A 47-year-old woman was convicted of murder Thursday, Dec. 4, in the stabbing death of a retired nurse inside the parking structure of a Rolling Hills Estates mall more than seven years ago.

After hours of deliberation, jurors found Cherie Lynnette Townsend guilty of first-degree murder in the May 3, 2018 slaying of 66-year-old Susan Leeds of Rancho Palos Verdes, who was stabbed 17 times and had her throat slashed. The killing was the first in the community in nearly a decade.

Prosecutors, showing Google searches, text messages and notes on Townsend’s phone, argued that Townsend killed because she was desperate for money she needed to send her and her daughter to Florida for her daughter’s cheer competition and argued that she searched and went to the mall looking for a vulnerable victim

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