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KCSO Deputies testify in Leslie Chance trial

The Leslie Chance trial picked back up Tuesday, but this time surveillance video entered the courtroom for the first time and two Kern County Sheriff's Deputies, assigned to Todd Chance's homicide case back in 2013, testified under oath.
Posted at 6:48 PM, Dec 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-10 21:48:30-05

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The Leslie Chance trial picked back up Tuesday, but this time surveillance video entered the courtroom for the first time and two Kern County Sheriff's Deputies assigned to Todd Chance's homicide case back in 2013, testified under oath.

Jury members saw some of the very first puzzle pieces that will be included in Leslie Chance's case inside the courtroom today.

Prosecuting attorney's took the stand with more photographic exhibits submitted in court but this time they also shared key surveillance video from areas in and around Enos's Lane, where officials said Todd's body was found and a black Ford Mustang that belonged to him.

The picture of the Black Ford Mustang, took center stage in the Leslie Chance courtroom.

"This is where the car actually is...found," Defense Attorney, Tony Lidgett said during opening statements.

However, this time prosecuting attorneys called Senior Kern County Sheriff's Deputy, Kavin Brewer to the stand. Brewer said he was the deputy who responded to the area of Wheatland Avenue and Tigerflower Drive on the afternoon of Aug. 25, 2013, when officials said they located victim Todd Chance's black Ford Mustang.

"And that's where someone for some reason at three o'clock…which I'm not sure if news media was involved or not decided to call and say that someone just abandoned a car there," Lidgett said during opening statements.

Under oath Detective Brewer said when he arrived, other detectives were already there. Brewer and Detective Kevin Kimmel, his partner on the case, instructed other technical deputies to secure the Mustang with red tape, so that no one else's trace evidence would contaminate the car.

Brewer said once it was secured, moved and processed he put on rubber gloves to ensure his own DNA was not contaminating the car and began examining what was inside.

"They process the gun too. They swabbed the gun as well," Tony Lidgett said during opening statements.

Brewer said when he looked through the driver side window he could see the gun laying on the driver side floorboard, but he said he also discovered a pink towel, one spare key to the black mustang and a garage door clicker.

Prosecuting attorneys also made Brewer look at an aerial picture to show jurors how far Wheatland Ave. is from a nearby ampm gas station. Brewers said the suspected Mustang was also seen driving by on the morning of Aug. 25, 2013.

"Ampm has footage," said Lidgett during opening statements.

Prosecutors pressing play on the am pm surveillance for jurors-but also video obtained from Dennen Street an area, not far from Wheatland Ave.

Home surveillance showing a person walking swiftly.

KCSO Detective Kimmel, also assigned to Todd Chance's homicide case called to the witness stand-detailed his time spent with Leslie Chance when he first notified her about her husband Todd's Death.

In Kimmel's decades-long career he said he had delivered dozens of death notifications, but this one struck him as "odd," which is why he started recording. Something he said he had never done during a death notification.

Prosecution pressing play on that recording for jurors where people are heard crying in the background but no one knows who was crying and who was not.

The Kern County Coroner assigned to Todd's case who testified yesterday, also told jurors that of the hundreds of death notifications that she has delivered to families during her time with the Coroner's Office, something didn't sit right with her when she notified Leslie Chance about Todd.

Brewer finished off his testimony today, but there is still a lengthy list of witnesses who are scheduled to appear in court room four.