In one of the craziest cases you will ever encounter, that shocked the quiet neighborhood of Rolling Hills Estates, California, Cherie Townsend, 47, a cheer mom, was convicted last Thursday on first-degree murder charges that brought a grueling seven-year saga to a close.
Back in 2018, Townsend was reportedly desperate for cash to fund her daughter’s cheerleading dreams, and amidst that pressure she did the unthinkable.
Cheer Mom Cherie Townsend Convicted Of Stabbing, Murdering Retired Nurse Susan Leeds in Rolling Hills Estate Mall
The mother-of-two who stabbed a retired nurse to death in an attempted robbery and was finally found guilty of killing Susan Leeds on May 3, 2018, in a parking garage of ritzy mall outside of Los Angeles. She is facing 26 years to life in state prison and is scheduled for sentencing on January 23, 2026.
Leeds, 66, was stabbed 17 times that day, shortly after noon when the Rolling Hills Estates mall garage was crowded with shoppers. Leeds, a retired Kaiser nurse, had devoted her career to caring for patients with Type 1 diabetes.
According to the courts, Townsend needed $2,000 to send her daughter to a cheerleading competition in Florida. Prosecutors said Townsend, a native of Victorville some 120 miles away, had gone to the ritzy mall in search of an ‘easy target’ to steal money from. Leeds was found slumped in her white Mercedes SUV, pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene. Townsend’s cellphone was also found underneath the SUV. A glaring detail that she called “a freak accident.”
Social Media Reacts To Cheer Mom Murder Verdict
“This animal should get the death penalty. Sadly, families kids are surrounded by this kind of evil,” said one person in the comments.
“Another senseless killing. The respect for human life has dwindled,” said another.
“Death sentence. She murdered for vacation money! Society doesn’t need this one taking up air and polluting the water,” added a third person.
Said one netizen with a different twist on the outrage: “The evidence doesn’t seem that strong, honestly I’m surprised she was convicted if that’s all they have.”
Police Let Townsend Walk Free For Five Years Due To Lack Of Evidence: She Sued Police for Racial Profiling
The case wasn’t open and shut because there were no eyewitnesses and no video surveillance in the parking lot that captured the crime. Townsend was initially arrested in May 2018 but was released six days later after prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to file charges.
Townsend claimed she was racially profiled and sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in October of 2018 for alleged false imprisonment, defamation of character, racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress in a lawsuit that has since been dismissed. After five years of freedom, Townsend, who maintains her innocence to this day in Leeds’s death, was re-arrested in August 2023, charged with murder and convicted last Thursday.
Cheer Mom Considered GoFundMe But Thought It Would Embarrass Daughter
The mom of two had allegedly considered a GoFundMe but rejected the idea, fearing it would embarrass her daughter, it was reported. Townsend also had texted her son’s former football coach about getting a fake ID and Googled whether Walmart verified IDs for credit card transactions.
The pressure on parents to fund their children’s travel teams, cheer teams and other endeavors rises every day. These activities cost thousands of dollars and parents tend to be heavily involved with costly activities. This can lead to unnecessary competition and friction among the children involved and in the worst cases, lead to parents doing something heinous and desperate to keep up with the Jones’ and fund these activities for their kids that just isn’t in the budget.