{"id":15382,"date":"2025-12-05T21:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rachel-leonards-plea-in-daughters-death-delayed-by-mental-health-evaluation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:47:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:47:46","slug":"rachel-leonards-plea-in-daughters-death-delayed-by-mental-health-evaluation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rachel-leonards-plea-in-daughters-death-delayed-by-mental-health-evaluation\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Leonard\u2019s plea in daughter\u2019s death delayed by mental health evaluation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

A judge on Friday postponed plea and bond hearings for Rachel Leonard, the Cortez woman charged with first-degree murder in the March 2022 death of her 5-year-old daughter, Annika Sandoval. The defense requested more time for mental health evaluations before entering a plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the process of getting a couple of experts,\u201d Colorado Public Defender John Moran told the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not, at this point, think Ms. Leonard is insane for lack of an imprecise term,\u201d Moran said, adding the assessments are precautionary to support possible legal arguments. He said arranging evaluations and securing state funding takes time.<\/p>\n

Retired District Judge Douglas Walker, filling in for Chief Judge Todd Plewe, agreed to continue the hearing for 60 days after Moran said his team was scheduling evaluations with University of Colorado experts.<\/p>\n

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

Leonard, 38, was charged Aug. 22 after a grand jury indictment alleged she intentionally killed Annika on March 29, 2022.<\/p>\n

Deputies were called to the family home about 10:30 a.m. that day and found the child unresponsive on the bedroom floor. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. Leonard was found \u201ccrying and speaking incoherently.\u201d Emergency personnel said she was \u201cnot acting normal\u201d and unhelpful during transport, though they did not suspect drugs or alcohol.<\/p>\n

Leonard\u2019s attorneys argued her innocence at an October hearing and said they intend to show it in court. But after prosecutors disclosed nearly 3,000 pages of discovery, including grand jury transcripts, they said they need time to review everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you are not, at this time, entering a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity?\u201d Walker asked.<\/p>\n

Moran responded that they weren\u2019t, saying he did not want to enter a plea \u201cif, for some reason, it were to change\u201d after expert review.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Jeremy Reed did not object to the delay. \u201cThe people certainly do not want an issue where we force a plea early,\u201d he said, noting he had explained that position to the girl\u2019s father, Brian Sandoval, and his family.<\/p>\n

Defense signals challenge over cause of death<\/div>\n

Moran stressed the urgency of lowering Leonard\u2019s $2 million bond. In October, her attorneys called the amount \u201cessentially a no-bond order\u201d because her parents cannot afford it. Moran argued Leonard has minimal criminal history, strong family ties in Cortez and is not a flight risk. She remains in the Montezuma County Detention Center.<\/p>\n

Reed opposed the reduction, arguing Leonard would return to the home where the alleged crime occurred and live with potential witnesses ahead of trial. He said the bond complies with Colorado law.<\/p>\n

Plewe denied the defense\u2019s motion in October, saying he wanted time to review all submitted material before ruling.<\/p>\n

Walker said setting a bond hearing sooner was not possible while Plewe is gone for December for personal and medical reasons. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we can just set the bond hearing for next week,\u201d Walker said. \u201cI am sorry Judge Plewe can\u2019t be here today\u2026 It\u2019s not directed at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moran argued that continuing the bond question until January could be devastating for the family. He said the defense views the state\u2019s evidence as containing \u201creal issues with the facts of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a situation where there is no manner and no cause of death,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n

The judge acknowledged the interest in the case, noting a strong presence from both Leonard\u2019s and Brian Sandoval\u2019s families in court Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are interested in this case and for very good reason,\u201d Walker said, while determining Plewe would make the bond ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sorry we did not get everything accomplished,\u201d Walker said, \u201cbut I think you will have a better quality hearing in front of Judge Plewe.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bond hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Jan. 16, and the plea hearing for Feb. 13 at 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Grand jury filing provides most available detail<\/div>\n

The case was filed three years after Annika\u2019s death, and the state is pursuing a first-degree murder charge despite medical findings listing the cause and manner of death as \u201cundetermined.\u201d The defense has argued this presents \u201creal issues with the facts of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly all available details come from the Aug. 22 grand jury indictment, which outlines the prosecution\u2019s account, medical summaries and digital evidence used to establish probable cause.<\/p>\n

County Coroner George Deavers and pathologist Dr. Michael Arnall conducted the autopsy hours after Annika was found dead. The indictment says the examination found \u201cmild cerebral edema,\u201d or swelling in the brain, but no trauma, drowning, obstruction, food allergy or disease to explain her death. Arnall listed the cause and manner of death as \u201cundetermined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deavers testified there were no signs of suffocation. However, \u201che further stated that if a person is unconscious or passed out, someone could put a pillow over their face and there would be no signs of suffocation, except some cerebral edema,\u201d the indictment said. He initially considered choking on vomit but ruled it out after finding no obstruction in the esophagus.<\/p>\n

The indictment says Leonard and Brian Sandoval, who lived in Montrose, met in Telluride for custody exchanges. It notes Rachel expressed frustration in text messages that weekend after the father introduced Annika to his girlfriend for the first time.<\/p>\n

Family members told investigators Leonard experienced insomnia, that they kept serious medications locked up, and that no Tylenol was kept in the house, but Rachel might have taken it to help with sleep. In the indictment, Leonard was described as upset after returning from Telluride and quoted as saying she wanted Annika\u2019s father \u201cto die,\u201d adding, when challenged, \u201cNo \u2026 but why would he do this to me?\u201d<\/p>\n

The indictment also cites Google searches recovered from Leonard\u2019s phone, including \u201cwill 150 500 mg Tylenol pm overdose?\u201d on March 23, 2022, and \u201chow long does it take to suffocate\u201d on March 27. Investigators said the user viewed an online forum discussing suffocation with a pillow, including a post stating that \u201cto be on the safe side, about five minutes\u201d would be required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hearing in 5-year-old Annika Sandoval\u2019s case rescheduled for January and February<\/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":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15382","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=15382"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19628,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15382\/revisions\/19628"}],"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=15382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15382"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}