A decade after a California woman was found dead with a gunshot wound and a suicide note beside her body, prosecutors now say the scene was staged – and that her husband, a onetime mayoral candidate, was the killer.
Contra Costa County prosecutors announced Friday that Michael Anthony Leon, 66, has been arrested and charged with murdering his wife, Brenda Joyce Leon, and making her death appear to be a suicide in 2015.
“Brenda Joyce’s family never lost faith that the truth would come to light,” Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said.
Brenda Leon, 52, was found dead inside her Antioch home on September 28, 2015. Police located a suicide note at the scene and initially ruled her death a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Now, investigators believe her husband, Michael Leon, staged the scene before police arrived. Leon, who had run for mayor of Antioch three years earlier, finished fourth. His campaign platform focused on small business growth, opposing tax increases and using neighborhood watch programs to fight crime.
Brenda’s two adult daughters, Michelle Wonders and Monica Tagas, questioned the ruling from the start and spent years pressing authorities to reopen the case, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.
In August 2021, the sisters filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that a John Doe suspect had “intentionally shot” their mother and “forged a suicide note and otherwise falsified evidence at the scene of the killing to give the impression that [their mother] had killed herself,” the Chronicle reported.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office later assigned the case to its cold-case unit.
In a statement Friday, prosecutors said the renewed investigation “uncovered previously unknown digital evidence and new factual details that were central to the decision to file charges.” Those details have not been made public.
Court records obtained by the Chronicle show investigators reopened the case and obtained a search warrant in 2024 that led to the discovery of new digital evidence.
Leon was arrested on January 22 at his home in Antioch. He is charged with first-degree murder, with an enhancement for the personal use of a firearm causing death.
Brenda Leon was originally from Concord, California, and worked for her father’s transportation company before marrying and raising her children, according to her 2015 obituary.
She was remembered as a “doting” grandmother who “lived life as a friend to all and carried the qualities of loyalty, selflessness and unconditional love with her throughout her time on this Earth.”
“Family and friends would describe her as a loving and proud mother who found true happiness in watching her family grow,” the obituary said. “She enjoyed the simple things in life and always reminded those around her to find the good in everyone and everything.”
Leon is being held on $1 million bail and is set to be arraigned in court Monday. If convicted, Leon faces a maximum sentence of 50 years to life in prison.
“Today’s filing in Contra Costa Superior Court honors that perseverance and demonstrates that cold cases are never forgotten, regardless of how much time has passed,” Becton said.
The civil wrongful death lawsuit remains ongoing. The next case management conference is scheduled for April.
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