"A woman accused of killing a retired nurse in the parking structure of the Promenade on the Peninsula mall in Rolling Hills Estates was struggling to find funds to send her and her daughter on a trip to Florida for her daughter's team cheer competition, a prosecutor told a Torrance Superior Court jury during opening statements of the woman's trial on Wednesday, Nov. 12."
"But a public defender representing Cherie Lynnette Townsend, 47, told the jury there would be no scientific evidence to prove that her client committed the crime, nor did investigators find the murder weapon. Townsend faces a charge of murder in the stabbing death of 66-year-old Susan Leeds of Rancho Palos Verdes, who was found bloodied and barely breathing in the driver's seat of her SUV on May 3, 2018. She died minutes later."
"As part of a birthday present for her daughter, Townsend offered to take two of her friends with them to Florida. They gave her about $350 in cash so Townsend could by the tickets and fly them out, Thompson said. She made promises that she was not going to be able to keep, Thompson told the jury. She never bought the tickets."
Cherie Lynnette Townsend, 47, is charged with the May 3, 2018 stabbing death of 66-year-old Susan Leeds of Rancho Palos Verdes. Leeds was found bloodied and barely breathing in the driver's seat of her SUV and died minutes later. Investigators recovered a note on Townsend's phone referencing financial strain and her daughter's upcoming cheer competition; Townsend was reportedly about $2,000 short of travel expenses and accepted about $350 from friends but did not purchase tickets. No murder weapon has been recovered and no scientific evidence directly ties Townsend to the killing, while prosecutors allege Townsend waited in the mall parking structure and attacked Leeds after she entered her SUV around 12:13 p.m.
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