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| Rick Chance Murder: Where Are Brandi Hungerford and Robert Lemke Now? |
Rick Chance was killed inside a Best Western Inn in Tempe, Arizona, in August 2002 after arriving with jewellery worth about $1 million. More than two decades later, A&E’s Sex, Money, Murder: Murdered for Millions revisits the case, including the investigation that led police to Brandi Hungerford and Robert Lemke and the very different paths the pair took after their convictions.
Charles Richard Chance, known as Rick, was born on August 1, 1958, and grew up in Mesa, Arizona, with his siblings. He later attended Central Arizona College and Grand Canyon College before building his own business, Empire Glass Company. His entrepreneurial streak eventually turned the company into a successful operation, with Rick becoming its television pitchman across five states.
That success helped make Rick a millionaire, but his business interests did not stop with auto glass. He also became involved in jewellery design and dealing, putting him in possession of valuable pieces that would ultimately become central to the case.
Rick had married Norie Ann Rose in 1979, and they had two children, Charles R. Chance II and Stephanie E. Chance. The marriage eventually ended. He later married Jill Scott in a ceremony broadcast live on Good Morning America in 1996, but that relationship also ended in divorce in 1999.
On August 9, 2002, a housekeeper at the Best Western Inn in Tempe found Rick inside his room after noticing that his door was open. He was lying in a pool of blood. Emergency services were called, but there was nothing that could be done. Rick had suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
His jewellery satchel was missing, along with jewellery estimated to be worth around $1 million. Investigators also recovered a spent shell casing from the room, immediately giving them a physical clue to work with. What initially looked like a robbery soon became a murder investigation involving more than one person.
A woman staying in a nearby room provided another important piece of information. She told investigators that she had heard a woman asking someone not to hurt Rick before four shots were fired. That account suggested that a woman had been present during the incident and that the shooting involved at least another person.
Investigators then turned to surveillance footage from the inn. The recordings showed Rick arriving on the night of August 8 with an Asian woman and carrying his jewellery satchel. Once an image of the woman was released, police received tips identifying her as Brandi Lynn Hungerford, who was working as a stripper at the time.
Further information led investigators to Hungerford's former boyfriend, Robert Donald Lemke Jr. Search warrants carried out at properties connected to the pair uncovered several items investigators considered significant, including a hat containing $20,000 in cash, jewellery tags similar to those belonging to Rick and a Rolex watch.
Lemke was arrested in Tacoma, Washington, on August 14, 2002, on unrelated felony weapons charges. Investigators then learned that he might have been in the area with Hungerford around the time of Rick's death. Hungerford was eventually found at the home of Lemke's mother and taken into custody.
During questioning, Hungerford gave investigators an account of how she and Lemke had become connected to Rick. According to the supplied court account, she had met Rick through a matchmaking website and had expressed an interest in buying his jewellery at Lemke's request.
The meeting eventually became a plan to rob Rick. Hungerford said she and Lemke arranged to meet him with the intention of taking his jewellery. She claimed that she was not inside the room when Lemke shot Rick, saying she saw her former boyfriend enter the hotel room carrying a gun before leaving with the satchel.
Hungerford also said Lemke had promised to share the proceeds with her and maintained that she had not known Rick would be killed. She was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.
Lemke's legal case initially followed a different route. In September 2002, he pleaded guilty to two unrelated felony weapons charges and received a 12-month prison sentence. He was later extradited to Arizona, where he faced charges including felony murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
Hungerford ultimately avoided a jury trial after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. The deal required her to testify against Lemke. On November 5, 2002, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
That testimony became particularly important when Lemke eventually went to trial in 2005. Hungerford told the jury that she and Lemke had conspired to rob Rick at gunpoint. She maintained that the original plan had been a robbery and that they had not initially intended to shoot him.
Lemke offered a different version of events. He testified in his own defence and denied involvement in the robbery and murder, although he acknowledged helping Hungerford sell one of Rick's jewellery pieces. The jury ultimately found him guilty of the lesser charges of theft and conspiracy to commit theft on September 16, 2005.
The jury could not reach a verdict on the felony-murder charge, resulting in a mistrial on that count. Lemke was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the theft-related convictions. His defence later argued that another attempt to prosecute him for murder would violate double-jeopardy protections, but the court rejected that argument.
Lemke eventually avoided another jury trial. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to felony murder and received a concurrent life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years. His later federal habeas corpus petition was rejected.
So, where are Brandi Hungerford and Robert Lemke now? Their situations are remarkably different. Hungerford was released from prison in August 2016 after serving her sentence. Since then, she has largely stayed out of the public spotlight, and the supplied information does not provide details about her present-day life. After a case that once put her name in court records and television reports, keeping a low profile is hardly surprising.
Robert Lemke remains behind bars in Arizona. The supplied information states that he is serving his sentence at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Safford in Safford, Arizona, and is not expected to be released before 2032. Unlike Hungerford, whose prison sentence has ended, Lemke's life continues to be shaped by the life sentence he received after pleading guilty to felony murder.
There is something particularly striking about how the case unfolded. Rick went to the hotel with something valuable to sell and ended up losing his life. Investigators then had to work backwards from a room, a missing jewellery bag, surveillance footage and witness information to establish what had happened. The investigation was hardly a straight line either, with conflicting accounts and a lengthy legal process adding plenty of complications along the way.
The case also shows how one person's version of events can become central to another person's prosecution. Hungerford accepted responsibility for her own role through a plea agreement and then testified against Lemke. Lemke disputed her account and initially avoided a murder conviction when the first jury could not reach a verdict on the felony-murder charge. It took another few years before the case finally ended with his guilty plea.
My take is that the most intriguing part of the Rick Chance case is the gap between the alleged original plan and what ultimately happened. The supplied account describes a robbery planned around valuable jewellery, yet the situation escalated into a fatal shooting.
That distinction mattered enormously in court because the prosecution had to establish each person's involvement and what they knew or intended. Hungerford's testimony became a major part of that process, while Lemke's legal route was considerably longer and more complicated.
The fact that one defendant has been free since 2016 while the other remains imprisoned also gives the case a very different ending for each person. It is a reminder that criminal cases rarely produce neat, matching outcomes for everyone involved. And, frankly, the sheer amount of evidence and courtroom twists makes this one considerably more complicated than a simple jewellery robbery gone wrong.
Today, Brandi Hungerford is no longer incarcerated, while Robert Lemke remains imprisoned in Arizona, with the supplied account stating that he is unlikely to be released before 2032. A&E's Sex, Money, Murder: Murdered for Millions brings the case back into focus through interviews with Rick's loved ones and officials involved in uncovering the evidence. After learning how the case unfolded, what do you think about the different roles and outcomes of Hungerford and Lemke? The details leave plenty to discuss.