Leslie Anne Lyon, a 25-year-old White woman from Wisconsin, was visiting family in North Dakota in the summer of 2022. She was the mother of two young children. On June 19, 2022, her life was violently ended in a rural area of Williams County.
That Sunday, Leslie was with her mother, Jennifer Balts, and her two children. According to Balts, the day took a horrific turn in an instant.
"I get up to roll the brats on the grill and I hear Leslie say, ‘Mom, he’s got a gun, what does–’ and he shot her," Balts later recounted. "She didn’t even finish her sentence." The shooting was witnessed by both her mother and her children.
When deputies from the Williams County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call, they found Leslie deceased at the scene from a gunshot wound. Also present was David Handeland, a 58-year-old man from Epping, North Dakota, who was the boyfriend of Leslie's mother. Officers took Handeland into custody immediately.
Handeland was charged with AA felony murder and C felony terrorizing and was held at the Williams County Correctional Center. His trial was initially set for early 2023 but was postponed. In March 2023, Handeland entered an Alford plea to the murder charge. While not an admission of guilt, the plea acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to likely secure a conviction. Handeland claimed he was extremely drunk on the day of the shooting and had no memory of what happened.
During his sentencing hearing in July 2023, the prosecutor argued for life without parole, stating that Handeland's plea showed he was not taking full responsibility for his actions. Handeland’s attorney argued for a 40-year sentence with 20 suspended, noting that his client looked disgusted when he heard the details of the crime recounted in court. The judge sentenced David Handeland to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
