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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Poetzer Prize winning author Gilbert King is here, the creator

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Speaker 2: of Bone Valley, the podcast in Bone Valley Season two,

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Speaker 2: which just dropped just a few days ago, and delving

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Speaker 2: into the wrongful conviction of Leo Schofield, convicted and sentenced

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Speaker 2: to twenty five years to life for the murder of

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Speaker 2: his eighteen year old wife at the time, Miss ship

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Speaker 2: Michelle Schofield, back in nineteen eighty seven. A key piece

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Speaker 2: of evidence which would then eventually exonerate Leo Schofield turns

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Speaker 2: up in Michelle's car fingerprints. Tell us about how these

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Speaker 2: were discovered.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is interesting, like when the police originally did

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Speaker 3: the investigation. You know, this is back before they have

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Speaker 3: a system called the Athis system.

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Speaker 2: Autumn, Sorry, are you going to hands free at your voice?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 2: There?

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Speaker 3: Regular?

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Speaker 2: Can you actually?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? They were good.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So in the original investigation they had, you know,

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Speaker 3: went over the car with you know, fingerprints, and they

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Speaker 3: found some fingerprints in there that did not match Leo. Uh,

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Speaker 3: they didn't match Michelle, they didn't match anybody who really

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Speaker 3: should have been They're just unidentified and you know, it's

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Speaker 3: interesting that that might have been one of the areas

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Speaker 3: where the police could have done a little bit more

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Speaker 3: with that, but they didn't have that APHIS system to

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Speaker 3: run it through the computer and find anybody. So these

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Speaker 3: fingerprints just sat there for seventeen years unidentified. Something interesting

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Speaker 3: happened while Leo was in prison. Several years into his sentence,

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Speaker 3: he met a social worker by the name of Christy

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Speaker 3: Carter who was teaching a life skills class, and Leo

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Speaker 3: was assigned to her and he became her aid, and

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Speaker 3: you know, eventually they got to know each other pretty well,

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Speaker 3: and Christy began to believe that Leo was innocent, and

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Speaker 3: so she spent her time away from work investigating his

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Speaker 3: case because Leo had no lawyer left, and so she

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Speaker 3: would go through all the files and the trial didn't

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Speaker 3: make any sense to her all that, but she was

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Speaker 3: always stuck on the idea that these fingerprints from inside

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Speaker 3: the car were never identified, and so in about two

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Speaker 3: thousand and four, she finally convinced. Now, this is to

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Speaker 3: keep this in mind, Leo has been in prison for

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Speaker 3: seventeen years, he has no appeals left. He's just going

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Speaker 3: to be a sentenced to life At this point, she

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Speaker 3: has a friend who's a police officer, and she convinces

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Speaker 3: the friend to run these fingerprints through the APHIS system

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Speaker 3: in two thousand and four, and this is you know,

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Speaker 3: reluctant detective with a sheriff's office says, fine, this will

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Speaker 3: keep Chrissy quiet. She was absolutely convinced Leo it must

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Speaker 3: have done it. She takes the card and she has

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Speaker 3: the fingerprints run through the system and they come back

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Speaker 3: and match a man who's sitting in prison for another murder.

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Speaker 3: And it turned out out he had lived just down

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Speaker 3: the road from where Michelle worked at the restaurant, so

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Speaker 3: he was in that area. He was a free man

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Speaker 3: at the time, roaming around the streets of Lakeland, and

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Speaker 3: his fingerprints show up inside this Mazda And when she

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Speaker 3: runs the report through, she sees this man's criminal record.

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Speaker 3: He's extraordinarily violent. He's out free at the same time

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Speaker 3: Michelle disappeared, and so they're just like, this is unbelievable.

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Speaker 3: This might be the evidence that gets Leo out of prison,

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Speaker 3: and so that starts a motion to get a new

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Speaker 3: evidentiary hearing. They look at this young man named Jeremy

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Speaker 3: Scott and try to understand why this man's fingerprints turned

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Speaker 3: up inside the car that Michelle was driving.

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Speaker 2: And at some point, well this now gets into season

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Speaker 2: two of Bone Valley, Jeremy Scott confesses, how did that

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Speaker 2: come about?

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, this is interesting because you have that prosecute,

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Speaker 3: Leo's prosecutor, who's still in the State Attorney's office at

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Speaker 3: the time. He's also the prosecutor that put Jeremy Scott

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Speaker 3: in prison for the rest of his life. So Leo

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Speaker 3: and Jeremy are now tied to this murder of Michelle Schofield.

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Speaker 3: And what's interesting is John Aguerrel, the prosecutor, brings Jeremy

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Speaker 3: Scott back into the county and interviews him in his

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Speaker 3: office with no witnesses present and no tape recorder, and

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Speaker 3: this comes out in the EVIDENTI aariry. Hearing that he

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Speaker 3: had nobody in there, he tried to lie and say

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Speaker 3: that a detective was in there with him, but the

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Speaker 3: detective put it in his report that he was on

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Speaker 3: vacation that week and that Aguero interviewed Jeremy by himself.

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Speaker 3: And so he goes into this office with Jeremy Scott,

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Speaker 3: the man he's convicted for another murder, and basically Jeremy

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Speaker 3: comes out of there and his story is now that, well, yeah,

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Speaker 3: there is a reason that my fingerprints were in the car.

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Speaker 3: I used to be a stereo thief, and you know,

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Speaker 3: bad luck for Leo that might I just happened to

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Speaker 3: be stealing stereo equipment the same night his wife disappeared.

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Speaker 3: And so that becomes the story that Jeremy takes into

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Speaker 3: that evident Charry hearing. He says, no, I didn't kill Michelle,

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Speaker 3: I'm just a stereo thief, and the judge buys it

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Speaker 3: and rejects Leo's attempt to get a new trial. What

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Speaker 3: ends up happening is that Jeremy says that he was

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Speaker 3: promised some help with his parole if he went along

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Speaker 3: with this story. And several years later, John Aguero passed away,

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Speaker 3: the prosecutor passed away, and Jeremy never got any help

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Speaker 3: with that parole, and he was angry about it. He

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Speaker 3: felt like he got tricked. And so seven years after

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Speaker 3: those fingerprints turned up, Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle.

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Speaker 3: He said, I'm just going to tell the truth. That

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Speaker 3: guy spent into the rest of his life in prison.

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Speaker 3: I'm never getting out. I'm the one who killed Michelle Schofield,

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Speaker 3: and I can tell you exactly how he did it,

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Speaker 3: and he does. He does admit that to several people,

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Speaker 3: and that becomes cause for a new evidence you are

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Speaker 3: hearing in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: So how did the murder take place?

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Speaker 3: Then? Well, Jeremy says that he was homeless at the time.

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Speaker 3: He was walking down the street near his grandmother's trailer,

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Speaker 3: which was right where Michelle worked at Tom's restaurant. And

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Speaker 3: he said, it was drizzling out and I came upon

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Speaker 3: a payphone and I saw a woman making a payphone call,

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Speaker 3: and he walked over to her and she said, do

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Speaker 3: you need to use the phone, and he said, no,

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Speaker 3: I need a ride. And he says that she recognized him,

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Speaker 3: and he said, I didn't recognize her, but she recognized

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Speaker 3: me from the neighborhood, and I guess felt it was

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Speaker 3: okay to give this guy a ride. Maybe she saw

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Speaker 3: him at a party or something, and so he said, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I could use a ride going up to my grandmother's trailer,

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Speaker 3: and you know, it's raining out. She lets him inside

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Speaker 3: the car and instead of take leading her to his

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Speaker 3: grandmother's house, he leads her to this area called the Cut,

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Speaker 3: and it's right off the highway and it's where a lot.

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Speaker 3: It was like a lover's lane for teenagers back then

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Speaker 3: in Lakeland, Florida. And this is a place that Jeremy

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Speaker 3: was very familiar with. He used to take his girlfriends

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Speaker 3: back there. He leads her back there, and his story

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Speaker 3: is that as he gets back there, she says there's

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Speaker 3: no houses back here, and that's when he pulls a

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Speaker 3: knife and she starts to struggle and scream. She puts

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Speaker 3: the car and drive and she tries to take off.

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Speaker 3: He slams the car in the park and he says

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Speaker 3: she starts fighting back, and he says, I just lost it,

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Speaker 3: and she tries to get out of the car, and

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Speaker 3: Jeremy said, I stabbed her. I don't know how many times.

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Speaker 3: I wrapped her up in plastic and just dragged her

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Speaker 3: into the water and left her in the water. And

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Speaker 3: then I stole the car. And so what happened was

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Speaker 3: he did steal the car, and he got about six

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Speaker 3: miles up on the highway and the car had broken down,

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Speaker 3: and that's why Leah was Leo and the police were

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Speaker 3: able to find the car, but not Michelle, and they

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Speaker 3: never had an understanding or any kind of explanation as

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Speaker 3: to why that car was found on the side of

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Speaker 3: that highway. But Jeremy has the reason for that. He says,

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Speaker 3: I was driving it. The thing just broke down. I

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Speaker 3: got out, and he goes, I did steal the stereo,

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Speaker 3: but I also killed Leo's wife.

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Speaker 2: And so as Jeremy Scott, the killer is approaching Michelle

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Speaker 2: at that moment, she is on the phone with her

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Speaker 2: husband saying, you know, I'm going to be home at

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Speaker 2: such and such a time.

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Speaker 3: That was the call. Yeah, so we can place him

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Speaker 3: there at nine forty five And the gas station that

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Speaker 3: she made the phone call was closed at the time,

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Speaker 3: but Leo and Michelle did not have a phone in

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Speaker 3: their trailer that they lived in, so they would often

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Speaker 3: drive to that gas station and use the payphone there,

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Speaker 3: and that's where she ran into Jeremy Scott. And you know,

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Speaker 3: it's interesting, Richard, because I look back at this case

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Speaker 3: and you know, there's there's all sorts of holes, and

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Speaker 3: you know, the prosecutor very misleading, misrepresents a lot of

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Speaker 3: the evidence. But one of the things that always really

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Speaker 3: bothered me looking into it is that there's several hours

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Speaker 3: that go by between that ninety five pm phone call

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Speaker 3: until you know, Alice Scott, the neighbor, says she sees

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Speaker 3: Leo carrying something heavy out in those three hours, nobody

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Speaker 3: has seen Michelle. She's not seen anywhere. She's no friends

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Speaker 3: have said, yeah, she was having a fight with Leo,

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Speaker 3: but I knew where she was. Nothing. There's not a

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Speaker 3: single witness who can account for her. Jeremy Scott is

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Speaker 3: the only person who can account for Michelle within those

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Speaker 3: three hours when she was missing. And so that really

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Speaker 3: always stuck out to me, like you can't find one

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Speaker 3: single witness what was she doing in those three hours

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Speaker 3: when she said she was going to be on her

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Speaker 3: way over to see Leo. So Jeremy's explanation always made

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Speaker 3: a lot of sense to me.

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Speaker 2: So, despite Jeremy Scott's confession, Leo's go field continues to

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Speaker 2: languish in prison.

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Speaker 3: Why you know, this is the most staggering thing about it,

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Speaker 3: and it's just hard to understand how this is possible.

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Speaker 3: But after Jeremy Scott confessed, you know, Jeremy Scott first

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Speaker 3: of all has like a seventy something I Q he's

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Speaker 3: got brain damage. He's an extraordinary violent person. When they

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Speaker 3: brought him back on the stand the second time, he

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Speaker 3: was off his meds. He was, you know, in a

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Speaker 3: psych cell awaiting this hearing. So it was just a

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Speaker 3: very disorienting position for me. Hadn't slept, he'd been beaten

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Speaker 3: up by police inside the jail, and he was very

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Speaker 3: agitated when he got in there to testified. But he

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Speaker 3: still admitted that he killed Michelle. But on cross examination,

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Speaker 3: the prosecute just really went after him and said, you

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Speaker 3: don't tell the truth, do you, Jeremy, And she basically

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Speaker 3: just beat him over the head with how many times

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Speaker 3: he said in the last hearing that he didn't kill Michelle,

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Speaker 3: And he said, now you're changing, worry now you say

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Speaker 3: you did kill Michelle. And it goes back and forth

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Speaker 3: like this, and they just sort of the state was

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Speaker 3: just really trying to undermine Jeremy's credibility as a confessor.

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Speaker 3: And one of the most you know, I think the

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Speaker 3: most damning parts of the entire evidentiary hearing was the

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Speaker 3: prosecutor took out a picture of Michelle from her autopsy

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Speaker 3: and showed put it right in front of Jeremy's face

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Speaker 3: and he says, is this She says, is this what

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Speaker 3: you did to her? And he looks at it and

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Speaker 3: he has the kind of reaction that you know, like

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Speaker 3: when detectives take out the autopsy photos and show it

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Speaker 3: to the suspect that he doesn't want to look at it,

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Speaker 3: and he turns his head away and he says, I've

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Speaker 3: seen it before, and she says, see it again. Is

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Speaker 3: this what you did to her? And he says, no,

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Speaker 3: I didn't do that, and the prosecutor used that line,

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Speaker 3: no I didn't do that, to say that, oh, he

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Speaker 3: recanted again. Now he's saying he didn't do it, and

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Speaker 3: that's how she did her closing argument, and the judge

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Speaker 3: went along with it and said that Jeremy doesn't have

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Speaker 3: any credibility because he lied previously and that he recanted

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Speaker 3: on the stand when he never recanted on the stand.

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Speaker 3: If you go back and look at the redirect in

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Speaker 3: the testimony. Once Leo's lawyers got back up there, he

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Speaker 3: just admitted again. He said, yeah, I killed her. And

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Speaker 3: that was always perplexing, like why did they use that

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Speaker 3: sentence no I didn't do that as some kind of recantation,

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Speaker 3: And that was the thing that always bothered me. And

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Speaker 3: it wasn't until I finally had a chance to ask

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Speaker 3: Jeremy about it myself.

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Speaker 2: You said, the justice system delivers verdicts, not truth. I mean,

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Speaker 2: what role do ego, politics and reputation play in the

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Speaker 2: refusal to admit error?

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's a great, big part of it.

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Speaker 3: You know, a lot of these prosecutors that their job

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Speaker 3: is to seek justice, not win convictions, and you know

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Speaker 3: they're supposed to be ethical in the pursuit of these

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Speaker 3: and when you look at this case, you just see,

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Speaker 3: you know, one unethical thing after another, you know, taking

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Speaker 3: the man, the witness whose fingerprints show up in the car,

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Speaker 3: somebody you've convicted and sentenced to prison in life for life,

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Speaker 3: and you've also convicted Leo Scofield. Somebody from that office

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Speaker 3: should have say, hey, maybe this is a conflict, maybe

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Speaker 3: you want to get somebody else in there. But this guy,

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Speaker 3: John Aguero, I'm absolutely convinced, was in there to protect

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Speaker 3: his own conviction of Leo Schofield by manipulating Jeremy Scott

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Speaker 3: in a closed door meeting with no witnesses, no tape recorder.

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Speaker 3: No nobody should ever do that, No office should ever

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Speaker 3: approve of something like that, and this just happens time

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Speaker 3: and time again. It's about protecting the conviction. A lot

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Speaker 3: of times, these prosecutors have their eyes on judgeship. They

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Speaker 3: don't want a black mark of a wrongful conviction hanging

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Speaker 3: over them. And you know, you might be able to

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Speaker 3: get away with this in a small rural county, like

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Speaker 3: a real law and order county, where there isn't as

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Speaker 3: much scrutiny from the media as maybe you might get

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Speaker 3: in Miami or Tampa or Jacksonville. And so I think

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Speaker 3: this office was used to getting away with things like this.

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Speaker 3: And it's true they've had a couple other wrongful convictions,

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Speaker 3: but from the same time. But yeah, it plays a

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Speaker 3: really big role. And again I don't think it was

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Speaker 3: really anything the police we're doing, other than you know,

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Speaker 3: a little bit of an incompetence. It was really this

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Speaker 3: prosecutor who was really protecting Leo's conviction and willing to

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Speaker 3: bend the rules and the law to do it.

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