Leo tell the jury that they've made a 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:09.880 big mistake, that he's an innocent man, Pam and the 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.320 other jurors go back to deliberate again, this time to 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.560 recommend either life in prison for Leo Schofield or the 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.920 death penalty. When forced to consider voting to put Leo 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:25.480 to death, Pam finds herself outnumbered again, but this time 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.440 she can't bring herself to go along with the majority. 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.320 I remember one part where they wanted to send him 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.680 up to be, you know, on that electric care, but 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.600 I didn't want it to so they changed that for 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.880 me because of me. I thought that was interesting. 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.760 All that was needed to sentence a defendant to death 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.120 in Florida at the time was a simple majority of jurors. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:52.720 Voting in favor. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.440 This is different from a conviction, which requires a unanimous vote. 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.800 But instead of going along with the Pam speaks her 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.800 mind and says she doesn't believe Leo should be executed. 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.520 She thinks the other jurors felt a little sorry for her, 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.560 or maybe they admire this twenty two year old for 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:16.040 sticking to her beliefs. For whatever reason, Pam says, they 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:17.080 switched their. 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.520 Votes, but they changed it for me so that way, 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.240 you know, it wouldn't bother me. I guess maybe I 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.040 thought it was nice all those jurors that did that. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.040 Instead of voting to send Leo to the electric chair, 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.959 they vote for life in prison. Pam may be the 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:36.040 single most important reason why Leo didn't die in the 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:36.800 electric chair. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.360 I just hope he gets out if he's you know, 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.200 I mean for sure, if he's not guilty, I mean 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:45.320 they need to get him out of there. 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:46.280 I mean thirty years. 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:48.400 That's awful for a guy. 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:50.240 Shoot. 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.040 Hi, I'm Jason Flamm, CEO and founder of Lava for 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.520 Good podcasts, Home to Bone Valley, Wrongful Conviction, The War 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.920 on Drugs, and many other great podcasts. 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To learn more about 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.199 addiction and the War on Drugs, listen to The War 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.839 on Drugs Poser podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:03.880 get your podcasts. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:18.640 Hitting Record, Testing Testing. All right, ready, Okay, I'm ready. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.200 After Kelsey and I read through Leo's transcript, we still 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.080 don't have a clear picture of the state's theory. There 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.400 seem to be so many gaps in their timeline from 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.640 the night Michelle disappeared, So let's break it down. 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.800 We'll start with the times both the state and the 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.880 defense agree on. At nine five pm, Leo's at Buddy 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.240 Anderson's house when he gets the call from Michelle. She 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.520 says she's clocked off work and is about to drive 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:47.680 over in the Mazda and pick him up. Leo tells 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.520 her to meet him at Vince Rayner's house, should take 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.839 her about fifteen minutes to get there from Sparky's gas station, 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:55.400 where she's calling from. 0:11:56.240 --> 0:12:00.440 But about three hours later, Michelle still hasn't shown up Vince's, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.679 so Leo calls the Sheriff's department. The call went through 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.800 at twelve forty three am. It's recorded and documented, and 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.839 Leo can be heard talking with Vince while he's on hold. 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.240 You're checking the fifty's in jail and not they're going 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.120 to transform me back to the chefs upon the file 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:17.839 and missing chest. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.079 Assistant State Attorney John Aguero uses this twelve forty three 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.400 am call to establish Leo's state of mind that night. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.640 He suggests that you can hear the anger in Leo's 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.199 voice that Leo was so furious at his wife he'd 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.080 end up stabbing her twenty six times within the hour. 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:38.520 Listen closely. 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:41.960 I doubt whether says they should be just fucking arm 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.240 and means he is. God help her, because I can't 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.440 afford to fucking worry about this kind of little shit. 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.920 You know, the rightest little problem is fucking cut me out. 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.400 I don't know why, but they just thing I hate 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.600 this failing, fucking hate it. She was on her way here. 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:02.520 Why I'm tripping outlands? How I could have knew it. 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.400 I've listened to this call so many times, and I've 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.040 tried to hear it the way Aguero wanted the jury 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:14.679 to hear it. But Leo's furious, but I just can't. 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.280 To me, he just sounds scared or worried. 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.800 After this call to the Sheriff's office, Aguero says that 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:27.680 Leo leaves Vince's house and then somehow someway, he locates 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:29.000 Michelle and the Mazda. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.319 Aguero doesn't offer any theory about how or where this 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.600 reunion between Leo and Michelle occurred because he has no witnesses. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.839 But according to Aguero's timeline, this reunion had to have 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.560 happened between about one am and one thirty because at 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.680 around one thirty am, Leo's neighbor, Alice Scott, enters the picture. 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.360 Since Alice is the only witness who claims to have 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.840 seen anything related to the murder itself, Aguero's case hinges 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.319 on her testimony of where and when Michelle was killed, 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.479 So sometime around one thirty Am, Alice Scott is supposedly 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.319 sitting at her bathroom window when she sees Leo and 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.800 Michelle drive up in the orange Mazda and walk inside 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:13.400 their trailer. 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:19.280 Alice Scott's statements are not consistent. Her story about what 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.200 she saw that night changes each time she tells it, 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.320 but in the version she gives at trial, she says, 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.400 when Leo and Michelle get home, they start fighting, and 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:33.000 this apparently goes on for about twenty minutes, then all 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.400 goes quiet. Alice says she sees Leo walk out of 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.600 the trailer, get in the Mazda, and drive off. She 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:41.720 says he's gone for another twenty minutes. 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.160 After he returns, Alice says Leo spent five or ten 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.560 minutes in the trailer before bringing out the heavy object. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.200 He puts the heavy object, what's assumed to be Michelle's body, 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.520 in the back of the Mazda and drives off. It's 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.040 around two twenty am when Alice says she sees Leo 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.960 carrying the object out, but. 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.880 Two twenty is another important time. That's when David saw 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.320 Michelle's dad told police that Leo showed up at his house, 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:14.960 woke him up and told him his daughter was missing. 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.560 So the Times don't line up. The statements of Alice 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.800 Scott and David Salm put Leo in two places at 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:24.640 once at two twenty. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:29.520 Am, and then Leo's mom testifies she had driven Leo 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.720 to David's house. So Aguero basically says that Leo gets 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.760 in touch with his parents and they immediately agreed to 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.200 become accessories to a murder, and then right away they 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.120 come up with this master plan. They're going to get 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.160 rid of Michelle's body and craft a false. 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:52.760 Alibi, so to recap. According to Aguero, Leo and Michelle 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.320 start fighting at one point thirty and it goes on 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.960 for about twenty minutes. He says, Leo kills his wife 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.720 in a fit of raid and drives away to call 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.320 his parents for help. Then Leo goes back to the trailer, 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.160 puts the body in the Mazda, and drives off. He 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.880 meets up with his parents, switches vehicles, and shows up 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:14.680 at Michelle's dad's house with his. 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:20.040 Mom, and Aguero said, this all happened within one hour. 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:22.520 That just doesn't make sense to me. 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.680 Then around three am, Leo and his mom drive up 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.320 to two patrol cars parked at a gas station on 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.720 Comby road. Both Leo and the state agree on this. 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:38.320 It's documented in the police reports, but according to Aguero, 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.520 they're not actually out looking for Michelle. He says the 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.120 Schofields are just driving around in the middle of the 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.120 night to fake an alibi. When Leo and his mom 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.840 saw the police officers, Aguero says they were really on 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.120 their way to meet up with Leo Senior at the 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.000 Canal to help get rid of Michelle's body. 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.920 Aguero brings the Laffoons to the stand to support this 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.080 version of events. Remember, Randy and Mary Laffoon are the 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:08.600 couple that live down the street from Leo and Michelle. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.480 At first, they say they didn't see or hear anything 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.800 on the night Michelle was murdered. But then fifteen months later, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.520 Aguero talks to them at the suggestion of Alice Scott, 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.639 and suddenly they say they remember seeing the Mazda or 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.160 Leo Senior's pickup truck near where Michelle's body was found. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.639 How is it that, fifteen months after the murder, they 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.480 now remember all these details that they didn't remember until 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:41.360 Laguero spoke to them. The Laffoons also changed their story 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.719 depending on who they're talking to, and they can't remember 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:46.760 specific details or dates. 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.960 And then there's the issue of the crime scene or 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.880 the supposed crime scene Leo and Michelle's trailer, the place 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:00.200 where Leo supposedly stabbed Michelle twenty six times, or the 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.639 medical examiner says she would have lost five pints of blood. 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.800 Alice Scott, Leo's neighbor, says she sees Leo bring a 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.800 carpet cleaner inside his trailer the next morning, and she 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.840 sees him cleaning the carpet through his open front door. 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.200 If this is true, Leo must have done a remarkable 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.639 job scrubbing the scene because not a single trace of 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.480 Michelle's blood is found in the trailer. No blood on 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.680 the walls or ceiling, no blood on the carpet or 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.359 seeped into the floorboards. Not one speck of blood was 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:38.600 found in the kitchen or the bathroom either. One of 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.879 the crime scene technicians testified that the carpet did not 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.760 look clean, and that he found no evidence that it 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.680 was recently cleaned. If it had been, there should have 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.160 been some kind of detergent on the carpet, but there wasn't. 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.760 To address this, Aguero pivots, he suggests that Leo could 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.160 have steamed all the blood out of the carpet using 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:07.280 water alone. I'm pretty sure this is impossible. Plus, wouldn't 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.040 there be blood in the carpet cleaner. The state never 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.320 mentions any effort to locate the cleaner and test for blood. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.440 And I find it hard to believe that any crime 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:20.280 scene technician walked into that trailer and concluded that a 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.920 brutal stabbing took place there. Nine or ten investigators went 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.080 in to search the trailer, but the only thing they 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.000 took out was a three by four inch piece of carpet. 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.280 It had a small stain on it. They tested it 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.359 and said that they couldn't even determine what kind of 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.240 stain it was. Could have been blood, or it could 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.560 have been vodka or rust. They were in there for 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.280 four or five hours and that's all they found. 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.680 And when asked why they didn't remove more of the 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.080 carpeting in the trailer to see if any blood had 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.640 soaked into the padding beneath it, the crime scene technician 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.600 testified they didn't do that because it would have ruined 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:04.400 the flow. Think about that. The state claims that Michelle 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.680 was stabbed twenty six times in there. They can't find 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.200 any blood, and they're worried about damaging the floor in 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:15.480 a single wide trailer. When I look at the reports 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:19.280 and the photos, I'm convinced that detectives and crime scene 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:23.200 technicians knew what their own eyes were telling them. The 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:25.480 trailer was not the crime scene. 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.760 And then there's the Mazda. It's found broken down on 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.480 I four, more than six miles away from where Michelle's 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:35.520 body is discovered. 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:41.280 Aguero offers no explanation for that. Who was driving and 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:42.280 where were they going? 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.040 Aguero never presents a theory to answer any of those questions. 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.920 Maybe he could have crafted a more coherent story if 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.760 he wasn't tied to the testimony of Alice Scott, Aguero's 0:20:54.760 --> 0:21:00.280 star witness, the neighborhood busybody. And let's be straight, Alice 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.320 Scott is not a credible witness. Her story changed multiple 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.720 times throughout the investigation and even during the trial. 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.960 And I've always wondered about this. If Alice was the 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.880 type of neighbor to call the cops on kids riding 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.000 bikes on her lawn, why wouldn't she call the police 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:20.679 the night she heard her neighbor screaming bloody murder? At 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.160 two am, And how is it that none of Leo's 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.640 other neighbors reported hearing anything like that when they were 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:28.760 questioned by police. 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.680 And then Alice's husband, Ricky Scott, would tell a newspaper 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:38.040 reporter twenty years after Michelle's death that even he didn't 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.560 believe Alice's story, he says he knew how she twisted 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.840 the truth. Ricky said, quote, she took a little something 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.680 and exaggerated like she always did. And Alice's sister in law, 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.080 Linda Sells, would tell the same reporter that Alice will 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:56.560 say anything to be the center of attention. 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.919 On top of that, when Alice herself was confronted by 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.359 the reporter on the inconsistencies in her story, like that 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.600 she couldn't see what she said she saw from her 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:12.480 bathroom window, she changed her story yet again. Twenty years 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:16.439 after Michelle's death, Alice said that her vantage point from 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.880 the bathroom window wasn't good enough, so she'd walked onto 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.680 her porch to observe the commotion. This is not what 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:25.919 she said a trial. 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:31.120 She also told the reporter quote, if Aguero had done 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:35.040 what he was supposed to and executed Leo Schofield, we 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:37.400 wouldn't have to be dealing with this mess now. 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:46.399 For prosecutor John Aguero, defending the state's timeline wasn't going 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:50.040 to be easy, and he knew it, but destroying Leo's 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:55.400 alibi defense by challenging Leo's Senior's credibility would be much easier. 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:00.439 Leo's father and the alleged vision from God that led 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.119 him to Michelle's body three days after she was killed, 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:07.720 had become the elephant in the courtroom. Aguero argued that 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:11.200 Leo Senior knew exactly where the body was, and since 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:13.960 he couldn't call God as a witness, he just let 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.080 Leo Senior's premonition hang in the courthouse air for the 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:22.080 jury to ponder. John Aguero was stuck on Leo Senior's premonition. 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:27.560 John was very a very straightforward man. 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.639 Officer Richard Kachadourian of the Lakeland Police Department was on 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:33.960 duty when Leo and his father first went down to 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:37.920 the station to report Michelle missing. He also heard first 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:40.920 hand of Leo Senior's premonition when he called to offer 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:45.520 his condolences to the family. Katchadorian remembers that even after 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:49.119 the trial ended, John Aguero was still focused heavily on 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:49.960 Leo Senior. 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:53.639 Every time I went to State Attorney's office, would mee 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:55.360 end of the hall a little bit, and John would 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:57.119 be at the desk and his classes on, and I 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:01.280 stick my head in and John, how you do anything new? 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:04.280 And we chitchat for a minute, and he told me, said, 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:08.119 mister Schofield, dodge the bullet on this one, because he 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:12.639 felt mister Schofield was involved in this, at least in 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:17.080 the disposal of the body. He told me a number 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:19.600 of times, Richard, when I get the time, I'm going 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:21.680 to go back into an historical case and put him 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:22.080 in jail. 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:27.600 The narrative about Leo Senior and his strange vision rippled 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:31.200 through the press and the community. It's often the first 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:34.440 thing people mention when we asked them about the Schofield case. 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:38.640 The whole thing has struck me really about this case 0:24:38.920 --> 0:24:40.440 was the father. 0:24:41.560 --> 0:24:44.359 This is Joe Zarbo. He was working at the Polk 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:46.640 County Sheriff's office in nineteen eighty seven. 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:49.080 Obviously he's involved in it. Somehow. 0:24:50.080 --> 0:24:52.639