After 44 years in state prison for a murder conviction, Guy Michael Scott is a free man.
And he’s terrified.
Scott, 69, was ordered released by a judge Sept. 16 at the request of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office because of what might have been prosecutorial misconduct at his 1984 trial. Scott has lived behind bars since he was 25 and is accustomed to being told what to do, where to go, what to eat and what to wear.
Now he has so many decisions to make on how to spend the rest of his life. And the world outside Corcoran state prison seems too big for him. He’s got virtually no family, few friends and little money. He’s hoping to find his two adult sons, but he has no idea where to look for them.
“I’m scared,” Scott said in a phone interview from Redding. “I’m institutionalized. I’m used to that life. It’s easy. Now I’ve got to come out here and figure things out.
“I knew what I had to do in prison. Get up, eat and go to work. Here, I get up and go, ‘What do I do?’ “
Simple things, such as going to the corner store or to a steakhouse for a celebratory meal, give him the sweats, sending him into full-blown anxiety attacks.
“It’s chaotic. Every time I go into the store, I feel people are looking at me different. … I get edgy,” he said.
Fallout from ‘snitch scandal’
Scott’s release is the latest chapter in Orange County’s “snitch scandal” — the misuse of jailhouse informants and the failure to disclose evidence that could help the defense — practices that resulted in defeat of former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas at the ballot box in 2018. Rackauckas was unseated by Todd Spitzer, who ran on a campaign of reform.
Scott was convicted of participating in the 1981 murder of Larry Miner, who was tied up, beaten, strangled and stabbed. Miner had invited Scott, Peter McDonald and Robert Neary to stay overnight at his Fullerton apartment. The next day, Miner propositioned McDonald, who reacted in anger, according to court documents.
Neary made a deal with Rackauckas, who was a deputy prosecutor at the time, to testify against the other two men. McDonald was tried as the main attacker, with Scott accused by Neary of kicking the victim. Neary testified that he, himself, didn’t touch Miner, but was outside the room where he was killed, listening to the attack.
However, a jailhouse informant told a DA investigator in a recorded interview that Neary bragged in jail about stabbing Miner. That recording could have been used to question Neary’s credibility on the witness stand, but the defense attorney says it was never turned over to him.
A prosecutor recently found the recording, but could not confirm that it had been disclosed to the defense by then-Deputy District Attorney Mel Jensen as required by law. In the interest of justice, Spitzer asked a judge to reduce the conviction from murder to manslaughter, allowing Scott to be released after serving more than the maximum 10 years for that crime.
Scott’s new lawyer, former Orange County Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, had brought the case to the district attorney and pushed for his release. Sanders had uncovered in 2014 that Rackauckas’ prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies for years had illegally used jailhouse informants to coax confessions from defendants who had attorneys, in violation of their right to counsel.
Sanders, who visited Scott last weekend, said he believes his client would have been acquitted if the defense had received the recording and been able to impeach Neary.
‘How could they do that?’
Scott, during the interview, said he was “pissed” that prosecutors withheld evidence.
“You let me sit here for 44 years when I didn’t have to?” said Scott, who was released on Wednesday, Sept. 24. “I don’t understand how they withheld stuff that could have helped. How could they just do that? How is that possible?
“You want me to tell the truth, why shouldn’t you have the same standard? … I missed my whole life.”
Scott said he wasn’t in the room when the killing took place.
Scott was sentenced to 25 years to life. He didn’t want to die in prison, but after being turned down five times by the parole board and as the years ticked off the calendar, Scott figured he might not have a choice.
His mother, Nancy Paez, remained hopeful. She put a trailer on her property in Strawberry, Arizona, for Scott to someday live in. She had that much faith. But Paez didn’t live to see Scott’s release. She died last year at the age of 88.
“She was waiting,” Scott said, “but she told me, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it.’ “
‘Everyone was happy for me’
Scott had been through three attorneys by the time Sanders took the case, free of charge, so he wasn’t expecting much. But then Sanders called to say he was getting out.
“I was in shock, I never thought it would happen,” Scott said. “I didn’t think I had a chance. … I was running around the whole (prison) yard, telling everybody, crying. … Everyone was happy for me, even the police.”
He called a friend on the outside, the wife of another prisoner, and she linked him up with the Philemon organization, a Christian group that supports the formerly incarcerated. She also arranged for him to live in a sober living home, although he is not an alcoholic or a drug abuser. But he attends AA meetings and group sessions, figuring it will do him good.
“I’m doing it with the guys, it helps me. I don’t want to get isolated from people,” Scott said.
In prison, Scott said he became a facilitator with a group that teaches inmates how to handle their problems without violence. He also became a lead man in the prison bakery, able to repair all the machinery.
He said he hopes his job skills will help him find employment. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he also plans to seek help from the local Veterans Affairs office. And he hopes one day to return to prison as a volunteer to mentor the incarcerated.
Until Saturday, Scott — accustomed to wearing prison blue — had two shirts and two pairs of pants, but Sanders took him to Ross Dress for Less for some colorful, new clothes.
“I’m looking snazzy,” Scott gushed.
Now he just has to get used to being free, to walking to the park whenever he feels like it.
“I’ve seen squirrels, big old giant turtles, birds making noises. It’s exciting,” Scott said. “But again, it’s scary.”