Charges dismissed against Colorado woman charged with young daughter's murder

A murder case against a Cortez woman recently fell apart after prosecutors learned a key piece of evidence, her cell phone and the alleged searches on it that she conducted prior to her 5-year-old daughter's death, would be removed from the case.

The child, Annika Mae Leonard Sandoval, was found dead inside a Montezuma County home in March 2022. 

Local media reports since the child's death tell how her mother was indicted by a grand jury and charged with her murder in August 2025. Evidence presented to that grand jury by prosecutors included the searches performed on the mother's cell phone leading up to the day of the child's death.

According to the Durango Herald, the cell phone's internet browser searched "Will 150 500 mg of Tylenol pm overdose?" and "how long does it take to suffocate." The cell phone was also used to navigate to a forum online that discussed suffocating someone with a pillow, according to the Durango Herald's coverage. 

That cell phone evidence was critical to the prosecution. It was also why the case was eventually dismissed and closed.

Shortly after first responders arrived at the home shared by the woman and her father, the father allowed a Montezuma County Sheriff's Office detective to enter a bedroom to take photographs of the scene as part of the investigation. The child was lying on the bed, according to details provided by the Durango Herald. 

The detective found the mother's phone on the floor beside the bed, covered in vomit. The detective picked it up and collected it as evidence. 

A week later, the detective filed for a warrant to search the phone's contents. That warrant was denied by a judge who determined the detective's written affidavit did not establish probable cause, as described by the Durango Herald. Instead of returning the phone to the mother, investigators kept it. 

Then, there was a lull in the investigation. Following staffing changes, newly assigned detectives filed new warrants in January 2023, nearly nine months after the phone was removed from the home. This time, access was granted.

Later, after the 39-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to the murder charge last year, her attorneys filed motions challenging the original detective's removal of the phone from the scene without authorization. A "warrantless seizure," by definition, they argued. 

The defense attorneys also claimed the length of time it took to obtain warrants to search the phone violated case law, as stated by the Durango Herald.

Initially, prosecutors with the 22nd Judicial District Attorney's Office defended the actions of the investigators, per the Herald. They said the phone was in "plain view" and didn't require a warrant. 

But as time wore on and case law was argued, it became apparent to the prosecutors that the cell phone and its contents would not be allowed at trial. 

Another complication was the physical reason behind the young girl's passing. The initial coroner's report, as detailed by the Durango Herald, failed to reach any conclusions. An "undetermined" cause of death. 

Defense attorneys for the woman brought in their own expert pathologist, Michael Arnall. He re-interpreted the examinations and data of the original coroner's report, and contradicted its conclusion. He said the report contained significant findings that showed heart arrhythmia or a seizure disorder as potential causes, rather than suffocation by another person.

"There are significant wounds you would see – signs of facial trauma, bruising, petechial hemorrhaging, pressure application," he said, arguing those findings were not present in the autopsy.  

The woman's defense team continued by adding reports of a family history of heart issues, including relatives who died from heart attacks, as stated in the Durango Herald's coverage.

"When the dust settles on this," Colorado Public Defender John J. Moran said in a January hearing, as quoted by the Herald, "Annika's last moments were not violent acts at the hands of her mother but that she died peacefully in her sleep."  

At the end of that hearing, La Plata District Court Judge Todd Plewe reduced the mother's bond from $2 million to $250,000. 

That same month, Jeremy Reed was sworn in as the new District Attorney. His office eventually filed a motion to dismiss the case against the woman nine months later.

"The office does not believe the remaining evidence will meet the judicial system's high standards to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," it stated in a press release announcing its decision.

"This is one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make," Reed's office wrote in that press release. "Over the past four years, the office of the District Attorney, including my administration, has put forth every effort imaginable to obtain justice for this 5-year-old victim. This is not the outcome I wanted, but ethically I cannot move forward on cases where I do not have a good faith belief we can secure a conviction. District Attorneys are held to the highest ethical and legal standards, and it is important to this office that we meet those high expectations, even when the result is not desirable."

Judge Plewe granted the motion on Oct. 15, dismissing the charge and closing the case "without prejudice" - meaning a new case could be refiled against the child's mother if new evidence is discovered. If, that is, the evidence is potentially strong enough to prove in court that the woman played a criminal role in her child's death. 

Before the judge granted the motion, however, he heard from the child's father. A Cortez-based radio station, KSJD, attended that hearing. 

"Her whole life was ahead of her – so many milestones to reach, dreams to chase, memories left to make," Brian Sandoval told the court while often struggling to speak, per KSJD's report. "My daughter was not just a case number in a file; she was a little girl whose life mattered. My family will forever be broken. Every day I have to live with the reality that Annika is gone while the world continues to move forward."

"I put all my faith into the justice system to do the right thing, and I feel that it has failed me and my daughter," Sandoval continued. "I had hoped for some kind of closure or accountability, but instead I am left unanswered."   

Judge Plewe, after closing the case, sealed its records. There is no longer public access to it or official acknowledgment that it happened. For that reason, CBS Colorado has chosen not to publish the woman's name.

Reed, meanwhile, told CBS Colorado he is working regularly with law enforcement in his district, including the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office, in an effort to improve and maintain the standard of investigative practices. He is now personally available to any deputies or detectives who have questions and has assigned an on-call prosecutor to handle calls from investigators outside of regular business hours.