A former San Francisco Bay Area mayoral candidate has been charged with murdering his wife, more than 10 years after he allegedly penned a phony suicide note and made it appear as if she took her own life.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office said it charged Michael Anthony Leon, 66, with murder in the 2015 slaying of his wife, Brenda Joyce Leon, in which she was found with a gunshot wound to the head.
Prosecutors said they “uncovered previously unknown digital evidence and new factual details that were central to the decision to file charges.”
That included determining the suicide note found on Leon’s laptop was forged on a separate device, said Matthew Guichard, an attorney representing the couple’s daughters, Monica Tagas and Michelle Wonders.
The sisters for years fought their mother’s death being ruled a suicide.
They first contacted Mr. Guichard in 2017 and asked him to look into Brenda Joyce Leon’s slaying.
By 2021, the sisters had filed a wrongful death suit that alleged an unknown assailant shot and killed their mother and crafted the fake suicide note.
Prosecutors said advancements in forensic technology let them revisit the case in 2024. They filed a search warrant that year after developing new leads.
“Brenda Joyce’s family never lost faith that the truth would come to light,” District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement, adding that the arrest “honors that perseverance and demonstrates that cold cases are never forgotten, regardless of how much time has passed.”
Ms. Tagas said her mother did not deserve to be killed and that her family has not given up hope that they will get justice in the case.
“We have a long road and a big fight ahead of us. And we are not going to stop until we see this person that I’m ashamed to call my father behind bars,” Ms. Tagas.
Mr. Leon, who mounted a failed bid for Antioch mayor in 2012, was arrested Jan. 22 and had a brief court appearance Monday. He is scheduled to go before a judge again on Feb. 10.
If convicted of all charges, Mr. Leon faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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