What started as a tragic Antioch suicide in 2015 is now at the center of a murder case, with a former mayoral hopeful accused of pulling the trigger.
Michael Anthony Leon, a one-time candidate for Antioch mayor, was arrested last Thursday and is now charged in the death of his wife, Brenda Joyce Leon, whose 2015 death was initially ruled a suicide. Prosecutors say new digital forensic work convinced investigators that the scene had been staged. Leon, 66, faces first-degree murder charges with a special allegation for the personal use of a firearm, and is being held on $1 million bail. The family’s nearly decade-long push to get the case reopened has finally landed in criminal court.
According to a press release from the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, Leon was taken into custody at his Antioch home on Jan. 22 and has been charged under Penal Code section 187(a), with an enhancement under section 12022.53(d). The office’s Cold Case Unit “uncovered previously unknown digital evidence and new factual details” that prosecutors say were central to the decision to file charges. If convicted, Leon faces a possible sentence of up to 50 years to life in state prison. An earlier report on the cold case heating up covered the DA’s announcement.
How Prosecutors Say They Unraveled the Case
The attorney for Brenda Leon’s daughters says a 2021 wrongful-death lawsuit became the lever that pried the case back open. Through that civil action, they subpoenaed digital forensic records that raised immediate red flags about the supposed suicide note…