Rick Chance

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Rick Chance was a Tempe, Arizona-based businessman, known throughout the western United States for founding and advertising Empire Auto Glass, an auto windshield replacement company that dominated the industry by offering free meals at local restaurants.

On August 9, 2002, Chance's body was discovered in a Tempe hotel room where he was fatally shot the night before. Several days later, police in Tacoma, Washington apprehended strippers Brandi Lynn Hungerford and Robert Donald Lemke II in connection with Chance's murder. Allegedly, the couple killed Chance while robbing him of a cache of jewelry worth over one million dollars.

Brandi Hungerford, pleaded guity in exchange for second-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy charges. The former stripper was also sentenced to a concurrent 12 year term for robbery and conspiracy charges. On the murder change she was sentenced to 14 years in prison for her role in the murder of a Valley auto glass businessman.

In 2005, a jury found Robert Donald Lemke II guilty of theft and conspiracy to commit theft. However, jurors were hung on the murder charge.

On September 5, the former male stripper changed his plea to guilty of first-degree murder and admitted that he shot Chance in the chest during a robbery.

The 29-year-old will be sentenced to life in prison on October 5. The sentence will run concurrent with his 27-year sentence for theft and conspiracy to commit theft. Lemke has requested that he be transferred to the Washington State prison system.

As part of a plea agreement, he’ll be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.