California Principal Released From Jail

Leslie Chance, an elementary school principal in Bakersfield, California, who was arrested in the shooting death of her husband, is a free woman Wednesday.

CNN's Stephanie Elam reports.

Chance was released from jail Tuesday night after prosecutors declined to press charges, even as the body of her husband Todd Chance, 47, was found in an almond orchard, his car 20 miles away.

The District Attorney's office returned Chance's case to the Kern County Sheriff's Department seeking further investigation.

Her new attorney Kyle Humphrey, a former prosecutor, has come out swinging in her defense.

"The best we can hope for is that we have someone doing a good investigation. Sloppy investigations lead to people's lives being ruined. When the wrong person is arrested first, they almost never arrest the right murderer."

But Ray Pruitt, the spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff's Department, has sounded confident the right person was brought into custody because of the evidence found.

"We did recover a handgun, firearm from inside the vehicle, Todd Chance's car, which was found abandoned in the neighborhood."

Chance has been the principal of Fairview Elementary for 3 years and in the school district since 1997.

She remains on bereavement leave from her job at the school.