Sentencing brings some closure for Chance family

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For Maricopa resident and businessman Mike Chance, last Friday’s sentencing of Robert Lemke to life in prison brings some closure to an ordeal that has gone on for five years.

It was Lemke, 29, who confessed to the 2002 murder in a Tempe motel room of Empire Auto Glass owner Rick Chance, Mike’s brother. Lemke will be eligible for parole once he completes nearly 25 years of sentences for other crimes.

In 2005, Lemke was found guilty of theft and conspiracy to commit theft. Jurors, however, were hung regarding the murder charge. Lemke later changed his plea to guilty and admitted shooting Chance in the chest during the robbery in the motel room.

Rick Chance, who grew up in Maricopa, had gone to the motel with a woman who played a part in a robbery gone badly.

Brandi Hungerford was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison for her role in the case. Hungerford pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy charges. Investigators said Hungerford was not in the room at the time of the shooting.

Both Hungerford and Lemke have already served close to five years.

In a conversation with inmaricopa.com, Mike Chance said Friday’s court proceedings allows his family the opportunity to move on, but the loss of his older brother will never go away.

Describing the court scene, Chance said it was a very powerful moment.

“We had sentencing for Brandi last month, and it wasn’t the type of situation where I could address her directly,” Chance commented. “This time (Lemke sentencing), I was able to address him. I sensed he just wanted to get it over with. To call it a dramatic moment would be an understatement. I just spoke from the heart and kept my emotions in check. You wait a little over five years for this moment to talk to the person who killed your brother. The intensity meter was off the charts.”

Chance said other family members were in the courtroom, including his sister and mother.

“Rick’s daughter had planned on attending but it proved very difficult for her and she didn’t go,” Chance said. His (Lemke) confessing to where he pulled the trigger allows us to get past this. Had we gone to court and gotten a conviction, he still may not have confessed. Some may have theorized that Brandi set him up. This ends any speculation as to who pulled the trigger.”

Moving forward, Chance said the last few days have brought out emotions in him.

“We’ve really had to delay mourning my brother with all the time in court,” Chance said. “You never really have the opportunity to move past it because every hearing stirs it up again. We can now find closure and mourn him in a more appropriate way. We’re a close-knit group, and I can’t say enough about the friends I have in Maricopa and Casa Grande” Chance’s family has been a part of Maricopa since 1952.

Asked if Rick would be satisfied with the outcome, Chance said he thought he would.

Chance also wanted to make clear the flamboyant side people saw of Rick Chance in television advertisements for his auto glass company and elsewhere was “a fraction of his personality.”

“This has given me a whole new perspective on what victims’ families go through,” Chance said. “There are families out there that have had it far worse when their loved one goes missing. I don’t know how people go through living with that. The concept of justice and closure must seem like pie in the sky. This took a long time, but justice was served.”

Asked about Lemke’s accomplice, Chance said Hungerford did show remorse for her role in the crime.

“What she agreed to do was reprehensible, but I don’t think she thought he (Rick) would be killed,” Chance noted. “When you think about it, he (Lemke) was the only living witness. She probably knew what happened, but I think she was smart enough not to let him know she knew what happened. We all were actually surprised when they found her alive days later.”

Hungerford and Lemke were discovered a few days after the murder in Washington State when they were arrested.