Killer Confesses to Old Murder. Another Remains Jailed for It

Leo Schofield, up for parole next month, was convicted of killing his wife, insists he's innocent
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 30, 2023 4:00 PM CDT
Killer Confesses to Old Murder. Another Remains Jailed for It
A 1987 photo of Leo Schofield, taken by police after he was informed his wife's body had been found.   (Polk County Sheriff's Office)

Next month, a parole board in Florida will decide whether 57-year-old Leo Schofield should be released from prison after more than three decades. Schofield was convicted of the 1987 murder of his 18-year-old wife, Michelle Saum Schofield, and as Richard Bockman writes in the Tampa Bay Times, he would surely have a better chance at parole if he were to admit to the crime for the first time and express remorse. In a jailhouse interview, Schofield says he will not do so because it would dishonor his wife's memory. He insists he is innocent, and Bockman's story raises all kinds of red flags about the evidence, or lack thereof, used in his conviction. "So much of the prosecution’s case makes you wonder," he writes. For one thing, no physical evidence ties Schofield to the fatal stabbing.

What's more, investigators found fingerprints in the couple's Mazda they could not identify at the time of the murder. Nearly 20 years later, the prints were revealed to belong to a convicted murderer named Jeremy Scott, a man with a "monstrous criminal history," writes Bockman. And what does Scott, currently imprisoned, have to say about that? In a 2022 podcast called Bone Valley, he confessed to murdering Michelle Saum Schofield after encountering her at a pay phone. "She was just at the wrong time, wrong place," he said. And as for husband Leo Schofield, "he's innocent." Case closed? Nope, prosecutors say that Scott is lying and that Leo Schofield is the guilty party. Read the full story for much more on the case. (Or read other longform stories.)

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