A MAN convicted of killing his wife has spoken out from jail after a different man allegedly confessed to stabbing the teen 26 times.
Leo Schofield, 56, is serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife Michelle, who was 18 when she was found dead in a central Florida canal in 1987.
While there is no physical evidence tying him to the gruesome stabbing, Leo, then 21, was arrested and convicted, mostly due to one witness who said she heard screaming coming from the couple’s trainer the night Michelle went missing.
The witness also testified that she saw Leo put a large object into the truck of a car. She was one of various witnesses who framed Leo as an abusive husband during his trial.
Leo, however, has always denied any involvement in the murder.
“Innocent is no part in it, no plan in it, didn’t know it was happening, didn’t know it was going to happen, and didn’t want it to happen. That is me,” Leo told 20/20.
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Leo’s defense team and allies have pointed to fingerprints found inside Michelle’s car that had never been identified, as reported by ABC News.
After his second wife Crissie hired a new defense attorney for Leo, the fingerprints were matched to convicted killer Jeremy Scott, who was already serving a life sentence for murder.
In 2016, Leo’s attorney Andrew Crawford claimed Jeremy confessed to Michelle’s murder during a phone conversation that was not taped.
However, Jeremy denied any involvement in the murder when questioned by state investigators, but did reportedly say he would confess to any murder if paid $1,000, according to ABC News.
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Recently, podcast producer and host Gilbert King claimed Jeremy went on the record with a detailed confession in a two-hour interview and letters.
He told the Tampa Bay Times: “He was really remorseful. He told me this has tortured him. We got him to sit down and tell his story.”
THE MURDER
Michelle went missing after she was last seen leaving her restaurant job. Her car was found on the sie of a road before her body was discovered seven miles away in a canal.
During the sit-down, the prisoner recalls the day police recovered Michelle’s corpse and says to Amy: “I was so angry at God at that moment.
“I ripped my shirt off. I punched a tree, punched the ground, I was pulling grass out of the ground.”
Regarding Jeremy Scott’s confession and the court’s dismissal for a retrial, he states: “I have a lot of anger about it. He murdered my wife. It’s a hard thing to forgive.”
Leo’s trial and the investigation into Michelle’s death are revisited in an episode of ABC’s 20/20 titled Last Seen in Lakeland.
Scheduled to broadcast on September 23, 2022, true crime sleuths can catch Last Seen in Lakeland at 9pm EST on the aforementioned network.