Jenny Jones goads Jonathan Schmitz into an awful situation featuring Old Mountain Acid Test

This story...uuugh, it irritates me.  This story is all about social media putting a man in a very awkward situation.   Listen to how one man's crush turns into another man's nightmare.  All featured on a national television show, Jenny Jones.



Leaving you with a happy ending and on a good note, as always.  This week we are featuring:    Old Mountain Acid Test, "Baby I Love You".


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Transcript

Jonathan Tyler Schmitz 

Case #95-138448-FC

Resides somewhere in Michigan

1.     Johnathan Schmitz was brought into this world by his lovely parents Allyn and Connie Schmitz on the 18th day of July in 1970.

2.      Johnathan was actually born in Pittsburg PA but they moved to Michigan when he was a young child.

3.    Johnathan seemed to have a pretty normal childhood.  He enjoyed hunting with his father, like a lot of Michigan kids do.

4.    I think he was popular in high school from what I could find.

5.     At the age of 24, Jonathan was working at a local restraunt called The Fox & Hounds

6.    He was newly single at the time of our story having broken up about six month prior.

7.    He was known around the area as a good kid.

8.    He liked to party and seemed to be enjoying that part of his 20’s.

9.    At this time, Johntathan lived in ________ apartments in Lake Orion.

10.                         He became first became friends with Donna _______ because she lived at the same apartments as she did.  So they started hanging out as friends.

11.                       In the spring of 1995 Donna and Johnathan were introduced to Scott Amadeur when his brother, who also lived at the apartments introduced them.

12.                       Johnathan, Donna and Scott  became friends and would frequently hang out.

13.                       Scott Amadeur loved the lime light.  He also loved the 1980’s and late 90’s talk shows.

**List them off together**

Sally Jesse Rafeal

Jenny Jones

Montel Williams

Steve Wilkos

Oprah

14.                        One day, Scott is chilling out watching the drama unfold on Jenny Jones when he hears this:

*Play JJ clip*

15.  They all had loads of clips like that….don’t know who your baby daddy is?  Call 1-800-MY Baby.

16.  Scott called the number 312-836-9455 and left his message.

17.  He left his message stating that he had a crush on Johnathan, one of his friends. 

18.   He stated that Johnathan knew that Scott himself was gay but didn’t know that Scott was crushing on him.

19.  The show freaking called Scott back!  What are the chances??  I mean…for real.  Even back then kind of slim.

20.  Scott then calls his friend Donna while she is at work and says something like, “Donna we’re in really big trouble.”  He explained what he did and the two of them had a little laugh about it.

21.  Donna didn’t think that Johnathan would be mad about this situation at all.   However, she did have to keep is a secret from her friend.

22.  The show apparently calls Johnathan also, tells him that somebody 

that he knows has a crush on him.  They say it could be a male or female.

24.  Johnathan tells a few people about it, his father being one.  He even said he thought it might be the girl that he was just dating a few months prior.

25.  He did get a bit suspicious of Donna and Scott and even asked them if they were in on this and of course, Donna told him NO….we’re not in on this.

26.   On March 6, 1995 Jenny Jones starts the taping of her show by hyping up her audiance.  

27.  type what JJ says here

28.  The camera’s cut to Donna and Scott sitting on the stage in their awkwardly small chairs.

29.  Scott is asked some racy questions by Jenny Jones…like about things that he has fantasized about this crush that is about to come out on stage.

30.  Whipped topping, a hammock…you know, the good stuff came out of Scott’s mouth and the whole audience giggled.

31.  Jenny brings Johnathan out for the big reveal.   It seems at first he thinks his crush is Donna but then he is told it is Scott.
 
 

32.  Johnthan’s face becomes a blank fake smile.

33.  They PLAY the clip of Scott saying the sexual things that he has fantasized about doing to Johnathan.

34.  Johnathan is blatantly mortified.  He says quite clearly that he is not interested and that he is in fact, heterosexual…not gay.

35.  In the clip that is always played of this moment, you hear Johnathan say, “You lied to me.” While looking at Donna.  That was in reference to him asking her if she was in on this.

36.  I think that Donna was truly just naive and didn’t think that Johnathan would be embarrassed by this.  That he would think it was all funny.

37.  After the taping of the show in Chicago the three of them went out to eat.

38.  Jonathan asked the other two if they wanted to change their flight to match his so that they could all fly back to Detroit together.

38.  Donna and Scott were able to change their flight and the three seemed in good spirits on their way home from the show.

39.   When they arrived back in Detroit, I guess the 3 went to Scott’s house for a few then headed off to a local bar called, Brewski’s.

-Johnathan actually called his father from this bar and told him that the show hadn’t quite worked out like he expected.  

40.  Then the 3 of them went back to Donna’s apartment (also the same complex area as Johnathans) to after party.

41.  Rumor was later spread that maybe something happened late that night between Scott & Johnathan but it was never substantiated.

42.  For the next two days, Johnathan worked.  

43.  His co-worker said that he was angry about what happened at the taping of the Jenny Jones show and definitely showed it at work those two days.

44.  On the third day, Johnathan came home to a blinking construction light with a note attahed to it from Scott.  Mentioning that Johnathan had the right tool to fix it

45.  That pretty much did it.  

46.  Johnathan went to his bank to withdraw some cash money.

47.  He then drove his sweet 1981 red stationwagon directly to Tom’s Hardware where he bought shells for a gun he didn’t own yet.

48.  He drove to a different store and filled out his background information…told the nice lady that he needed the double ott shotgun because he was going hunting with his dad.

49.  The Mossber 12 gauge was a mere $249.99 plus the sales tax for the state of Michigan which was ____ % at that time.

50.  Johnathan drove to the trailer park where Scott lived, he marched up to his door was let in by Scott’s roommate.

51.  He went down the hall where Scott was they talked for a second and Johnathan said he needed to go shut his car off.

52.  He walked outside, grabbed the mossberg and came back to the door and knocked again.  This time Scott opened and yelled to his roomate “Gary, help..he’s got a gun.”  As he picked up one of the papason bown chairs to kind of push Johnathan away from him.

53.  That’s when Johnathan shot him through the chair.  

54.  As Scott fell to the floor, Johnathan shot him one more time turned around and got in his car and drove away.

55.  Gary the roomate called 9-1-1 right away.   Scott, age 32 years old was no longer alive.

56.  It was just a few minutes later when 9-1-1 receives another call from Johnathan himself.  “Ma’am I just shot…I think I just shot a man.” 

57.  The operators response, “ok.  Why did you do that?”

58.  Johnathan actually tells her all about the Jenny Jones show and his embarassment for this guy bringing him on there.

59.  Gary would later testify the horror of seeing his friend be shot right in front of him.  He testified in court against Johnathan.

60.  Scott’s brother, Frank was notified and he went to the scene right away to basically see what the heck was going on.

61.  Media caught wind of the incident fast and they were there to catch it all on video, sadly even the removal of Scott’s body from his home.

62.  Frank would later say it all seemed so unreal and like a movie.

63.  March 9, 1995 Johnathan would be seen arrested wearing a Michigan University sweatshirt on the news all across the states.

64.  Johnathan would be charged with 1st degree pre meditated murder and felony firearm.

65.  By this time, although the Jenny Jones show had not aired….the dirty laundry from it had.  Everyone knew that the basis of this killing was embarrassment and homophobia. 

66.   Trial by jury started on October 14, 1996.

67.  This would also be one of the first court tv frenzy.

68.  During the days in court both sides would do what they do…try to shit on the character of the other person. 

69.  Johnathan was said to have mental disorders and alcohol abuse problems and that he had previously tried to commit suicide.

70.  Scott was said to become abusive when he was drinking. 

71.   Johnathan’s father, Allyn was drilled on having said things about homophobia…his son not being gay, etc.

72.  Basically, trying to prove that Johnathan did it all due to his families embarrassment to the gay thing.

*Friend, Donna testified that after the show when they were all hanging out, Johnathan didn’t show any anger towards the situation at all.  

*Donna also said that the construction light and note were meant to be a joke.

73.  There’s a few oddly important things to know about all of this trial and media stuff.

74.  During the time that Johnathan was being tried for murdering Scott Amadeur, Scott’s family was also starting a wrongful death & neglegance suite against the Jenny Jones show.

75.   It was a 50 million dollar lawsuit against Jenny Jones which was actually owned by Warner Brothers who also owned telepictures.

76.  Because all of this is one big stupid ass circle…the company being sued is the same company that owns court tv, who is making money from televising the court proceedings of Johnathan Schmidtz!

77.    A big theme from lawyers both then and now was that you can’t just go kill someone because you were embarassed by what they said.

78.  One lawyer said during the trial, “You can not kill another human being for words spoken by that human being.  Embarassment is not an excuse for murder.”

79.  Johnathan sat in the court room rather stoic.  The filming of that show had most likely been running through his mind for days on end.

80.  Then, at the trial, they keep hauling out the ol vhs tape of the Jenny Jones show and reshowing clips in the courroom.   Just keep rubbing it in his face.

81.  After two days in deliberation on November 12, 1996 the foreman of the jury announced their decision.

82.  Guilty in the lesser offense of second degree murder and guilty of felony firearm charges.

83.  Johnathan sat with what looked to me as tears in his eyes and a stoic blank look on his face as Judge Potts addressed him.  “Your sentence will rob you of your youth, but not your life.”

84.  Many people believe that he should have been charged with first degree murder.

85.  Johnathan was sentenced 25 years minimum with the maximum set at 50 years.

86.  Appeals were immediately filed as they are in every case, I do believe.  

87.  In 1999 Johnathan would have a retrial (something to do with the jury selection in the first trial) but was again found guilty by a juror of his peers.

88.  In August of 2017,  after 22 years, Johnathan, surrounded by his family would walk out of the doors at the Parnell Correctional Institute.  He was 47 years of age.

89. Media cameras were there, shouting and yelling their questions.  

90.  One of his family members flipped the bird to the camera’s and yelled, “Fuck off. Get away from us.”   Rightfully so.  I love her.

91.  The media deemed it, “The Talk Show Trial.”    We are all extremely familiar with court room drama tv today.   Back then, this was all new stuff for the media.

92.  The Jenny Jones show had successfully humiliated Johnathan and took away his life for ratings.

93.  We mentioned that there was a lawsuit against the company.

94.  At first, the Amadeur family won but like 3 years later it was overturned and big media companies ended up with the win in the end.

95.  I tripped across this story last week when watching the show “Trial by Media.”  I had no idea it was going to be a Michigan story and when it happened back in the day, I remember it all but I don’t remember that it was Michigan people involved.

96.  I can not even give Johnathan a hard time for this.  I can’t say that killing Scott was right ….but I simply can not give Johnathan shit.  The situation was all around bull shit.