WEBVTT - Chapter 1 | God Help Us 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:04.320 You've been around the system for a long time. Could 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:06.880 you ever imagine the day where you'd sit at a 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:11.600 table with a microphone and vouch for a man who. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:12.560 Says he's not guilty. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:13.880 No. 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.520 In fact, I've stated many times I'm probably way over 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.960 my skis right now. Technically I'm not supposed to be 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.920 doing this, but it's like if I don't do it, 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:29.320 who the fuck's gonna do it? 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.440 This is Judge Scott cup. He isn't supposed to make 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:38.000 any public comments on pending cases at all. Florida's Code 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.879 of Judicial Conduct prohibits it. And yet that's exactly what 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:46.080 he's doing to me, a writer. This could cost him 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.040 not only a seat on the twentieth Circuit Court, he 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:50.560 could even be disbarred. 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:52.479 I can't. I just can't let it go. 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:58.720 The first time I met Judge Scott Cupp was in 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.280 twenty eighteen, invited to speak at a conference about my book, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.440 Devil in the Grove. It's a story of four young 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.440 black men in central Florida who were wrongly accused of 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.560 raping a white woman in nineteen forty nine. A young 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.000 Thurgood Marshall represented them at trial. Decades before he became 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.760 the first black justice on the US Supreme Court. I 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.040 spent five years investigating this story, and when Devil in 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.920 the Grove won the Pulitzer Prize in twenty thirteen, it 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:30.080 brought renewed attention, outrage, and even political action to the case. 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.520 In late twenty twenty one, I was in the courtroom 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.759 when the State of Florida formally dismissed all charges against 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.840 the young men known as the Groveland Four. Their families 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:46.120 patiently waited for full exonerations, and after seventy two years, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:47.880 they finally had justice. 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.480 If you know something that's right, stand up for it. 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:55.680 The persistent. 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.400 And stand back footed old God's promises. Let him work 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.080 his plate. I don't care if it takes seventy two years, 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:09.480 it might take eighties. He did it for me, then 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:10.280 he'd do it for you. 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.480 I talk about Florida's notorious legal history a lot in 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.320 my book, presentations like the one I did for a 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.040 group of judges in Naples, Florida, back in August of 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.600 twenty eighteen. I didn't know him yet, but Judge Cupp 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.600 was in the audience. He'd seen my name Gilbert King 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:33.880 on the program. 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:35.840 I actually thought you were a comic. 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.920 He had me confused with the comedian Gilbert Gottfried. 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.280 I glanced at the name and I was like, oh, 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.079 this is But then, for whatever reason, I decided to stay, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.160 and all the seats in the back for people who 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.320 want to like quietly duck out and not be seen, 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:54.040 those were taken. 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:55.079 I remember being. 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.799 Off to the side up in the front, and then 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:02.639 it quickly became apparent weren't a comic, and your presentation 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.880 was obviously extremely powerful, And all I could think about. 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.959 Was I got to get this guy on Leo. 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.360 And I just pulled my card out and wrote whatever 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:17.280 I wrote on the back. 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.440 After my talk, I was signing books and the judge 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.600 handed me his business card. On the back, he'd written 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.000 the name Leo Schofield and his Florida Department of Corrections 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:33.520 number one one five seven six zero. He also wrote 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:40.800 quote not just wrongfully convicted, He's an innocent man. When 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.120 I turned the card over, I saw the name Judge 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.600 Scott Cupp. He nodded and told me to call him sometime. 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.200 I held onto the card for a few days. I 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.200 was unsure about whether or not to call. I hate 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.120 disappointing people by telling them I can't pursue a story. 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.280 But at the same time, I'd never got on a 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.280 tip from a judge before. So sitting in my office 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.800 in Brooklyn one afternoon, I pick up the phone. It's 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.320 the end of the day, and I'm immediately put through 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.760 to Judge Cup. When I tell him who I am, 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.279 his voice takes on a sense of urgency. He brushes 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.640 off my small talk and gets right into it. He 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.880 starts telling me about Leo's story. How in February nineteen 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.040 eighty seven, when Leo Schofield was twenty one years old, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:33.960 his eighteen year old wife, Michelle was killed. Two years later, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.799 Leo was convicted of her murder. That was over thirty 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.719 years ago. Leo claimed he was innocent from day one, 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.400 and he still maintains his innocence. And here's the other 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.040 thing Judge Cup wanted me to know. Seventeen years after 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.479 Michelle's murder, newly discovered forensic evidence from the crime scene 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.279 pointed to a new suspect, but the State of Florida 0:04:58.440 --> 0:04:59.960 quickly shut down the investiga. 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:06.880 You or somebody like you is Leo's last shot at 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:11.320 having any semblance of a life. I not only want 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:18.120 Leo free, I want the public to accept and believe 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.880 in his innocence and that he was wrongfully convicted. 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.120 I'm definitely intrigued, but I tell the judge I'm working 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.520 on another book that I need to finish. I tell 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.240 him it could be a while before I can start 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:34.159 looking into the Schofield case. I can feel his disappointment 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:37.480 through the phone before I hang up, though he has 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:42.000 a favor. Just read the trial transcripts. Don't take my 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:45.160 word for it. Read the transcripts. 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.800 Because that's what hooked me and that's what should hook everyone. 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.200 So that's what I do. I sit down in front 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.560 of the computer and start reading trial transcripts that he 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.680 sends me, typed up pages of everything that was said 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.679 in the courtroom during Leo's trial. There are thousands of pages, 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:07.279 and I can't stop reading. The state's theory of the 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.600 crime makes no sense to me. There's nothing that resembles 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.240 a real search for truth and justice. And even though 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.080 I already know the jury's verdict, I'm still shocked that 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:22.440 the trial ends with Leo's conviction. I'm also completely hooked. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.359 I get back to Judge Cup with a ton of questions, 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.200 and his answers only confirm what a shit show this 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.280 case is. I start thinking that maybe I can take 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.080 a short break from writing my book spend some time 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.680 down in Florida doing research for a feature story on 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.760 this case. But the more I looked into it, the 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.159 more obsessed I became. There seemed to be so much 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.279 more to this story, and that short break from my 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.720 book it wasn't so short. I would end up spending 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.560 the next three and a half years of my life 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.880 doing what Judge Cupp was hoping. I'd do a thorough 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:58.600 investigation into the Leo Schofield case, something that the state 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:03.400 of Florida never did. So I packed my files, my computer, 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.520 and even my dog Maizy into the car and made 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.160 the long drive south from Brooklyn. I needed to go 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.160 back to central Florida, a place I can never seem 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.200 to get away from. And the whole drive down I 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.520 can't shake what Judge Cup keeps telling me about Leo Schofield. 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:23.080 This guy is innocent. 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:34.840 God help us if we can't get this right, do you. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:42.080 My man? I have to have my feet. 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:51.080 Suti sorm in this vast. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:08.520 Lamboo rich. 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:16.920 Desish to the word solding Sun. 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:28.239 To the word soldings stud the Warm Souling. 0:08:28.160 --> 0:09:00.240 Sun Bone Valley, Chapter one. God help us. There are 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.240 so many stories of wrongful convictions from around the country, 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.960 where innocent people spend decades in prison for crimes they 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.480 are later exonerated for. And there's no other state like 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.160 Florida when it comes to getting it wrong. Since the 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.960 US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in nineteen seventy six, 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:23.000 Florida has executed ninety nine people, but the state also 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.959 has the highest rate of error in capital cases. Over 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:31.200 that same period, thirty defendants sentenced to death were found 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:35.000 to be wrongfully convicted. That means that for every three 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.120 people executed in Florida, one person has been found innocent 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:44.480 and released from death row. Usually I write stories about 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.760 Florida's brutal history of wrongful convictions from the pre civil 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.720 rights era, so most of the people involved have died 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.480 a long time ago. There's no one to interview, just 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.240 documents and case files to pour over. But this time 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.360 it's different. The people at the heart of this case 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.920 are still alive, and as I was about to find out, 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:11.200 they were willing to talk. The transcripts and documents could 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:15.080 show that Leo was wrongfully convicted, but they couldn't reveal 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.920 what truly happened to Michelle Schofield back in nineteen eighty seven, 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.800 or why the State of Florida would shut down the investigation. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.520 So I want to talk to Leo. I've interviewed men 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.559 who were in the Klan back in the day, and 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.079 I've spoken to convicted murderers as well as men who 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.280 were exonerated after serving time. But I'd never been to 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.640 a prison before, and I was bringing along a research assistant. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:40.120 This was new to her too. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.839 I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know, like, 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.679 where would we be sitting to talk to this guy? 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:51.120 Are there going to be guards around? Is he going 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:55.120 to be handcuffed? Am I going to feel safe? I 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:56.040 wasn't sure. 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.199 This is Kelsey Decker. I had just hired her to 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.679 help me research my new book before I decided to 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.520 pivot to Leo's case. So Kelsey scanned and read all 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.480 of Leo's legal files, and then she was hooked too. 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.560 Before long, she knew Leo's case even better. 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:14.800 Than I did. 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.800 But Kelsey was also fresh out of college. She'd never 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.680 done any investigative work before, let alone gone inside of prison. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.760 To interview a man convicted of murdering his young wife. 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:28.920 Neither of us knew quite what she was signing up 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.439 for or how long we'd end up working on this 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.560 story together. But in March of twenty nineteen, I asked 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:37.880 her to fly down to Florida and we made the 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.520 drive to Herty Correctional to meet Leo Schofield. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.280 Good morning, good morning, How are you good? 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:46.000 How about yourself? 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:46.720 Sure? Good? 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.680 We got there. You know, we had to leave phones 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.480 in the car. I think the only thing we brought 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.800 in was the recorder, and we had to bring our 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.200 driver's license like photo IDs. 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:04.480 In under persis any contrabands such as cellphones, firearms, ammunitions devices. 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.760 Nice Star comic went in there, take off shoes, belts, 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.680 empty pockets, put everything through the scanner, have to walk 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:18.959 through the body metal detector, get the pat down. I'm 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:21.120 still not entirely sure why they do this, but they 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.040 have to inspect like the bottom of your feet. So 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.760 we give them our IDs, and they give us these 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:33.040 little like body alarms and you have to put the 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:37.400 little loop on that through your belt and have it, 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.880 you know, at your waist, and there's just one button 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.120 on it and it basically, you know, if you are 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:49.760 in trouble, it sends an alert to the correction officers, 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:56.160 like what what situation am I gonna find myself in 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.960 where I might need to press this button? I mean, 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:00.920 I was at absolutely nervous. 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.559 A corrections officer leads us through a series of heavy 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:06.480 doors until we make it to a little room with 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.920 a round table and a couple of chairs. The officer 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.160 who guides us here leaves the room, and then we 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.640 just sit and wait until they bring Leo in. We're 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.960 in an administrative building and there are officers and staff 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.839 chatting outside in the hallways. You might be able to 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:23.520 hear them throughout our interviews with Leo. 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.439 Let me thank both of you. If you're dying, you 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:30.440 don't have that right. 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.480 And you know, close the door and we're in there 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:38.680 alone with him, and he sat down and thanked us and. 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:40.880 Gurteous. 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.599 You know, we just got into it. 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.000 Listen, this is the story. 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:46.360 It is what it is. 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:48.880 You believe it, don't believe it. It's up to you. 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.520 It will not change the fact that I'm an innocent man, 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.800 and that truth transcends people's disbelief. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.719 You know, I don't need you to believe me to 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:01.480 make it true. 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.240 So here's what we learn about Leo. He's a teenager 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.679 in the early nineteen eighties when his family moves from 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.880 Fall River, Massachusetts to Lakeland, a city in Polk County, Florida. 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:15.760 I know what that's like. 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.719 I moved from New York to central Florida around the 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.960 same time to attend college in Tampa. I used to 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.360 drive from Tampa to Orlando a lot, and I'd go 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.440 through Polk County and it was just that a place 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:33.240 to pass through real country with farmland, cattle, citrus groves, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.880 and its biggest city. Lakeland was sort of the poor 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.400 stepchild that sat between Tampa and Orlando. While I was 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.480 driving I for I'd hear radio ads for heavy metal 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.280 concerts at the Lakeland Civic Center. Bands like ac DC, 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.360 Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest played there a lot in 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:56.760 the nineteen eighties. When Leo moves to Polk County, Florida 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.760 from Massachusetts, he has a thick New England accent that 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.760 it immediately sets him apart. This isn't the Florida you 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.560 see on postcards with art deco hotels, pink flamingos, and 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:12.080 white sand beaches. This is central Florida, and Polk County 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:13.600 is unmistakably the South. 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.000 And you know, down here they're wearing alligator shirts and 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:18.920 all the other stuff. And I'm wearing a rock and 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.440 roll shirt, ripped up jeans and the jeane vest. Well 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:23.600 these oomie pins on it. 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.320 They don't get any of that. I mean, I don't 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:28.040 get any of the cowboy hat stuff. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.160 He never feels like he fits in, so he drops 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.840 out of school and starts doing odd jobs with his father. 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:39.920 In nineteen eighty five, he meets a girl named Michelle 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:45.200 Salm who lives nearby in Lakeland. He's nineteen and she's sixteen. 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.720 Tell me about the first time that he saw Michelle. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.800 The very first time caught her glass. I'll never forget that. 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.840 She was my best friend's girlfriend. 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.040 My best friend at the time was a kid named 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.920 Manny Tricola, and I was giving him guitar lessons and 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.480 I have him go over in his house and walked 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:06.720 in his bedroom. The first time I ever saw Michelle, 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.560 she was sitting on his bed and it was just 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.520 instant lightning. That was the first time I met her. 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:16.080 I'll never ever forget that. 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.520 But Michelle was with Manny, so Leo was casually seeing 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:22.600 other girls while he chased his true passion. 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:28.880 My pursuit was music. I have been grooming myself for 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.960 the rock and roll thing all my life. It's the 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.480 only thing I ever knew. I mean, I've been playing 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.360 guitar since I was seven years old. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.280 When Leo first meets Michelle, he's in a heavy metal 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:41.280 band called Rhino. 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.200 Rhino was an acronym and spelled all wayano. It's almost 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.280 an embarrassment, but it stood for rocky nuts off and 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.760 I actually did not care for that as a band name, 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.600 but I didn't have a lot of decision making over that, 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.440 and we were just a little club band, a little 0:16:59.480 --> 0:16:59.960 party band. 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.800 Leo was Rhino's lead guitarist. And then there was Dave Collins. 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.119 Girls like Leo a lot because he was he was 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.720 looked like a rock star, you know, and he acted 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.800 like that, yeah on the stage and. 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:20.080 All Dave played bass. He was one of Leo's good friends, 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.560 and Leo used to spend a lot of weekends. 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:22.680 At his house. 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.040 Kelsey and I sat down with him and his wife 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:26.440 Liz in their home in Lakeland. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:32.080 He was a good guitarist and a little high strung 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:36.480 at times. You know, there's a thing about guitarists and bands, 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.200 most of them, most of them are kind of hard 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:39.840 to get along with. 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:46.560 Dave tells us about this one time when Rhino played 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:48.840 a show on a flatbed trailer in the woods for 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:52.160 free beer. Leo was seeing this other girl at the time, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.919 and she lifted her top, flashing another. 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.359 Guy, and Leo got mad and took his guitar and 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.960 threw it into bonfire, and then he ran off into 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.119 the woods. We ran off and finally found him and 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.719 brought him back. Somebody went and grabbed that guitar out 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.560 of the fire before it got too bad to shape. 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:11.960 I remember he played that for quite a while. It's 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:14.520 like burnt in certain places and stuff like that. 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.199 But you know, he was young and. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:20.680 He did have a temper. 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.320 But you know, there were certain people that didn't like him. 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.520 But I think it's mainly because the girls liked him, most. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:29.560 Of them, to be honest. 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.920 I've seen pictures of Leo at the time. His hair 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.480 is jet black and long in a style that screamed 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.879 nineteen eighties hard rock, and with his overbite, I think 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.480 he looks like a young Freddie Mercury, the lead singer 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.840 from Queen. While Leo's out there pursuing his rock star dreams, 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:49.719 his best friend Manny, gets into some trouble and ends 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.320 up in a juvenile detention facility in South Florida. 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:56.520 Not long after Manny had went to prison. 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.040 I was at home in my parent's house and I 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.760 got a call him says for you, And I'm talking 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:04.639 to her on the phone and she's just talking to 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.159 me like, I know, I can't recognize her voice, but 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.760 I'm not trying to give that up, you know, So 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.119 I'm just listening till I can figure it out, and 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.760 you know, and when she mentioned Manny, I finally figured out, well, 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:17.600 this is Michelle. 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:18.560 Unbelievable. 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.160 Michelle found Leo's number in Manny's address book. They talked 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.800 for a while, then Leo invites Michelle to come see 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:26.240 his band. 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.560 She was just feeling, you know, sad and only over 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:30.520 Manny being gone. 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:32.600 And I said, well, if you can make it over 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:36.000 to where we're playing, I'll take you home afterwards. And 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.800 I did, and I don't think we spent minutes a part. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.800 After that, Michelle breaks it off with Manny, and over 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.000 the next few months Leo gets to know Michelle, and 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.359 he gets to know her family too. Michelle was the 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.960 middle child and only daughter. At first, she has a 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.640 pretty traditional childhood in Lakeland. She and her brothers would 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:00.879 play in their treehouse in the back yard, and on 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.199 weekend she'd go to the roller rink with her friends. 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.960 But then came the difficult years. Her parents divorce, and 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.760 shortly after her mother's in a car crash. She suffers 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.920 significant brain damage and returns to Texas to be cared 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.800 for by her family. Michelle and her two brothers stay 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.240 in Florida with their father, David sam but a house 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:26.320 fire leaves them homeless for a period of time. From there, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.880 Michelle and her brothers move into a children's home in Lakeland. 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.120 They lived there for a few years until their dad 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:37.760 finishes rebuilding the family home. By the time Michelle starts 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.280 dating Leo, she's seventeen years old and her single dad 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.160 is putting in long hours at a local phosphate mine. 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.479 Michelle comes from a broken home and a good family, 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.960 but still a broken family with a lot of challenges 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.400 even at that age when we met. When she was young, 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.359 she had a lot of free reign. 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.040 She would come up to our house, and of course 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:03.679 we were partying, but we were older, we were of age. 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.000 This is Liz Collins and she's still married to Dave, 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.359 Rhino's bass player and Leo's good friend. 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:09.800 At the time. 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.240 She didn't drink over there, but she would spend the 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.080 night over there with Leo at our house before we 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.879 would go to bed house. Michelle, does your mom and 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:21.639 dad know you're here? Oh, they don't care where I go, 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.360 And so I never couldn't understand that, you know why 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:28.119 they gave her so much freedom by that. 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:31.920 By this time, Leo moved out of his parents' house 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:34.840 and was living on his own, and soon after Michelle 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.000 meets Leo, she moves in with him. They bounce between 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.880 a few different apartments with a variety of roommates until 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.520 another couple offers up a second bedroom in their single 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.720 wide trailer. The mobile home is in North Lakeland. You're 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.280 a part of town called Comby Settlement. The neighborhood is 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.440 mostly quiet with old growth live oak trees draped in 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:58.680 Spanish moss. Their trailer is about a mile off Cumby Road, 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:02.600 which is a little less from what I gathered from interviews. 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:05.359 I've done it seems like Comby was a mostly white, 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:11.480 low income, high crime area. Michelle, like Leo, also dropped 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:13.520 out of high school, and she gets a job on 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.119 Comby Road, working as a waitress at Tom's Restaurant, a 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:21.520 drive in diner serving burgers and Southern comfort food. Leo 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.000 trades in his motorcycle and gets an orange Mazda station wagon. 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.560 He's focused on his music, but painting houses to pay 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.280 the bills. Living with another couple in a small trailer 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:35.920 was difficult for everyone, and at times things became tense. 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.920 One fight in particular keeps coming up over and over. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:43.760 In the past, our arguments were usually about the car. 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:48.439 Leo and Michelle shared, the Mazda. Sometimes Michelle would use 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:50.640 it to go visit friends, and Leo would never hear 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:50.960 from her. 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:54.600 She didn't have a license, so I couldn't have her ownlinsurance, 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:57.800 and she'd already been stopped. 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:00.560 Once by a cop. Thankfully, they let her go and 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:01.640 she was close to home. 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:04.720 Leo and Michelle didn't have a phone at their trailer, 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:07.159 but Leo begged her to stop somewhere and get a 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:08.520 message to him. If she was going to be out 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:08.919 with the car. 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.920 I would always tell her You're not my daughter, so 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:16.359 you want to go pick up your friends and do 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:17.040 this and do that. 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:18.960 I don't have any issues with that. 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:22.160 My issue is is that if I'm expecting you here 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.560 and you're not gonna be here for two more hours, 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:27.639 you need to call and tell me, you know. 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:28.720