A local woman charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter had her bond reduced Friday after her public defender strongly argued that new evidence indicates the death may have been from natural causes.
Thirty-eight-year-old Rachel Leonard of Montezuma County was arrested on Sept. 9 of last year following a lengthy investigation into the death of her daughter, 5-year-old Annika Mae Leonard Sandoval, in March of 2022. Annika was found dead on the floor of a bedroom in Leonard’s Montezuma County home. Leonard was reportedly lying on the bed, crying and hysterical.
The cause of death was listed as undetermined but per standard procedure, the unexplained death was investigated as a homicide. In August of 2025, a grand jury indicted Sandoval on a charge of first-degree murder.
Investigators with the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and Colorado Bureau of Investigation learned that Leonard was very upset the night before the child’s death because when she took her to Telluride on March 26 to meet up with the girl’s father, Brian Sandoval of Montrose, for a visit, he brought his new girlfriend along
Leonard and Sandoval had broken up after a brief relationship and had an informal arrangement where they would meet in Telluride for custody exchanges, the indictment says, and they had agreed not to bring “other people.”
However, according to the indictment, when Leonard picked the girl back up on March 28 after that visit, the 5-year-old said she wanted to stay with her “new family.”
In January 2023, investigators obtained a search warrant for Leonard’s iPhone and found that the phone’s user had done a Google search on March 27, 2022, on “how long does it takes to suffocate.” The user then went to a website that had a forum discussion about suffocating someone with a pillow, the indictment states.
According to the indictment, the phone’s user had also searched on March 23 on the question “will 150 500 mg of Tylenol pm overdose?”
Coroner George Deavers, who assisted in the autopsy, which was done by pathologist Dr. Michael Arnall, reportedly testified before the grand jury that suffocation may leave no signs on the victim that could be found in an autopsy. Deavers said someone could put a pillow over a victim’s face and there would be no signs except some cerebral edema, which was found in the autopsy.
Leonard has been held in the detention center on a $2 million bond since her arrest.
On Friday, her attorney, John Moran, acknowledged that the courtroom at the Montezuma County courthouse was “packed to the walls” with people who loved Annika and were grieving. But he said the results of recently done metabolic and genetic testing show that Annika had a rare genetic mutation that indicates a likelihood that she had both seizure disorders and heart arrhythmias.
“This gives rise to a stronger possibility that Annika’s death was based on natural causes rather than theory of the government that Annika was suffocated,” Moran argued.
He said medical literature on suffocation deaths in children strongly asserts there would be evidence of suffocation.
“Mr. Deavers, who is not a physician, said to the grand jury that there would be no evidence of suffocation. That’s false,” Moran said.
He said you would expect to see significant injuries in a 5-year-old who was suffocated, such as bruising, evidence of a struggle, facial or oral trauma, vestigial hemorrhages, evidence of restraint.
“When the grand jury was told there’s no other explanation. that is false,” he said.
Moran said sudden unexplained death in children is a real phenomenon.
“Arrhythmias are electrical deaths invisible to an autopsy,” he said.
District Judge Todd Plewe asked why the genetic-marker and metabolic testing was not done sooner, and District Attorney Jeremy Reed said he was not in office when the death occurred so he could not explain that.
Moran said he had received the test results just a day or two ago.
Three of Annika’s relatives spoke at the hearing, asking that Leonard be kept in custody.
Reed said he isn’t convinced the testing results are as significant at the defense believes.
“I think this genetic testing should have been done three years ago,” Judge Plewe said. “That does not mean the defendant should not stand trial. . . . This genetic testing issue is quite compelling in considering where her bond should be set.”
Plewe continued, “I feel compelled to reduce her bond. I know it’s not going to make a lot of people happy.”
However, he said, “to hold someone on a $2 million cash-only bond when not all the evidence in the case was presented to the grand jury makes me very uncomfortable as a judge.”
He then reduced Leonard’s bond to a $250,000 cash or surety bond. He specified that she may not leave the county without a court order, she must stay with her family, and she will need to have a GPS in place before her release.
Leonard’s plea hearing is set for Feb. 13 at 9:30 a.m.
