Kriti Mehrotra
Shraman Mitra
NBC’s ‘Dateline: Point Blank’ explores the murder of a 45-year-old man by the name of Todd Chance, which transpired back in August of 2013 and shook the city of Bakersfield, California, to its core. This two-hour special follows the events that led to his murder, along with how the investigators followed a trail of video evidence that eventually lead them to his killer. And as we see, it was none other than his wife, Leslie Jenea Chance, who was responsible for it all.
Who Is Leslie Jenea Chance?
Leslie Jenea Chance is a former school teacher turned administrator who, back in 2013, was the principal of Fairview Elementary School in Bakersfield. She and Todd got married in the mid-1990s enjoyed a blissful life for almost 17 years. Yes, they had financial troubles along the way, and yes, they had their arguments, but for the rest of the world, it seemed as if there was nothing that could tear them apart. While most neighbors described them as a typical American couple, they mentioned how Leslie would often go out of her way to help the people of her community. However, unbeknown to all, trouble brewed behind closed doors, ultimately leading to a tragedy in August 2013.
On August 25, 2013, Leslie put her sinister plan into motion and drove out with her husband to an almond orchard in Northwest Bakersfield. She then shot him twice at close range, killing Todd on the spot before driving away in his car. According to reports, Leslie also tried her best to cover her tracks by abandoning the car in a southwest neighborhood before traveling around the city while changing her clothes and discarding the items she had so as to not come under suspicion.On top of it, when questioned, she insisted that the last time she saw Todd was when he left for a gun show alongside his father.
However, Leslie’s story soon fell apart as Todd’s father insisted that they had no plans of attending a gun show on the day of his son’s death. Moreover, once the police located Todd’s car, they carried out a thorough search and found a firearm, which was later determined as the one used in the murder. On top of it, they also found CCTV evidence which showed Leslie abandoning the car before driving around town, getting rid of her belongings.
Incidentally, Leslie became an even bigger suspect when the police learned that she had a rocky relationship with her husband. Moreover, while they believed that the suspect was after Todd’s life insurance money, they also found nude pictures of a different girl on the victim’s phone. This confirmed that Todd had rekindled a relationship with his ex-fiancee, Carrie Williams, which was an extremely valid motive for murder. Hence, with enough evidence to warrant an arrest, Leslie was charged with her husband’s murder on August 29, 2013.
Leslie Jenea Chance is Currently Behind the Bars
Leslie Jenea Chance was re-arrested on the charges of first-degree murder three years after Todd Chance was found slain, having been released from behind bars in 2013 itself as the DA’s office had sent the case back to the investigators for review. However, her first trial ended in a hung jury, and the retrial began as scheduled in December 2019.
The lead prosecutor on her case told the jurors that despite Leslie’s well-known aversion to firearms and their use, she “prepared an involved and detailed lesson plan on how to murder her husband.” They revealed CCTV footage that showed Leslie scouting the path she would take after killing her husband, along with detailing how, in the weeks before the incident, she had enthusiastically attended a shooting practice with her family.
In the end, Leslie Jeane was found guilty of murdering her husband, Todd Chance, and in September 2020, after the global COVID-19 pandemic pushed back her sentence hearing by months, she was given 50 years to life in prison. Therefore, Leslie, at the age of 53, is currently behind bars, incarcerated at the minimum-maximum Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, with a parole eligibility date of November 2041.
Read More: Where Is Carrie Williams Now?
