INDIANAPOLIS — It was early in the morning of Aug. 8, 1998 that Kasey Schoen was found shot to death in the cab of his truck at 14th & Pennsylvania streets in Indianapolis.
"We heard the shots, we looked around a little bit because it sounded like it was outside the building and we just went back to what we were doing and then I just went on home," said Leon Benson, who was wrongfully convicted of killing Schoen.
The key witness, who was delivering newspapers, was standing about 150 feet away from the shooter. She claimed the shooter was a dark Black man with no facial hair.
A few days later, that witness would pick out 22-year-old Benson, who is light-skinned and had a mustache at the time.
"I couldn't believe it, you know, and I got arrested and I was like, 'They're just trying to scare me or something,' but once it really came down to the wire about what was going on, I was like, 'They really ... the system is really going to prosecute me over this,'" Benson said.
Court records show Benson was tried in 1999 for Schoen's murder. It ended in a mistrial. He would be tried again two months later, but this time he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
"That's the closest to death on this side of life, when you sit there and nobody believes you," Benson said. "You yell and nobody listens. It's the equivalent of having a stab wound in your back and people just walking by you from the sidewalk and you say, 'Help' but no one looks. No one knows."
Benson said he spent ten of those years locked up in solitary confinement.
"Sometimes you get a shower, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you're allowed to go to the break yard, sometimes you're not, and every time you're brought out of the cell, you are in leashes and chains, so for a decade, that's how I was ushered around," said Benson.
Twenty-two years after Benson was put in prison, the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Marion County Prosecutor's Office began investigating his case.
"I missed out on just being free, being able to do what I want, but what hurts the most, I missed out on the time to be there with my children when they grew up. They were 2 and 1. It's a deep hurt," Benson said.
In March 2023, a Marion County judge determined Benson had been wrongfully convicted. It came after it was determined the detective in the case withheld key evidence that pointed to another man.
"I believe what provoked him, it was love. He had love for his kindred. He seen a person of white descent shot down. Maybe this kid looked like his son, his nephew. I get it. This is what Det. Jones does. He's not a bad guy per se, he just made the wrong decision," said Benson.
Now, Benson sits in front of me a free man, using his misfortune to help others.
"See, the common unity equals community, but that common unity is ... I don't care what side of the aisle you're on, wherever you're at, whatever your politic, whatever. Everybody wants freedom. Everybody wants love. Everybody wants justice. So, if you come to me and you're about those values, I'm rocking with you," said Benson.