A Colorado man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after killing his wife in a calculated murder plot just one day before their divorce was finalized.
David Lechner, 47, shot his attorney wife, Tracy, 42, in their Arapahoe County home. Her body was found in the garage of her Denver-area home.
Tracy was described in court as a “super mum” of two children, aged seven and nine.
A witness saw him shoot his wife and then proceeded to block her from driving away by ramming his rental truck into the side of David’s vehicle.
Lechner argued that the shooting was self-defense, claiming that he had only entered the garage in an attempt to convince her not to pursue the divorce. But the jury was not buying it after prosecutors found evidence of a premeditated plot to carry out the murder.
A Colorado man, 47-year-old David Lechner, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after murdering his wife just one day before their divorce was finalized.
Tracy Lechner, 42, was murdered in her Denver-area home. Her body was found in the garage with three gunshot wounds.
Tracy’s parents, Natalie and Clifford Bloch, now care for their two children. Both gave statements before the court.
“The murder of Tracy Lechner did not happen by chance,” a prosecutor said. “This defendant did not casually walk into her driveway…he did not casually put three bullets into her body…This was a deliberate murder.”
The day before Tracy’s murder, Lechner had purchased a getaway car under a false name, purchased a GPS tracking unit along with gloves, duct tape, zip ties and a tarp that he was going to use in an attempted kidnapping.
The morning he showed up to confront his wife, he was armed with a Taser and a handgun. The prosecution stressed that Lechner’s “end game” was his death.
Following his arrest, a judge set bail at $100 million in June 2023 and David Lechner pleaded not guilty in December 2023.
After four hours of deliberation, Lechner was found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted kidnapping and unlawful use of a stun gun.
The judge said it appeared that Tracy Lechner, in the photo, was a wonderful person, daughter, mother and attorney.
The murder took place on South Geneva Way in suburban Denver.
In court, Lechner’s own children told him they wished he would “rot in hell.”
‘I hate you. “This is what you took from me,” Lechner’s son wrote. “I hope you die soon and have fun rotting in hell.”
“You brutally murdered a kind and sweet person,” his sister wrote. ‘My mother didn’t deserve this. I have never associated with you.
The daughter wrote how he had abused them, hit them and yelled at them, but that her mother worked hard to make sure every aspect of life was fun despite his actions.
“I hope you have fun rotting in hell,” he wrote in his letter.
Tracy’s father told the court that Lechner had a long history of abusive behavior toward his daughter.
As the final divorce hearing approached, he learned he was also about to lose custody of the children, who called him “the monster.”
Despite the children’s immense pain, they are “wonderful, loving, kind and talented” children and were raised by a “supermom,” said Clifford Bloch, who now raises them with his wife, Natalie.
“We will prevail, we will hold our heads high and we will remain a family while he rots in prison,” Clifford said.
“It left a crater in all of our hearts, including Tracy’s friends,” said Clifford’s wife, Natalie Bloch. ‘And we pray we never have to deal with him again… He’s a poor excuse for a human being… In the words of the children, “Let him rot in hell.”‘
Ben Bloch, left, brother of Tracy Lechner, and his wife Rachel Bloch are seen leaving Arapahoe County District Court after the hearing in Centennial, Colorado, last June.
Just before handing down the sentence, Judge Jacob Edson acknowledged that the court could never understand all the pain that Tracy Lechner’s family had suffered.
The judge said she seemed like a wonderful person, daughter, mother and lawyer, he said.
“Juggling all that is difficult, but she seemed to have the ability to do it,” he said.
‘This was not a case of self-defense. It was a murder plot calculated to avoid divorce and have sole custody of their children. “The evidence shows that he incapacitated Tracy with a stun gun and then shot her three times, including once in the head,” said Deputy Prosecutor Tory Reavis.
“This heinous murder shocked the community and Mr. Lechner deserves to spend every last minute of his life behind bars,” District Attorney John Kellner said in a statement.