'No doubt': Polk Commission won't back a new trial for convicted murderer Leo Schofield

Two former elected officials stepped to the lectern Tuesday to ask Polk County commissioners to get behind their effort to exonerate Leo Schofield Jr., who was convicted of killing his wife 35 years ago and has been serving a life sentence in prison.

Former School Board member Billy Townsend, who has recently blogged about the case, and former County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson said Schofield was wrongly convicted, and new evidence raises enough doubts about the state’s case against him to warrant a review and potentially a retrial.

Schofield was convicted of killing his wife, Michelle Saum Schofield, in 1987. She was stabbed 26 times and later found in a drainage canal in North Lakeland.

But Schofield has spent the past 35 years in prison claiming he didn’t do it. And supporters, either driven or emboldened by a recent nine-part podcast by Pulitzer winner Gilbert King, point to evidence discovered since his trial. There was a fingerprint of another convicted murderer Jeremy Scott found years later that linked that man to the crime. And that man also confessed to the murder but then later recanted his story.

In statements at the dais during the County Commission’s regularly scheduled meeting in Bartow on Tuesday, they characterized Schofield’s conviction as an injustice and wanted the commissioners pass a resolution in support of another review of the case against Schofield. Meanwhile, Schofield is expected to appear for a parole hearing by April.

Townsend had presented a draft resolution to the commission to sign that would have the commissioners saying they support the state holding a new trial for Schofield, but none of the commissioners took any actions.

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“No jury of the people has ever gotten to hear the evidence that exonerates Leo Schofield and convicts Jeremy Scott,” Townsend said. “Only judges have gotten to hear that, only prosecutors. No people, and that is not how the system is supposed to work. The system is broken.

“If Jeremy Scott’s confession and if his palm print had been evidence in 1989, they would have been used in trial,” Townsend said.

In his comments, Wilkinson reminded the commissioners that since the death penalty was reinstated in Florida there have been 100 executions but also 33 inmates who had their death sentences overturned since a return to capital punishment. He added there is too much doubt not to overturn Schofield’s conviction and the fault for the miscarriage of justice lies “with the shoddy investigation” of the crime.

After the commissioners heard from the two men, Commission Chairman George Lindsey made a statement. He too had listened to media accounts of Schofield's innocence and initially supported a review of the case. But he said that after a deeper dive into court records, he now believes the guilty verdict was the right outcome.

“There's no doubt in my mind there was no miscarriage of justice, and the system worked the way it was supposed to work,” he said.

“But more importantly, regardless of my opinion, regardless of the court record, regardless of the multiple appeals, regardless of the verdict; this issue is far outside our lane of responsibility," Lindsey said. "We have no business and no standing to intervene in this matter.”

Jacob Orr, chief assistant state attorney in the 10^th Judicial Circuit, said he wanted to point out two things to the commission.

“Before you come to any fixed opinion, the first is this case has been reviewed,” he said. “It’s been reviewed by multiple prosecutors and multiple judges as you just heard, and it's even been heard by more, including the appellate courts.

“And each of those reviews has been based on the 'actual' evidence and the 'actual' testimony in the case,” Orr said. “And each of those reviews found there is no reason to disturb this verdict. Those reviews have not been based on summaries, mischaracterizations or opinions of internet bloggers or podcasters or other outside groups.”

In addition to Townsend’s blog, the case had also caught the attention King, who after a years’ long investigation released a nine-episode podcast entitled, “Bone Valley,” which sifted through details of the Schofield case. King concluded that Schofield did not kill his wife.

Orr’s other point was, “if anyone else has any concerns about this case as leaders of our community, I would invite you to the State Attorney's Office. We would be happy to share our files so you can review the actual evidence and actual testimony. I think if you were to do that, you would have no concerns with this conviction.”

For instance, when state investigators learned of Scott's fingerprints in 2004, he was in prison on another murder conviction. When they asked him why his fingerprints would be in Michelle Schofield's car, without mentioning the murder, he said he frequently cruised the I-4 area and stole stereo systems out of unattended cars. When an assistant state attorney later offered him immunity if he confessed to the murder, he declined, according to previous Ledger reporting.

Scott did later confess to Michelle Schofield's murder, but recanted on the stand. And under questioning at a hearing to get Leo Schofield a new trial, he admitted he was offered $1,000 to confess.

In upholding the judge's decision not to grant Schofield a new trial in 2020, the Second District Court of Appeal wrote, “Mr. Scott's testimony at the evidentiary hearing was, to put it mildly, bizarre. Mr. Scott did ultimately confess to the murder of Ms. Schofield. 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 $1,000.”

Commissioner Neil Combee said with a parole hearing in the future, that would be the venue to decide the fate of Schofield, and the County Commission was not the right venue for taking sides. Commissioner Martha Santiago agreed in her comments.

King, Townsend and Wilkinson are not the only supporters of a review.

A petition at Change.org now has 21,730 signatures seeking a transfer of Schofield’s case to a Conviction Integrity Unit for independent review. The Innocence Project of Florida is also among the team of people and attorneys working to get him another trial.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Supporters ask Polk Commission to support new trial for Leo Schofield