Rolling Hills Estates, CA – A California jury has convicted a woman accused of brutally stabbing a retired nurse inside a mall parking structure in what prosecutors described as a desperate attempt to steal money for her daughter’s cheerleading trip.
Incident Overview
Jurors found 47-year-old Cherie Townsend guilty of first-degree murder in the 2018 killing of 66-year-old Susan Leeds, a retired nurse whose body was discovered inside her Mercedes-Benz SUV at the Promenade on the Peninsula mall. The verdict came seven years after Townsend was first arrested, released, and later rearrested as new evidence and inconsistencies in her statements resurfaced.
According to prosecutors, Townsend was under financial pressure in the days leading up to the killing and had been searching for ways to quickly come up with $2,000, the amount she reportedly needed to send her teenage daughter to a cheerleading competition in Florida.
Timeline of the Crime
On May 3, 2018, surveillance cameras showed a gold Chevy Malibu registered to Townsend entering the mall’s parking structure at 9:40 a.m. Investigators said Townsend remained on site for hours, “lying in wait” for a victim.
Leeds returned to her SUV around 12:12 p.m., where she was attacked and stabbed 17 times in the neck and torso. Moments later, security footage captured Townsend’s vehicle speeding out of the structure, cutting off other drivers and running a red light as it exited the mall area…