{"id":128619,"date":"2026-05-11T15:40:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/october-trial-set-for-cortez-mother-accused-of-daughters-death\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T18:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:02:15","slug":"october-trial-set-for-cortez-mother-accused-of-daughters-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/october-trial-set-for-cortez-mother-accused-of-daughters-death\/","title":{"rendered":"October trial set for Cortez mother accused of daughter\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rachel
Rachel Leonard<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A two-week trial has been scheduled for October in the case against Rachel Leonard, the Cortez woman accused of killing her 5-year-old daughter, Annika Sandoval.<\/p>\n

The closely watched Montezuma County homicide case has repeatedly filled courtrooms for months with supporters from Annika\u2019s paternal side, as well as Leonard\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

The trial is set to begin Oct. 7 in the 22nd Judicial District. Prosecutors allege Leonard, 38, intentionally caused Annika\u2019s death in March 2022, and a grand jury indicted her on a charge of first-degree murder last August.<\/p>\n

During Monday\u2019s hearing, Leonard entered a not guilty plea as the lawyers and Chief Judge Todd Plewe worked through trial setting dates. Defense lawyers had to fight to find a date that worked with their medical expert\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

The judge pushed back on allowing the expert\u2019s schedule to dictate court dates: \u201cYour expert is not running my courtroom. You got to be flexible. \u2026 You got to be more flexible than this,\u201d Plewe told defense attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we\u2019ve got to do to make that happen. It\u2019s been some time now that we\u2019ve been working with this person,\u201d stated Public Defender John Moran. \u201cIt\u2019s critical to our defense to be able to call our doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Oct. 7 to Oct. 21 trial dates were available for all parties, and Plewe scheduled a full-day motions hearing for Aug. 13.<\/p>\n

The case so far: Disputes center on medical findings<\/div>\n

Monday\u2019s discussion on medical experts follow consistent themes of prior hearings, in which that type of testimony is expected to play a role at the trial.<\/p>\n

At dispute is how Annika died and whether it involved intentional homicide, as prosecutors allege, or resulted from an undiagnosed medical condition or sudden, unexplained death, as Leonard\u2019s defense team argues.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo of Annika Mae Sandoval. (Courtesy photo\/Montrose Daily Press)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Earlier hearings centered on 3,000 pages of discovery from prosecutors, indicating years\u2019 worth of investigation, and a mental health evaluation that ultimately delayed the defense from entering Leonard\u2019s plea until now.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, throughout court proceedings, Moran and Deputy Public Defender Benjamin Currier continually urged the judge to reconsider lowering Leonard\u2019s $2 million bond. Moran said the state\u2019s evidence contains \u201creal issues with the facts of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plewe then reduced Leonard\u2019s bond in January over newly disclosed genetic testing that emerged from the state\u2019s discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, I am not here to decide today whether she is guilty or not guilty, whether she committed this crime or not,\u201d Plewe stated before ruling on a lower bond Jan. 16, noting it was not a finding on guilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a judge, it\u2019s hard to go back and determine what grand jurors would have decided with this genetic testing,\u201d he said. \u201cBased on my Google searches, this makes the case very interesting and very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the lengthy Jan. 16 bond hearing, Moran argued three genetic markers identified could point to seizure disorders or cardiac-related sudden death.<\/p>\n

Moran called the findings \u201ca nightmare for the prosecution\u2019s case\u201d and argued the grand jury may not have indicted Leonard had it known about the testing.<\/p>\n

The prosecution\u2019s account focuses on the events leading up to the child\u2019s death associated with an informal parental custody arrangement, medical summaries, and digital evidence of Google searches made from Leonard\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n

According to an August grand jury indictment, Leonard\u2019s phone showed Google searches in the days before the child\u2019s death for \u201cHow long does it take to suffocate\u201d and \u201cWill 150 500 mg of Tylenol P.M. overdose?\u201d<\/p>\n

The medical report lists Annika\u2019s manner and cause of death as \u201cundetermined.\u201d Pathologist Michael Arnall, assisted by Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers, found mild cerebral edema or swelling in the brain but no trauma, drowning, obstruction, food allergy or disease to explain her death.<\/p>\n

Instead, the indictment details statements from the medical examiners, arguing that while there were generally no signs of suffocation, \u201cif a person is unconscious or passed out, someone could put a pillow over their face and there would be no signs of suffocation, except for some cerebral edema.\u201d<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leonard\u2019s attorney says expert witness is \u2018critical\u2019 to defense<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6273,6428],"tags":[133,168,28,131,29,146,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-128619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courts-and-crime","category-courts-and-crime-local-news","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-homicide","tag-newsletter","tag-parent-and-child","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128631,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128619\/revisions\/128631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128619"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=128619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}