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ANTIOCH — The Leon children never quite believed the story about how their mother died.
Something about the way Brenda Leon was found dead in 2015 from an apparent self-inflected gunshot wound in her Antioch home never sat right with her daughters. They suspected the worst: their father had done it.
Now a decade later, police and prosecutors have come to the same conclusion.
New evidence revealed in court records this past week accuse 67-year-old Michael Anthony Leon of orchestrating his then-wife’s death, writing her suicide note while at work in a Richmond cemetery and staging a scene to create his alibi.
He is now in a Contra Costa jail cell facing charges of first-degree murder with the use of a gun.
The new court filings more clearly describe Leon’s unusual movements on Sept. 28, 2015, and how his wife’s suicide-turned-murder case might have been fueled by Brenda Leon wanting to end their 33-year marriage.
On the day she died, the then-52-year-old husband left work early, sought counsel from a pastor before meeting with friends, then returned home around 5 p.m. to find his wife dead from a gunshot wound to the head, he’d later tell police, according to court records. He then called 911 to report his wife had died of suicide, court documents show.
Many of his friends, police and even his own children were deeply skeptical of his account, according to court filings. Brenda Leon’s loved ones reported that she recently confirmed plans to take a trip to Oregon, and had recently confirmed a visit with her grandchildren hours before she died.
She had another plan in the works too: divorcing Michael Leon, who was described to investigators as “controlling” and prone to anger, according to court records.
But despite the doubt, Brenda Leon’s death was ruled a suicide, according to court records. That’s where things stood, until this past month, for the man who once ran to be the mayor of Antioch.
Only recently have prosecutors uncovered what they say is the linchpin of the recently filed murder case against Michael Leon: his wife’s supposed suicide note was drafted at the Hilltop Drive cemetery where he worked, before it was secretly transferred onto her laptop and manipulated to appear about 45 minutes after he had left for work.
On Jan. 22, police say they cracked open the 10-year-old mystery.
Officers arrested Leon at his Antioch home on the 3900 block of Bedrock Court. He is set to be arraigned on Feb. 10, and with no trial date set, the case appears unlikely to resolve for years.
But for Brenda and Michael Leon’s two grown daughters, a lengthy court process is nothing new.
The two women sued “John Doe” for their mother’s wrongful death in 2021, using the lawsuit to subpoena investigative records from both the Antioch Police Department and the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office.
The civil suit filed by attorney Michael Guichard — a former Contra Costa prosecutor — shows the family received several submissions of records and were notified that charges would soon be filed. Authorities say the daughters suspected almost immediately that their father had killed their mother and were determined to prove it, even after the initial police investigation was unable to do so.
But Antioch police weren’t fully buying Michael Leon’s account either, according to court records. Police Detective Kristopher Dee heard from one family member after another, who cast doubt on Leon’s story. In October 2015, Dee served a search warrant on the Bedrock Court home, seizing electronic devices, ammunition and sections of drywall covered in blood, according to court records.
Dee also made a chilling note in his police case file: there was evidence Brenda Leon’s suicide note had been inserted onto her computer with a thumb drive, but no drive was found at the home. Dee concluded someone must have placed the suicide note onto her computer, then left the Leons’ home sometime before Michael Leon’s 911 call that afternoon, according to records.
The note, written from Brenda Leon’s perspective, seemed odd to police, court documents show.
Its author confessed to infidelity, being unhappy at work and with life and took the blame for their failing marriage, but barely mentioned the Leon children.
A text message that day, sent from Brenda Leon’s phone to Michael Leon, apologized to him and concluded, “I have no more words, but at one point I did love you.” Detective Dee pored through hundreds of texts the pair had authored, and determined the writing style was much more similar to Michael Leon.
Family members concurred, court records show.
Three years earlier in 2012, Leon was a known figure around Antioch, as a mayoral candidate who compared himself to “Joe the Plumber” — the conservative activist made famous when he asked Barack Obama a question during the 2008 presidential campaign. He touted his work as a marketing manager for an air-conditioning company, not a career politician in the November race that year, where he finished last in a four-candidate contest.
Three years later, in 2015, he was working at the Rolling Hills Cemetery and Funeral Home in Richmond.
It was there that prosecutors allege he logged onto the internet with his work laptop to draft several versions of the suicide note, which were recently recovered by police. At a January court hearing, Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Satish Jallepalli told reporters that the technology for the type of forensic analysis that allowed authorities to glean this information wasn’t available in 2015, according to media reports.
There were Google searches on the laptop too, authorities allege. Inquiries about how investigators differentiate suicide from homicide, how blood spatter crime scene analysis works, and how people can use cellphone records to make it seem like they’re in a different location.
Family members also told police that they expected Leon to receive up to $250,000 from his wife’s 401(k) plan, money he wouldn’t have obtained if her plans to divorce had been finalized.
Leon left the couple’s Antioch home for work around 5:45 a.m., he told police, and left a little before noon. He said he visited a pastor to discuss his troubled marriage, met with friends that afternoon, returned to the Bedrock Court home briefly to grab his wallet and go grocery shopping.
He returned home around 5 p.m. and called 911, according to court records.
Brenda Leon had recently told her husband she wanted to end their marriage. Family members told authorities Michael Leon refused to accept a divorce and had been “extremely controlling” of her over the years, court filings show.
In contrast, they viewed Brenda Leon as optimistic about the future, according to court records.
She was planning to move out of the Bay Area to be closer with her grandchildren, was applying for new jobs and had a plan to leave with friends to Oregon just four days after she died.
The night before her death, she got on the phone with one of her daughters to confirm plans to visit grandchildren on the very morning of her death. Instead, her daughters embarked on a nearly decade-long mission to prove that it was murder all along.
This past week, they filed a new wrongful death lawsuit in Contra Costa court against their dad.
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Nate Gartrell
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