Prosecutors Tie Fatal Promenade Robbery To Suspect's Desire To Pay For Daughter’s Cheer Competition: Report

ROLLING HILLS ESTATES — Prosecutors in a rare Rolling Hills Estates murder trial this month sought to tie the shopping center stabbing death of a Palos Verdes woman to the suspected killer's anguish over not being able to afford her daughter's cheer competition, Southern California News Group reported.

Cherie Lynnette Townsend is charged with murder and second-degree robbery in the fatal stabbing of a retired nurse outside the Promenade in Rolling Hills Estates in 2018. In opening statements last week, prosecutors told the jury Townsend couldn't afford her daughter’s out-of-state cheer competition. They contend Townsend killed 66-year-old Susan Leeds of Rancho Palos Verdes, in a botched robbery, the news outlet reported.

During an investigation, officials found a note on Townsend’s phone describing her anguish over her inability to fund her daughter’s cheer competition in Florida, as she was shy $2,000, Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson told jurors during opening statements Nov. 12, Southern California News Group reported.

“In this moment, I am completely broken,” she reportedly wrote.

Townsend’s public defender, however, told jurors they should not find her guilty, as “there would be no scientific evidence to prove that her client committed the crime, nor did investigators find the murder weapon,” the news outlet reported.

Leeds was attacked on May 3, 2018, as she sat in her 2016 Mercedes-Benz SUV in the parking garage of the Promenade on the Peninsula. She was stabbed 17 times, suffering injuries to her neck and upper body, according to Paul Gliniecki, a deputy medical examiner.

Townsend was arrested in connection with the stabbing on May 17, 2018. However, she was released five days later after prosecutors declined to file charges against her, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Months later, Townsend filed a lawsuit against then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell, “and the then-mayors of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, alleging false imprisonment, defamation, emotional distress, negligence and civil rights violations,” City News Service reported.

An investigation continued, and the sheriff’s department re-arrested Townsend last August.

The following month, Townsend’s lawsuit was dismissed.

Townsend, who is being held on $2 million bail, was scheduled to appear in court Thursday, jail records show.

City News Service contributed to this report.