Chief Judge Todd J. Plewe on Friday reduced the bond for Rachel Leonard, a Cortez woman charged with first-degree murder in the 2022 death of her 5-year-old daughter, Annika Sandoval.
The judge cited newly disclosed genetic tests that he said the grand jury should have known about.
“The reality is, I am not here to decide today whether she is guilty or not guilty, whether she committed this crime or not,” Plewe stated from the bench. He made his ruling, noting it was not a finding on guilt and said Leonard will have her day in court.
“This genetic testing is quite compelling. But I can tell you this, this is information the grand jurors would have wanted to hear,” he added.
The ruling came after a lengthy bond hearing Friday morning that drew a packed courtroom, with supporters from both Leonard’s family and Annika’s paternal side.
Leonard’s bond was lowered from $2 million to $250,000 cash or surety and includes GPS monitoring. Leonard cannot leave the county without a court order.
“As a judge, it’s hard to go back and determine what grand jurors would have decided with this genetic testing,” Plewe said, noting he had briefly Googled the results during the hearing.
“Based on my Google searches, this makes the case very interesting and very difficult,” he said.
For about 45 minutes, Colorado Public Defender John Moran argued his client’s bond should be adjusted to reflect the new genetic results, which emerged in the state’s discovery this week.
Three markers were identified – PIK3R2, VWF and KCNA5 – which, he said, could be associated with seizure disorders or cardiac-related triggers causing sudden, unexplained death.
“Sudden, unexplained death in a child is real, and metabolic testing is necessary in cases like this. You can hear my frustration that this testing is happening four years into this case,” Moran said.
According to the Aug. 22 grand jury indictment, Leonard intentionally caused her daughter’s death. Annika was found unresponsive March 29, 2022, inside a bedroom in the extended family’s Cortez home. The medical examiner listed the cause and manner of death as “undetermined.”
Moran told the court Friday that further genetic testing was recommended by the prosecution’s own expert pathologist, Michael Arnall, as far back as October.
He said the prosecution’s theory relies on suffocation, despite the autopsy showing no physical injuries typically associated with that cause of death.
“There are significant wounds you would see – signs of facial trauma, bruising, petechial hemorrhaging, pressure application,” he said, arguing those findings were not present in the autopsy.
Meanwhile, the defense’s own forensic pathologist, Moran argued, told them “in colorful language” that these new findings were significant, showing heart arrhythmia or a seizure disorder as potential causes.
Moran said if grand jurors had known about the genetic testing, Leonard would not have been indicted. “This is a nightmare for the prosecution’s case,” he said.
Continuing his argument, the defense attorney added Leonard’s family reported a history of heart issues, including relatives who died from heart attacks.
“When the dust settles on this,” Moran said, “Annika’s last moments were not violent acts at the hands of her mother … but that she died peacefully in her sleep.”
Before the prosecutor argued on bond, three members of Annika’s paternal family spoke: her grandfather Victor Sandoval, her aunt Brittany Martinez and a close cousin addressed the court.
They grew emotional while discussing immeasurable loss and tragedy, asking that Leonard’s bond stay at $2 million and explaining they felt there were severe consequences if she were allowed out on home detention.
District Attorney Jeremy Reed then argued it was too early to draw conclusions from the genetic testing.
When asked by Plewe whether he had spoken with Arnall, Reed said he had not. Reed explained the prosecution received the results earlier in the week and had not yet secured expert review.
“I don’t know what level of significance to assign this,” Reed said.
Reed argued the court should consider the age of the victim, the nature of the charge and Leonard’s movement between different family residences across states. He said the home Leonard would return to includes witnesses connected to the case. The prosecutor argued that while she hadn’t previously fled, it did not guarantee Leonard would not do so in the future.
Reed pointed to the autopsy’s finding of “mild cerebral edema” – meaning swelling of the brain – and argued this indicated suffocation.
Leonard’s next court appearance is a plea hearing scheduled for Feb. 13.
