Cherie Lynnette Townsend convicted of murder in stabbing death of Susan Leeds in Rolling Hills Estates mall parking garage

ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. (CNS) — A woman who sued Los Angeles County after being arrested and then released in connection with the stabbing death of a woman in a parking garage at a Rolling Hills Estates mall — but was subsequently re- arrested more than five years later — was convicted Thursday of murder.

Jurors deliberated just under a day before finding Cherie Lynnette Townsend, now 47, of first-degree murder for the May 3, 2018, killing of Susan Leeds, 66, of Rancho Palos Verdes.

The seven-woman, five-man panel also found true an allegation that Townsend personally used a knife during the commission of the crime.

Townsend — whose attorney clutched her hand in the Torrance courtroom — is due back in court for sentencing Jan. 23 by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John J. Lonergan Jr. She is facing 26 years to life in state prison.

Leeds was attacked in broad daylight while inside her white 2016 Mercedes-Benz SUV, which was parked on the first floor in the parking garage of the Promenade on the Peninsula in the 500 block of Deep Valley Drive.

Leeds had been stabbed 17 times in the neck and upper body, and had one incise wound on a finger and bruises that indicated she may have tried to defend herself, according to Paul Gliniecki, a deputy medical examiner who reviewed the results of the autopsy and testified during a hearing last year in which Townsend was ordered to stand trial.

Townsend was initially arrested in May 2018 in connection with Leeds’ killing, then released from custody five days later after prosecutors asked law enforcement to conduct further investigation into the crime.

After Townsend’s arrest in 2018, then-Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said Townsend’s vehicle — a gold-colored 2008 Chevrolet Malibu — had been parked on the same floor. He noted then that there was still a “tremendous amount of investigative work” to be done.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in November 2018, Townsend sued Los Angeles County, McDonnell and the then-mayors of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, alleging false imprisonment, defamation, emotional distress, negligence and civil rights violations.

In a statement released after Townsend filed a multimillion-dollar damages claim in October 2018, the sheriff’s department called it a “very complex, yet active investigation.”

“Investigators are still receiving tips from the public and are diligently following up on each and every lead. With the lack of eyewitnesses in this case, the physical and forensic evidence collected is continually re- evaluated. Additionally, investigators are coordinating their efforts in the furtherance of this investigation with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office Major Crimes Unit,” the sheriff’s department said then.

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

The civil lawsuit filed by Townsend was dismissed without prejudice shortly after her arrest.

Deputy District Attorneys Paul Thompson and Jonathan Chung contended that Townsend killed Leeds during a robbery. A separate robbery charge filed against Townsend in 2023 was dismissed shortly before the trial as a result of the statute of limitations.

In his closing argument Wednesday, Chung told the panel that “all of the evidence points to the defendant.”

Defense attorney Elizabeth Landgraf countered, “Ms. Townsend did not kill Susan Leeds … I don’t know who killed her. … It was certainly not Cherie Townsend.”