A mother of two was convicted Thursday of the 2018 stabbing and killing of a retired nurse in what prosecutors said was a robbery attempt to pay for the assailant’s daughter to attend a cheerleading competition.
Cherie Lynnette Townsend, 47, was found guilty of murdering Susan Leeds, 66, an attack that took place in the parking lot of in a Rolling Hills Estates mall. Officials said Leeds was stabbed 17 times shortly after noon on May 3.
Investigators tested blood and DNA in and outside of Leeds’ white Mercedes SUV, but it was Townsend’s cellphone — found by deputies underneath the vehicle — that led to Townsend’s arrest.
Thursday’s conviction brought an end to a seven-year legal ordeal. In public comments, in criminal court, and in a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Townsend insisted she was innocent in the brutal slaying, claiming she had been unfairly targeted and arrested in the crime.
Townsend was initially arrested in May 2018 but released six days later, after prosecutors asked investigators for additional evidence.
While the investigation continued, Townsend sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in October 2018, alleging false imprisonment, defamation, racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“I live my life in hiding, afraid that the police are going to come or that I’m gonna be unjustly targeted like I was before,” Townsend said during a news conference at the time.
But Townsend was rearrested and charged in August 2023, leading to her conviction Thursday. Her federal lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department was dismissed.
In court, Townsend’s public defender, Elizabeth Landgraf, argued that no direct evidence linked Townsend to the killing, such as DNA, fingerprints, witnesses or video.
Ilene Louie, a criminologist for the Sheriff’s Department, testified that investigators collected and tested DNA and multiple blood samples that were found inside and just outside of Leeds’ SUV.
Blood found in and around the car matched Leeds’ profile, but the samples did not match Townsend’s DNA, according to reports presented in court.
The blood samples also did not match a homeless man who had been originally detained in the killing. Blood that was found in that man’s jeans, Louie testified, did not match Leeds’ DNA profile.
But underneath the car, investigators found Townsend’s cellphone, which had traces of DNA that matched Townsend‘s.
According to the criminal complaint, Townsend had been looking for ways to come up with $2,000 to send her daughter and two of her friends to a cheerleading competition in Florida.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Thompson said in his opening statement that Townsend had considered starting a GoFundMe account but decided against it, thinking it might embarrass her daughter, the Daily Breeze reported.
Prosecutors also pointed to Google searches found on her phone, including a search to see if Walmart checked IDs for credit card purchases, the Daily Breeze reported. Prosecutors also presented as evidence a note she had written on her phone that read, “In this moment, I am completely broken,” because she was unable to come up with the money for her daughter’s competition.
As prosecutors showed images from inside the SUV where blood and DNA were collected, some friends and relatives of Leeds covered their eyes and began to cry quietly in the court. Leeds’ body, still in the driver’s seat of the SUV with her hands on her lap, could be seen in some of the images.
Townsend is expected back in court Jan. 23 for sentencing.
