WEBVTT - Chapter 5 | Bam Bam 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:14.920 I was blown away because I'm like, why would his 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.160 fingerprint be in the vehicle? Why would that not have 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.919 been something that had been investigated. 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.440 When police Captain Cinda Williams ran the Prince that had 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.960 been found in Michelle Scofield's car seventeen years ago, she 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.239 wasn't expecting anything, but there was. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.839 A hit, so I ran a criminal history check on 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:36.879 Jeremy Scott. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.960 Now Cinda wasn't really supposed to have run these prints. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.360 The Michelle Scofield case is under Polk County's jurisdiction, not 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.279 Henry County, where she works, but because of her friendship 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.879 with Chrissy, she decides to look into Jeremy Scott anyway. 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:56.600 It felt like it was the right thing to do, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:06.880 and he had an extensive criminal history. And when I 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.760 say extensive, imediate mostly violent. 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:20.760 Crime charges of grand theft, burglary, multiple assaults, arson, and 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:22.959 two arrests for murder. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:36.360 Do you mo maness. 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.000 Left to have my fears. 0:01:42.360 --> 0:02:11.720 Soruive sormness in this vasty him rage dansish to the 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:20.760 word sling stuff to the bone soundings. 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:25.000 Stuff so. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:03:07.240 Bone Valley Chapter five, bam bam, Who is Jeremy Scott? 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.240 Who is this man whose fingerprints turned up in the 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.360 car Michelle Schofield was driving on the night she was murdered. 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.440 Kelsey and I wanted to find out everything we could 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.800 about him. We started filing record requests. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.640 We got police reports from both the Sheriff's office and 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:31.040 the Lakeland Police Department. They documented dozens of Jeremy's arrests 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.960 in Polk County, and we were also able to get 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.960 our hands on Jeremy's psychiatric reports. He was evaluated by 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:42.280 psychologists while awaiting trial on a homicide charge. 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:46.280 This homicide charge, Jeremy would eventually be convicted for it. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.760 We'll get back to that later. But after he was 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:54.320 found guilty, several of Jeremy's family members testified, pleading with 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.240 the judge and jury to spare Jeremy's life, to sentence 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.080 him to life in prison instead of giving him the 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:07.600 death penalty. Their testimony about Jeremy's childhood and upbringing paints 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.200 a Scott family portrait that can only be described as 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:15.680 chaotic and unstable. We started compiling this testimony and other 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.120 documents we've been able to dig up, and we were 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.359 able to make a rough timeline of Jeremy's early life. 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:29.040 Jeremy was born in Michigan on April twenty ninth, nineteen 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:34.159 sixty nine. According to family testimony, his mother, Linda immediately 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.440 rejected him when she brought him home from the hospital. 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.719 Linda didn't want anything to do with him. She was 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.039 fifteen at the time in using drugs, so she left 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:49.279 him with her parents. So Jeremy's grandparents, Arlene and Stacy Scott, 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.839 they raise him, and Jeremy grows up calling them mom 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.039 and Dad, and they call him Bam Bam because he 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:00.400 liked to hit stuff. But early in works and Stacy 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.279 struggles with alcoholism, so Jeremy spends much of his early 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.440 years in the care of his aunt Debbie, who's just fourteen. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.159 Then one day, when Jeremy was two or three, he 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.480 was left without supervision and was hit by a neighbor's car. 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.520 His psych reports say that there was significant injury to 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.359 the right frontal area of his skull. It seems this 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.800 incident may have left Jeremy with lasting brain damage, and 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:33.000 soon after Jeremy's uncle Tom moved in. Tom pretty severely 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.760 abused Jeremy. He would beat him and call him names. 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:41.160 According to his aunt Debbie's testimony, when Jeremy starts school, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.800 sounds like he doesn't do very well. He has to 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.680 repeat kindergarten and he's placed in special education classes. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.200 And then we get to the mid to late seventies 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.800 and the family starts to relocate down to Florida. They 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.800 were up in Michigan, and they start trickling down to 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:01.359 various parts of the state, settle in Perry in the 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:07.440 Florida Panhandle, and also in central Florida, Lakeland, Kissimi, Davenport, 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:08.320 and Mulberry. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.200 It's hard to piece together exactly where Jeremy was and 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.280 when and who cared for him. He was being passed 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.200 back and forth between different caregivers, different family members. 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.240 But at some point he ends up back with his mother, Linda. 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.080 Jeremy's aunt, Debbie, says that Linda was beating him with 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.359 belts and with sticks, and the school he was attending 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.640 at that time took notice. They reported the abuse, and 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.279 it seems like at that point Jeremy was removed from 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.000 his mother's care and placed into foster care. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:48.159 After fourth grade, Jeremy stops regularly attending school, and by 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:52.960 eighth grade, he's apparently dropped out of school entirely Somewhere 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.400 in that time he starts getting in trouble with the 0:06:55.520 --> 0:07:00.479 law too. The first arrest we have on recD is 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:05.640 August nineteen eighty It was for petty theft, burglary, criminal mischief, 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.920 dealing in stolen property, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.200 all misdemeanor charges. But he was only eleven years old. 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:20.680 That's five charges. Around this same time, Jeremy's already living 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.480 on the streets and he asks his sixteen year old 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:27.440 aunt for money, food, and clothes, which she isn't always 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:28.320 able to provide. 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.640 And then in January of nineteen eighty two, he's arrested 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.720 for grand theft and burglary and those are felony charges. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.480 Jeremy was twelve, and this is when things become a 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.200 little more serious for him. There are some real repercussions. 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:49.240 He sent away to Okachobe, the juvenile detention facility in 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.840 South Florida, so he's in and out of Okachobe between 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:54.800 the ages of thirteen and fifteen. 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.600 After one of Jeremy's stays at Okachobe, he lands in 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.480 a little in Polk County, just outside of Lakeland. It's 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:08.360 called Eagle Lake. From Jeremy's criminal records and police reports, 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:10.960 we learn about a murder that took place in this 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.880 area in nineteen eighty five, when Jeremy was just fifteen 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.160 years old. So we tried to track down some of 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.640 the other people whose names we found in the documents. 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:25.040 Okay, I'm out here. 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.480 I'm about to meet with Nancy, and I think her mother, 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.440 Wilma is here. I'm just gonna walk over there right now. 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:36.280 They're sitting on a picnic bench underneath a tree. Nancy 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.640 and her mom, Wilma, are still living in the area 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.120 where the crime took place. I called them after seeing 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.360 Nancy's name in a witness deposition. I was especially interested 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:52.520 in talking to them because they said they remember Jeremy. Hello, 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.840 you must be Wilma. We talked on the phone. 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.000 Gilbert, Hi, Nancy, how are you. 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.480 Nancy says she first met Jeremy while he was working 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.000 the rides at the Florida Citrus Festival in nearby winter Haven. 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.480 Nancy was around thirteen years old and Jeremy was fifteen. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.720 We all went to the fair, and we'd go every 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.800 single night. What kind of fair was it? It was 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:22.640 just a carnival. You had the sea Dragon. You had 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.640 the Zipper, the one that spends around Himalaya. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:27.760 What was Jeremy Scott doing there? 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:30.479 He was actually running the Sea Dragon. 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.199 And he so he when you were at the fair, 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:33.800 liked he would be the guy that would put you 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:35.120 on the rides. That was his job. 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:37.680 No, he actually was the one that turned it on. 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:39.760 It was the mechanical part. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:41.800 So he was basically a carney. 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:42.400 A carney. 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.240 Nancy and her friends would see him every night over 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:46.959 the ten days the festival was in town. 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.160 So when me and the girls got on him, we 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.400 got an extra ride, like, hey, I got that extra ride. 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:59.000 And when the festival eventually packs up, Jeremy sticks around 0:09:59.000 --> 0:09:59.440 the area. 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.840 I think he just came into town and decided to 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.199 stay for a little bit. He was quiet, I mean, 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:11.079 like shy, very shy compared to like the average kids. 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.840 And I mean until you got to know you, you know, 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.880 I do know he was like maybe slow. I don't 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:23.000 know how to better explain him. He just was different, 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.200 you know. I don't know if it's a disability or what. 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:29.880 Because back then, Nancy grew up with the sense that 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.240 she should protect kids like Jeremy, so she would make 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.320 sure to include him when she and her friends would 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.040 play sports and hang around the park. Jeremy would stay 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.800 over at their house some nights too, he'd crash on 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:42.280 the couch. 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.960 He was polite because it was like he had respect, 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.240 I guess his best way to say it, because I 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.439 never saw temper out of him or anything. 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.080 But then Jeremy stops coming over to Nancy and Wilma's 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:01.280 house as often, and Nancy she starts seeing Jeremy with 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.959 one of her neighbors, an ex con by the name 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:08.199 of Smoky Johnson. Smokey picks up Jeremy while he's hitchhiking 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:13.360 one day. Smokey is forty six and Jeremy is just fifteen. 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:18.959 Honestly, I mean, it's really weird that somebody that much 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.280 older would be hanging out with me, you know. 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:27.920 That spring On April eleventh, nineteen eighty five, Smoky's seventy 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:32.520 five year old mother, Juel Johnson, was found dead in 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.640 a locked trailer behind her house. 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.800 Well, she lived right around the corner from where we. 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.000 Lived, right and jul Johnson was just like a sweet 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:42.000 elderly woman. 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:46.040 I mean, yes, saying that she was a very sweet lady. 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.720 Now that's what I told different people that I knew 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.839 quite well, yeah, that. 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:57.760 That she's a very sweet lady. Juel Johnson suffered blunt 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.680 force trauma to the head and she was in the torso, 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.600 presumably with the twenty two caliber rifle found at the scene. 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.040 Detective Richard Putnall, the same detective that would work Michelle 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:17.040 Schofield's murder two years later, conducts the investigation. Detective Putnall 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.760 talks to Jule Johnson's son, Smoky, who says that about 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.400 fifty dollars in rolled coins was taken from the house, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.960 as well as some large knives. As far as we 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.160 can tell, there are no eyewitnesses to the killing, and 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.920 no one claims to have heard any gunshots. But then 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:40.400 detective Putnall interviews two teenage girls in the neighborhood and 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:45.360 the investigation takes a new direction. Thirteen year old Lwanda 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:49.400 Green and fifteen year old Anne Aldridge tell Detective Putnall 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.360 that they know Jeremy and they remember seeing him on 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:57.160 his bike just hours after Jewel's murder. They say Jeremy 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.760 had on all new clothes when they saw him, gray jacket, 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.600 gray shirt, gray pants instead of his usual jeans and 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.520 t shirt. He also had a bunch of coins on him. 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.680 He told them that his grandfather just died and left 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:16.000 him fifty dollars. He showed the coins and said, this 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.559 is all I have left. He had a red bag 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.640 with him and said there's a big knife in there. 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.760 Not long after Juel Johnson is killed, Jeremy stops by 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:28.640 Nancy's place. 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.720 He just swung by the house to tell us why. Like, 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.640 the conversation was really really short, not like where he 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.480 was before that, you know, he laughed or whatever. It 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.880 was just different. He just said that we wouldn't get 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.760 to see him no more. He was staying away because 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:47.520 he was in trouble. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.959 After I interviewed Nancy and Wilma at the ballpark, they 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.240 tell me to follow their car and they'll point out 0:13:55.280 --> 0:14:00.520 Juel Johnson's house. And this is really roll back. 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.120 Here a lot less houses, just a little farmhouse. 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:08.840 And it's cattle. Yeah, there it is. 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:15.280 I can see the little shed in the back under tree. 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.400 That's where I think they found the body of jul Johnson. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.440 Investigators weren't able to lift any prince from the rifle 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.640 found at the crime scene. Whoever shot Juel Johnson must 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.640 have wiped down the weapon afterwards, but they were able 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:39.200 to lift fingerprints from a coin wrapper and Jewel's broken eyeglasses. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.400 The Polk County Sheriff's Office compares the prince to Jeremy's. 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:51.240 It's a match. Jeremy Scott, now sixteen, becomes the lead 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:56.760 suspect in the murder of Jewel Johnson. Three weeks after 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:01.040 the killing, Jeremy's arrested and charged with first degree murder. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:06.240 At his arraignement, the judge, who spent years presiding over 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:13.320 juvenile cases recognizes Jeremy's name. He tells reporters he wasn't surprised. 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.440 He says, quote, this was one of those situations in 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.520 which there was nothing the system could do. 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:31.160 Jeremy was in jail, and he was a young man, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:36.600 very immature, very mentally I'm gonna say mentally disturbed in 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.000 the sense that he had a number of mental illnesses. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.000 He was a severely abused child. You know, he was 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.520 cutting himself quite a bit in the jail. 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.720 This is Austin meslank who was an attorney with the 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:54.520 Public Defender's Office. Meslanic was assigned to represent Jeremy in 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:55.960 the murder of Jule Johnson. 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.240 I mean the state was seeking the death penal to you, 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.520 because this was before the United States Supreme Court had 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.360 ruled the juveniles were not eligible for the death penalty, 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.920 and you know, in Polk County at that time, the 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:14.080 state went for the death penalty just about every case. 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:20.080 He was young, he was difficult, sometimes he was cooperative, 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:21.560 sometimes he wasn't. 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.680 This is Tony Maloney. She's the investigator from the Public 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:30.000 Defender's Office. She was assigned to Leo Schofield's case in 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.400 nineteen eighty eight, before Leo dropped them and hired Jack 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:38.200 Edmund instead. But before all that, back in nineteen eighty five, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.760 she was assigned to Jeremy Scott's defense in the Jule 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:42.720 Johnson murder. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.560 It was hard for him to stay on tasks for 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.680 any period of time, and then even when he did, 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:51.720 it was sort of like, you know, is he really 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:56.720 connecting the dots here? Not out of touch with reality, 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.320 but an inability to calmly control. 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:06.480 At trial, the state presents a pretty simple case. They 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.760 say that while Smokey Johnson is at work, Jewel catches 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:14.280 Jeremy trying to steal her rolls of coins. She tells Jeremy, 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.720 she's calling the sheriff, so he hits her over the 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.399 head and shoots her with a rifle. But the public 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.000 defenders did witness interviews and brought in a mental health 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:28.000 expert to defend Jeremy at trial, and you put on. 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.960 A pretty aggressive defense, Yes, we did. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.240 Jeremy takes the stand at trial and says that it 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:39.800 was Smoky Johnson who killed his own mother. Jeremy says 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.240 he was a witness to the killing. He said it 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:47.560 happened after Smoky and Jewel argued about smoking weed. Several 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.680 jurors said that they didn't think Jeremy killed Juel Johnson 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.520 because he didn't seem intelligent enough to remove his fingerprints 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:58.720 from the murder weapon. Smokey, on the other hand, had 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.919 done some time for selling, and he apparently didn't come 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:07.399 across too well at trial. That's how in September nineteen 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.639 eighty five, Jeremy Scott is acquitted of Juel Johnson's murder. 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.919 The state never prosecuted Smoky because of the strength of 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:20.000 his alibi. Multiple co workers testify that he was at 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.840 work at the time his mother was murdered. Juel Johnson's 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.119 murder is still considered unsolved to this day, but the 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.600 state of Florida didn't seem too happy about Jeremy's acquittal, 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.840 so they weren't so quick to release him. While Jeremy 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.840 was in the jail awaiting trial, he lit his mattress 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.960 on fire. So after he's acquitted in the Jewel Johnson murder, 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:45.760 he's held in the Polk County jail for the arson 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:50.320 charge that happened months before. To me and Kelsey, though 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:58.439 it seems like Jeremy literally got away with murder, I think. 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.520 That's sort of a bitch, arrowing a bunch of people's lives. 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.720 This is Lee Underwood. We reached out to him because 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.000 he was a close friend to Michelle Schofield's back in 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:09.360 the day. 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:16.800 She was a very very very special friend of mine, 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:17.879 like a sister. 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.160 It was Michelle who gave him his nickname, Lee the Flea, 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.159 and she named. 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:25.280 Me that. 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:30.560 Basically as I was always playing to lead the polis 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:34.879 and that name is stuck would mad till today. 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:38.400 We tracked Leave the Flee down in Wisconsin, and as 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.200 we were talking, the interview took an unexpected turn. 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.040 You didn't know Jeremy Scott, did you. I was in 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.840 jail with them back in eighty Sorry. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.679 We checked this and Lee is a little off on 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.920 the year based on arrest records. The cops finally caught 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.000 up with Lee in nineteen eighty five. They locked him 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.399 up in the Polk County JA on charges of well 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.440 fleeing police, and Lee tells us one of his cellmates 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.680 then was Jeremy Scott. Lee was there when Jeremy set 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.600 his mattress on fire, and he remembers when Jeremy was 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:14.400 acquitted of killing jul Johnson. 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.960 I don't know how he got off of it. He 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.440 get bragged to everybody in the cell about doing it. 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:30.280 This guy was crazy. He'd like make a shank like 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:36.080 a jail knife out of a razor right around the jail, 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:41.520 cutting people just at random. This kid was crazy and 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:46.240 he had a look in his eye just like like 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.800 he wasn't right. 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.280 Jeremy is convicted on the arson charge and shipped off 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:59.080 to state prison. By the time he's released, it's December 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:04.159 nineteen eighty. Leo and Michelle Schofield have been married for 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.920 about four months. They're living in the little trailer near 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:14.320 Comby Settlement. They're going to church. Leo's playing music and 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.520 Michelle has yet to start her job at Tom's restaurant. 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.879 Jeremy Scott is back on the streets, and this time 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:25.040 he's in Lakeland. 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:34.360 Hi. 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.000 I'm Jason Flamm, CEO and founder of Lava for Good podcasts, 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.119 home to Bone Valley, Wrongful Conviction, The War on Drugs, 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.880 and many other great podcasts. Today we're asking you, our listeners, 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.479 to take part in a survey. Your feedback is going 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:50.680 to help inform how we make podcasts in the future. 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.639 Your complete and candid answers will help us continue to 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.720 bring you more insightful and inspiring stories about important topics 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.399 that impact us all. So please go to Lava for 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.359 Good dot com slash survey and participate today. Thank you 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.639 for your support. 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:14.040 Bone Valley is sponsored by Stand Together. Stand Together is 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:18.000 a philanthropic community that partners with America's boldest change makers 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.280 to tackle the root causes of our country's biggest problems, 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:26.800 including the broken criminal justice system. Weldon Angelos is one 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:29.840 of those change makers. At the age of twenty three, 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:32.960 Weldon was arrested for a first time offense of selling 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:36.920 weed to a confidential informant. At the time, he was 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:41.840 a budding musician spending time with artists like Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Pink, 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:45.359 and Gnase. His entire life was ahead of him when 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.119 he was sentenced to a mandatory fifty five years in 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:53.320 federal prison without the possibility of early release. After serving 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:57.880 thirteen years, a bipartisan effort led to him getting officially pardoned. 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:02.920 Upon his release, he founded the Weldon Project, a nonprofit 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.320 working to create better outcomes for those still in prison 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:10.480 that funds social change and provides financial aid for all 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:14.359 those who were still serving time for cannabis related offenses. 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.720 Weldon Angelos is one of the many entrepreneurs partnering with 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:23.959 Stand Together to drive solutions in education, health care, poverty, 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:27.960 and criminal justice. To learn more about the War on Drugs, 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:31.719 listen to the War on Drugs podcast on Apple Podcasts 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:33.640 or wherever you get your podcasts. 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:44.439 Let's see, this is just kind of describing Lakeland, how 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:45.119 it all came to be. 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:50.760 We're at Heide's Eeman's house looking through boxes. Heidi, her 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:53.320 sister Wendy, and their parents were living in Lakeland when 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:58.480 Jeremy Scott entered their lives. Heidie's parents were professors, her 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:02.119 dad taught Greek, and her Mom taught English, and for 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:05.040 a while in the nineteen eighties they took in local 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:09.040 teenagers they called throwaway kids who'd been kicked out or 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:12.480 were living on the streets. The Zeemans offered them a 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:13.359 place to stay. 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:18.240 My dad was he was a writer. He just wrote, 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:21.840 so when he passed away, there were just boxes and 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:25.920 boxes of writing. So as I was pulling everything out, 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:28.440 I was trying to decide, you know, what was what. 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:31.040 And I came across this and I was like, oh, 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:33.560 my gosh, like this is the story of all the kids. 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:36.520 So it was pretty neat. And then I found Mom's 0:24:36.520 --> 0:24:39.280 notebook and I was like, oh, this is really cool 0:24:39.359 --> 0:24:42.040 that they both wrote the kids' stories. 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:45.520 The Zeemans first started taking in kids living on the 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:48.920 street when Heidi's sister Wendy started dating a boy named 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:49.640 Mike Jason. 0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:52.080 Yeah, I've been on the streets when I was fourteen 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:54.760 because my brother and I got didn't get along, so 0:24:55.320 --> 0:24:57.240 you know, I just felt like I was the black 0:24:57.240 --> 0:25:01.800 sheep of the family, so I left. I was scared 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:03.919 I was going to die. Honestly, living on the streets, 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:07.840 didn't know where you're going to eat. You wore the 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:11.600 same clothes all the time, and uh, it was struggle. 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.840 Heidi and Wendy's parents let Mike live with them, and 0:25:15.880 --> 0:25:18.680 then they start letting some of Mike's friends who also 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:21.000 had nowhere else to go into their house. 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:26.359 And then before you knew it, it was like, you know, 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:29.320 there were so many kids and they just they would. 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:31.760 Sleep wherever they could fit at the Zeeman's house, in 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:34.719 the garage, on couches or on the living room floor. 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:37.840 When they ran out of floor space and couch space, 0:25:38.200 --> 0:25:39.720 someone might sleep on the recliner. 0:25:40.760 --> 0:25:42.879 And then I kind of became part of the family. 0:25:43.800 --> 0:25:45.720 Rob Morales was one of the teens staying at the 0:25:45.800 --> 0:25:49.439 Zeeman house. Rob also went by spot because you had 0:25:49.440 --> 0:25:51.720 this one patch of white on a head full of 0:25:51.760 --> 0:25:52.320 black hair. 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:56.080 I flipped on the couch because I didn't have any 0:25:56.200 --> 0:26:01.119 pits to go. Well, that's where I met Jeremy. 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:07.119 It's the summer of nineteen eighty eight, the summer that 0:26:07.240 --> 0:26:09.919 Leo Schofield is arrested in charged with the murder of 0:26:09.960 --> 0:26:16.400 his wife Michelle. Jeremy Scott, homeless, finds his way into 0:26:16.400 --> 0:26:20.520 the Zeman House in Lakeland. He's nineteen years old now, 0:26:20.560 --> 0:26:23.000 but he's already had a couple of stints in state prison. 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:27.000 Spot describes Jeremy as impulsive and violent. 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:30.600 Usually every time you know, we met up, we're either 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:34.439 getting into a fight with someone else, or you know, 0:26:34.520 --> 0:26:38.760 he was always the first to come to gun. 0:26:40.320 --> 0:26:41.400 He made me nervous. 0:26:42.760 --> 0:26:47.880 This is Tracy Slaughter that summer nineteen eighty eight. She's sixteen, 0:26:48.680 --> 0:26:52.880 she's dating Spot, and she and Wendy Zeeman are almost inseparable. 0:26:54.000 --> 0:26:57.560 That was the Death Leopard summer. And you walk around 0:26:57.600 --> 0:26:59.680 with your gray boombox and you keep slipping it back 0:26:59.680 --> 0:27:02.160