Woman Found Guilty of Killing Retired Nurse to Get Money for Daughter’s Cheerleading Trip

Cherie Townsend has been convicted of killing a retired nurse in what authorities say was an attempt to get money to send her daughter to a cheerleading competition, according to multiple reports.

Townsend was found guilty of first-degree murder on December 4 for the killing of 66-year-old Susan Leeds on May 3, 201, in the parking structure of the Promenade on the Peninsula shopping mall in Rolling Hills Estates, California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) confirmed in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Leeds was stabbed 17 times shortly after noon.

According to PEOPLE, the LASD said in a statement, “When [Lomita Station Deputies] arrived [at the murder scene], they observed the victim in the driver’s seat of her vehicle suffering from multiple stab wounds. Paramedics responded and subsequently pronounced the victim deceased.”