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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 and 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 occurred within the car parking zone of in a Rolling Hills Estates mall. Officers mentioned Leeds was stabbed 17 occasions shortly after midday on Might 3.
Investigators examined blood and DNA in and out of doors of Leeds’ white Mercedes SUV, but it surely was Townsend’s cellphone — discovered by deputies beneath the automobile — that led to Townsend’s arrest.
Thursday’s conviction introduced an finish to a seven-year authorized ordeal. In public feedback, in prison 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 Might 2018 however launched six days later, after prosecutors requested investigators for extra 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 stay 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, resembling 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 automotive matched Leeds’ profile, however the samples didn’t match Townsend’s DNA, in keeping with experiences offered 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 automotive, investigators discovered Townsend’s cellphone, which had traces of DNA that matched Townsend‘s.
In keeping with the prison grievance, Townsend had been searching for methods to give you $2,000 to ship her daughter and two of her associates 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, considering 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 offered as proof a notice she had written on her telephone that learn, “On this second, I’m fully damaged,” as a result of she was unable to manage to pay for her daughter’s competitors.
As prosecutors confirmed pictures from contained in the SUV the place blood and DNA have been collected, some associates and family members of Leeds lined their eyes and started to cry quietly within the court docket. Leeds’ physique, nonetheless within the driver’s seat of the SUV along with her palms on her lap, may very well be seen in a few of the pictures.
Townsend is anticipated again in court docket Jan. 23 for sentencing.
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