After 35 years in prison for the 1987 stabbing death of his teenage wife in Lakeland, Leo Schofield Jr. will see freedom in 13 days.
For years, Schofield’s release date had been set for June, 24, 2023, but during a parole hearing last May, the state’s three-member Commission on Offender Review agreed that he should spend a year in a transitional program before his parole would be considered. Schofield has successfully completed that program at the Everglades Re-Entry Center in Miami, according to comments during Wednesday’s hearing in Tallahassee, and the commission’s investigators have recommended that he be released.
The commission voted unanimously to release him April 30.
Once released, he will move into a halfway house and be monitored monthly by the commission. His parole could be revoked if he violates its terms, including participation in a community outreach program followed by an 18-month curfew, mental health screening and any recommended treatment. He may not contact the victim’s family and will have to pay yet-to-be determined restitution.
Young bride was stabbed 26 times
Schofield, 57, has steadfastly maintained his innocence since Michelle Saum Schofield’s body was discovered in a drainage canal along State Road 33 in Lakeland, submerged beneath a piece of plywood. She had been stabbed 26 times in the head, neck and chest, court records show.
During his 1989 trial, Schofield testified that he and his father were out looking for his 18-year-old wife at the time authorities believe she was killed. Schofield had reported her missing when she disappeared after leaving her waitressing job in Lakeland.
She was found three days later, after Schofield’s father told Polk County Sheriff’s detectives that an “inner force” had led him to her body several miles from the couple’s mobile home in Lakeland’s Combee Road area. Her car was found abandoned on Interstate 4, with the stereo missing and unidentified fingerprints inside.
Prosecutors in 1989 presented the testimony of witnesses who saw unidentified people and a car similar to Schofield’s Mazda along S.R. 33 in the predawn hours after Schofield had reported her missing. In addition, a neighbor reported hearing them fighting and seeing Schofield carry something to his car much like you would carry a sleeping child. They also hammered on Leo Schofield Sr.’s testimony about the “inner force” that he said led him to her body. Additional testimony from the couple’s friends included allegations of domestic abuse.
Schofield’s lawyer, the late Jack Edmund, kept returning to the unidentified fingerprints, suggesting those are the link to the murder and create reasonable doubt about Schofield’s guilt.
‘Bone Valley’ podcast generated renewed interest in case
The case has generated widespread support after a 14-part podcast, “Bone Valley,” was released in 2022 and 2023 championing Schofield’s innocence. That production, by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and author Gilbert King, has become the basis for a proposed television series and a book deal. Schofield’s anticipated parole date, however, remained unchanged.
Several people spoke on Schofield’s behalf Wednesday, with some arguing his innocence as they praised his success in prison, but guilt or innocence is beyond the scope of what the commission can consider.
Schofield’s brother, Jason, choked up as he addressed the commission.
“I didn’t have much of a father, so he basically raised me,” he said. “I know he’s a good man and a good person, and he’s one of the only reasons I’ve been able to make it through this life.”
Only Jacob Orr, chief assistant state attorney for the Bartow-based 10th Judicial Circuit, opposed his release. He referenced the podcast, calling it a compelling story that is largely untrue. He reminded the commission that several courts have reviewed and rejected Schofield’s appeals.
Two hearings found new evidence ‘not credible’
Since Schofield’s conviction and life sentence in 1989, the Circuit Court in Polk County has held two evidentiary hearings to consider new evidence, and he’s been denied a new trial each time.
That new evidence related to the discovery of Jeremy Scott’s fingerprints in the victim’s car, and his subsequent confessions to her stabbing. Those prints had remained unidentified until 2004, after Scott had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for an unrelated Lakeland murder. He initially denied any involvement in the killing, saying he didn’t recall the car but may have broken into it to steal radio equipment. Detectives said two speakers and an amplifier were missing when the car was found.
The Lakeland-based Second District Court of Appeal said Scott’s testimony was not credible.
“Mr. Scott did ultimately confess to the murder of Ms. Schofield,” the court’s ruling stated, “but then he also confessed to murdering every other person who was murdered in Polk County between 1987 and 1988. He admitted that he told Mr. Schofield’s defense team that he would confess to Ms. Schofield’s murder for $1000.”
Over the years, Scott repeatedly has altered his story, including where the killing took place. He initially said he stabbed her in the car, but when confronted by a lack of blood, he said he pulled her out of the car before killing her.
In a 2020 ruling, the three-judge appellate panel said they found Scott’s testimony during the 2017 evidentiary hearing to be “to put it mildly, bizarre.”
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It’s just ashame that state won’t admit when they are wrong (Judd) going too their graves refusing wrong doing on their part even when it’s thrown in there faces years later (I was right)