Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
“Point Blank” is an episode of Dateline: Unforgettable that will be aired on Oxygen on Thursday, February 22, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET. It will dig deeper into the investigation that went into the conviction of Leslie Chance. Leslie was found guilty of murdering her husband, Todd Chance, in 2013.
Todd was found dead at an almond orchard in Bakersfield on August 25, 2013. His wife was convicted of shooting her husband multiple times after she found out that Todd had been messaging his ex-fiancée. At that point, Leslie made more money than Todd. Since she would have to pay him alimony in case of a divorce, authorities believed that Leslie might have decided that it would be easier to kill him. Court documents noted that she would have also gotten $250,000 life insurance money upon his death.
The Bakersfield Now reported that the autopsy found two bullet shots to the right side of Todd Chance’s chest. During the investigation, Leslie Chance told the police that Todd was a gun enthusiast. She also mentioned that a .38 revolver had been missing from his collection of guns. Although investigators initially suspected that Todd was a victim of robbery, the fact that he still had his wallet and cell phone on him made it an unlikely possibility.
Tire tracks from the crime scene indicated that the vehicle proceeded north in Todd’s Ford Mustang. However, the DNA samples taken from the car and the gun were inconclusive. According to court documents, this was because minimal amount of genetic material could be retrieved from them, suggesting that the killer might have planned the crime and probably bleached the car and gun to avoid identification.
How many years in prison was Leslie Chance sentenced to?
Leslie Chance was convicted of first-degree murder of Todd Chance on January 31, 2020, around seven years after the murder. Bakersfield Californian reported that prosecutors argued Leslie driving her husband to the crime scene, shooting him dead, and then leaving his car at a different location. From there, she either took a taxi or walked back.
Leslie Chance was 56 years old when she was convicted of Todd Chance’s murder. Her first trial was reportedly dismissed as there seemed to be a conflict of interest between Leslie and her trial counsel. However, in the second trial, she was found guilty of first-degree murder. She was then sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. While she was serving this sentence, she appealed to the court and said that her conviction was based on circumstantial evidence only, per ABC Bakersfield.
She also accused law enforcement authorities of hiding several interviews that she gave them during the immediate investigation. On January 27, 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the guilty verdict. However, the court did acknowledge that several interviews of hers had not been disclosed by law enforcement, although that didn’t result in any change in the judgment. Leslie Chance is currently serving time at the Central California Women’s Facility.
Todd and Leslie Chance married in 1996, after a year of seeing each other. The former worked as a truck driver while Leslie finished her teaching degree. She began her career with teaching, then administration, and going on to become the principal of Bakerfield’s Fairview Elementary School. According to Oxygen, the couple had two daughters and raised Jessica Bullman, Leslie’s daughter from her previous marriage.
Dateline: Unforgettable‘s “Point Blank” episode will air on Oxygen on Thursday, February 22, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET.
