A mom of two was convicted Thursday of the 2018 stabbing and killing of a retired nurse in what prosecutors mentioned was a theft try to pay for the assailant’s daughter to attend a cheerleading competitors.
Cherie Lynnette Townsend, 47, was discovered responsible of murdering Susan Leeds, 66, an assault that came about within the car parking zone of in a Rolling Hills Estates mall. Officers mentioned Leeds was stabbed 17 occasions shortly after midday on Could 3.
Investigators examined blood and DNA in and out of doors of Leeds’ white Mercedes SUV, however it was Townsend’s cellphone — discovered by deputies beneath the car — that led to Townsend’s arrest.
Thursday’s conviction introduced an finish to a seven-year authorized ordeal. In public feedback, in felony court docket, and in a lawsuit in opposition to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division, Townsend insisted she was harmless within the brutal slaying, claiming she had been unfairly focused and arrested within the crime.
Townsend was initially arrested in Could 2018 however launched six days later, after prosecutors requested investigators for added proof.
Whereas the investigation continued, Townsend sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division in October 2018, alleging false imprisonment, defamation, racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional misery.
“I dwell my life in hiding, afraid that the police are going to come back or that I’m gonna be unjustly focused like I used to be earlier than,” Townsend mentioned throughout a information convention on the time.
However Townsend was rearrested and charged in August 2023, resulting in her conviction Thursday. Her federal lawsuit in opposition to the Sheriff’s Division was dismissed.
In court docket, Townsend’s public defender, Elizabeth Landgraf, argued that no direct proof linked Townsend to the killing, equivalent to DNA, fingerprints, witnesses or video.
Ilene Louie, a criminologist for the Sheriff’s Division, testified that investigators collected and examined DNA and a number of blood samples that have been discovered inside and simply outdoors of Leeds’ SUV.
Blood present in and across the automobile matched Leeds’ profile, however the samples didn’t match Townsend’s DNA, in response to stories introduced in court docket.
The blood samples additionally didn’t match a homeless man who had been initially detained within the killing. Blood that was present in that man’s denims, Louie testified, didn’t match Leeds’ DNA profile.
However beneath the automobile, investigators discovered Townsend’s cellphone, which had traces of DNA that matched Townsend‘s.
In keeping with the felony criticism, Townsend had been searching for methods to give you $2,000 to ship her daughter and two of her mates to a cheerleading competitors in Florida.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Thompson mentioned in his opening assertion that Townsend had thought of beginning a GoFundMe account however determined in opposition to it, pondering it’d embarrass her daughter, the Each day Breeze reported.
Prosecutors additionally pointed to Google searches discovered on her telephone, together with a search to see if Walmart checked IDs for bank card purchases, the Each day Breeze reported. Prosecutors additionally introduced as proof a be aware she had written on her telephone that learn, “On this second, I’m utterly damaged,” as a result of she was unable to have the funds for her daughter’s competitors.
As prosecutors confirmed photographs from contained in the SUV the place blood and DNA have been collected, some mates and kinfolk of Leeds coated their eyes and started to cry quietly within the court docket. Leeds’ physique, nonetheless within the driver’s seat of the SUV together with her arms on her lap, may very well be seen in a few of the photographs.
Townsend is predicted again in court docket Jan. 23 for sentencing.
