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She Wanted to Fund Her Daughter’s Cheerleading Trip at Any Cost — Now the California Mom is Convicted of Murder

A California mom-of-two has been convicted in the brutal killing of 66-year-old retired nurse. Inside the case!

By Barsha Roy
Disclaimer: The article mentions details of murder. Cherie Townsend, a 47-year-old California mom, was convicted of first-degree murder on Thursday, December 4, 2025, nearly a decade after she killed a retired nurse. According to The New York Post, the murder took place during an attempted robbery on May 3, 2018, when Townsend attempted to steal $2,000 from 66-year-old Susan Leeds. The woman reportedly needed the money to send her daughter to a cheerleading trip. KTLA reports, Townsend allegedly attacked Leeds at the Peninsula shopping mall parking garage in broad daylight. She fatally stabbed Susan 17 times in the neck and upper body while the latter sat inside her Mercedes-Benz SUV. Townsend reportedly visited the shopping mall looking for an “easy target” to rob as she needed money to send her daughter to Florida for a cheerleading competition, prosecutors revealed earlier. She was initially identified as a suspect in Leeds’ murder and arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. However, Townsend maintained she was innocent despite admitting to being present at the mall. The mom-of-two was released six days after her initial arrest, as prosecutors failed to find sufficient evidence against her. Meanwhile, in October 2018, she filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on accusations of defamation, false imprisonment, racial discrimination, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Cherie Townsend was eventually arrested again in August 2023, and her lawsuit against authorities was dismissed. Elizabeth Landgraf, Townsend’s public defender, claimed a lack of evidence tying the mom-of-two to the murder, including surveillance footage, DNA, fingerprints, or witnesses. However, the Los Angeles Times reported that Ilene Louie, a criminologist with the LA Sheriff’s Department, testified that Townsend's DNA matched the traces found on a cellphone discovered under the victim’s car. Officials initially believed that the phone belonged to Leeds. However, they later found a photo of Townsend on the device. Additionally, investigators also displayed evidence that showed Townsend was scrambling for money. It was revealed that she inquired about obtaining a fake ID by texting her son’s former football coach and even Googled if IDs for credit card transactions were verified in Walmart. According to the Daily Breeze, Cherie Townsend also considered opening a GoFundMe page to raise funds for her daughter’s trip, but scrapped the idea, thinking it would embarrass her child. Per reports, Susan Leeds was a retired Kaiser nurse who spent much of her time aiding patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes. Her stepson, Fred Leeds, opened up to KTLA about the tragic incident, saying, “So many lives were impacted by this murder.” Speaking of his stepmother, Fred shared, “She lived a great life… a kind human being that would have done anything for anyone, and to be so brutally murdered, there’s just no explanation for it.” He also mentioned that his father, who was married to Susan for 25 years, passed away in 2022 while waiting for justice. “The last words from him to me were, ‘My Susie didn’t deserve this,’” Fred mentioned. Cherie Townsend is set to be sentenced on January 23, 2026. She is expected to face 26 years to life in prison.

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