Woman gets 26-to-life for killing retired nurse at Rolling Hills mall – NBC Los Angeles

A woman, convicted of fatally stabbing a Rolling Hills woman inside the parking garage of a mall, will spend 26 years to life in state prison.

The sentence was handed down for Cherie Lynnette Townsend, 47, on Friday after she was found guilty last December of the 2018 fatal stabbing of Susan Leeds, 66, of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Prosecutors had argued that Townsend, now 47, used a knife and stabbed Leeds 17 times in the neck and upper body inside her white 2016 Mercedes-Benz SUV. Leeds also had a wound on a finger and bruises, which medical examiners said were the results of her attempt to defend herself. 

The prosecution also contended that Townsend killed Leeds during a robbery as the mother of two children had struggled financially. Bank records showed that Townsend had a balance in her account as high as nearly $192 one month, a negative balance of $6.76 in January 2018, a 30-cent balance the next month and a zero balance between March 2018 and May 2018, a detective testified during the trial.

Before the sentencing, the victim’s best friend Lynn Statham made a statement, pleading with LA County Superior Court Judge John J. Lonergan Jr. to give Townsend the maximum punishment. 

“She was steady, kind and selfless,” Statham said about Leeds. “She spent her entire life healing, teaching and comforting and serving others, only to have her own life end in violence. It is that injustice I struggle to comprehend with. Why her?”

Statham added that Leeds’ close family members, including her husband, brother and sister, all passed away since her murder, not living long enough to see the outcome.

“None of them saw accountability,” the victim’s friend said.

During Friday’s hearing, Townsend did not show emotion until Judge Lonergan mentioned that the convicted killer may be able to see her friends and family but her victim cannot.

“You’re going to likely have an opportunity to get out one day, but even while you’re confined, you have the opportunity to talk and see and even touch your family and your loved ones,” the judge said. “Susan Leeds will never be able to do that.”

Police Friday re-arrested a woman who five years ago was released in the stabbing death of a nurse in Rolling Hills Estates. Eric Leonard reports Aug. 25, 2023.

Townsend was arrested in 2018 after her phone was found under Leeds’ car, but released from custody five days later after prosecutors asked law enforcement to conduct further investigation into the crime. 

While maintaining her innocence, Townsend then filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against then-LA County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, the sheriff’s department, LA County and the cities of Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills Estates, and other individuals. The civil lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice.

“I was arrested for a murder I didn’t commit,” Townsend told NBC Los Angeles in September 2018. “It’s important for my story to be out, because I was wrongly accused.”

Townsend was re-arrested in August 2023 by the Sheriff’s Department’s Fugitive Unit and has remained behind bars since then.