Wrongfully Imprisoned for 29 Years: The Leo Schofield Story

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“My family was supportive, but not necessarily happy.” Says Crissie, “I have friends that don’t talk to me anymore.”

She thought that advanced forensic technology might be able to make sense of the unknown set of fingerprints and began contacting multiple law enforcement agencies to see if they could run the prints again.

Carter became Leo’s greatest advocate, telling his story to anyone who will listen and working tirelessly to gain his freedom.

“A lot of people get involved [with Leo’s case] because they hear the story from me…and then they meet Leo, there’s something about him, he’s special,” says Crissie.

Finally, in 2004, one of Crissie’s friends had the prints run.

The results were astounding.

Jeremy Scott, a man with a rap sheet a mile long, a man imprisoned for murder, a man with a long history of violence, and a man who lived less than two miles away from the location of Michelle’s body.

“Jeremy Scott’s former girlfriend, Jami Nelams, testified to Scott’s violent history, saying that he had struck her with a baseball bat and choked her to unconsciousness.

Leo and Crissie tried to get a hearing based on the new evidence. After being denied in 2008, they were granted a hearing in 2010, in which Jeremy Scott was called to testify. Scott testified that his fingerprints were on the car windshield (which was false, they were found in the rear of the vehicle) because he stole the stereo out of the car (which, in investigators’ photographs of the vehicle was still present). It should also be noted that, prior to the hearing, the original prosecutor on the case, John Aguero, held an unrecorded private meeting with Scott.