ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. (CNS) -- A woman who sued Los Angeles County after being arrested and then released in connection with the stabbing death of a woman in a parking garage at a Rolling Hills Estates mall -- but was subsequently re- arrested more than five years later -- was convicted Thursday of murder.

Jurors deliberated just under a day before finding Cherie Lynnette Townsend, now 47, of first-degree murder for the May 3, 2018, killing of Susan Leeds, 66, of Rancho Palos Verdes.

The seven-woman, five-man panel also found true an allegation that Townsend personally used a knife during the commission of the crime.

Townsend -- whose attorney clutched her hand in the Torrance courtroom -- is due back in court for sentencing Jan. 23 by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge

See Full Page