Background: Cherie Townsend spoke to KCNB in 2018 after she was released following her first arrest in connection with Susan Leeds' death (KNBC). Inset: Susan Leeds (via LA Times).
California prosecutors said that a woman accused of stabbing a retired nurse to death in a mall parking structure was looking for money so she could send her daughter on a cheerleading trip.
Opening statements were presented in Torrance Superior Court on Wednesday in the murder trial of 47-year-old Cherie Lynette Townsend, according to courtroom reporting by Daily Breeze, a local news outlet. Prosecutors said Townsend is responsible for the fatal stabbing of 66-year-old Susan Leeds, a retired nurse, who was found bleeding in her Mercedes-Benz SUV on May 3, 2018. Leeds had just finished a shopping trip at the Promenade on the Peninsula mall in Rolling Hills, California. She died minutes after she was found.
Townsend had also been shopping there that day, and her gold sedan was seen leaving the same parking structure where Leeds was found bleeding to death.
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According to prosecutors, Townsend was experiencing financial difficulties in the days before Leeds' death and posted about her troubles on social media. One specific point of contention was a cheerleading trip to Florida for her then-14-year-old daughter. Prosecutors said that Townsend offered to bring two of her daughter's friends with them on the trip, and the friends each gave Townsend $350 for their tickets. But according to prosecutors, those tickets were never purchased.
A criminal complaint obtained by a local Patch reporter out of Palos Verdes, California, said that investigators spoke to the general manager of the cheerleading team that Townsend's daughter was on. The manager told investigators that Townsend had been writing checks that kept bouncing, and she had been asked to provide cash or cashier's checks to pay for team fees.
The complaint stated that Townsend had used Google to search for different ways to obtain money, including duplicating credit cards, robbing coin-operated washing machines, celebrity donations, and even finding a "sugar daddy." Prosecutors also cited Google searches for Promenade on the Peninsula and gyms in the area.
In court, prosecutors said that Townsend wanted to start a GoFundMe to raise money for the trip, but she thought her children would be embarrassed.
Prosecutors contended that Townsend lay in wait for two hours for Leeds to return to her SUV. When Leeds got back from shopping at The Gap and getting takeout food, Townsend allegedly stabbed the retired nurse 17 times in the neck and torso. Leeds' black purse, which she was seen carrying on surveillance video, was gone. She was still wearing her jewelry.
According to prosecutors and the criminal complaint, Townsend's phone was found under Leeds' car. Prosecutors further stated that Leeds' phone pinged off towers in the general area where Townsend was seen heading after the alleged attack. In the complaint, a homicide investigator stated that they identified the phone under Leeds' car as Townsend's when they saw a photo of her on the phone.
Townsend, who was interviewed by police in the days after Leeds' death, told detectives that she knew she left her phone in the parking structure but did not know where. She reportedly visited a Verizon store to try to locate her phone.
Police seized Townsend's car as evidence, but did not find any of Leeds' belongings, nor did they find a murder weapon. Townsend was arrested on May 17, 2018, in connection with Leeds' homicide, but was released days later. She later sued the county and repeatedly claimed her innocence, including in an interview in September 2018 to local NBC affiliate KNBC.
Another man was also arrested in the early days of the investigation, but was cleared as a suspect.
Five years after Leeds' death, in August 2023, Townsend was arrested again. Her defense attorney argued in court on Monday that there was no evidence connecting Townsend to Leeds' death, and Townsend's DNA was excluded from 40 samples taken at the scene.
Townsend's attorney said there were "a lot of questions that the prosecution can't answer, and that is reasonable doubt."
Townsend was charged with murder when she was rearrested in 2023.
