The Brief
- Cherie Lynnette Townsend was sentenced Friday to 26 years to life for the 2018 stabbing death of retired nurse Susan Leeds at a Rolling Hills Estates mall.
- Prosecutors argued the motive was robbery, citing Townsend’s financial struggles and her cell phone being found under the victim’s SUV.
- Townsend, who previously sued the county for false imprisonment after her initial 2018 release, has been in custody since her re-arrest in 2023.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. – A woman who was convicted of fatally stabbing a retired nurse in a parking garage at a Rolling Hills Estates mall was sentenced Friday to 26 years to life in prison.
What we know:
Cherie Lynette Townsend, 47, will serve the sentence in state prison as a result of her conviction last December of first-degree murder for the May 3, 2018 killing of Susan Leeds, 66, of Rancho Palos Verdes.…