Cash-Strapped Cali Mom Butchers Nurse to Fund Daughter's Cheer Trip| Crime Alert 8PM 11.17.2025

A desperate mom decides to slaughter & rob a retired nurse, to help fund her daughter's cheerleading trip to Florida.

A dad returns his infant son to his mom dead, covered in a blanket! He blames the baby's death on "demonic possession."  Plus, the "Juice" is finally squeezing out some justice to Ron Goldman after 30-years! Jennifer Gould reports. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alert, hourly update, breaking crime news Now. I'm Jennifer Gould,
a cold blooded California mother is now battling for her
freedom in a Torrance courtroom, seven years after she allegedly
executed a retired nurse in a mall parking lot structure.
Prosecutors charge Sherry Lynette Townsend forty seven, stabbed Susan Leeds

(00:24):
sixty six, a merciless, seventeen times in a savage parking
lot ambush, not out of passion, but out of financial desperation,
all to fund her daughter's cheerleading competition trip to Florida.
Here's then La County Sheriff Jim McDonald at the news conference.

(00:46):
We believe that the motivation for this crime was robbery
and that missus Leeds was randomly chosen. The shocking murder
occurred on May third, twenty eighteen, at the promenade at
the Peninsula Mall in Rolling Hills Estate. The victim, Susan Leads,
a beloved retiree from Rancho Palace. Urtus, had just finished

(01:07):
shopping when she returned to her Mercedes Benz SUV. The
mother and victim were strangers. The motive detailed during opening
statements was Townsend's crippling debt over her teens extra curricular activities,
with her checks to the cheer squad, bouncing and needing
approximately two thousand bucks for the trip. Prosecutors argue Townsend

(01:32):
was too embarrassed to start a gofund me, so instead
she turned to the darkest parts of the internet. Her
frantic Google search history, presented as evidence, is a road
map of desperation. She searched quote, duplicating credit cards, robbing
coin operated washing machines, end quote, and even hunted for

(01:56):
a quote unquote sugar Daddy before her locus zeroed in
on the wealthy mall. Townsend allegedly drove to the affluent
area and lay in wait. Prosecutor's charge, she spent over
two hours stalking that parking structure for a suitable, unsuspecting victim.

(02:17):
As leads unlocked her car, Townshend allegedly pounced, stabbing the
unarmed woman seventeen times in the neck and torso, and
then slashing her throat. She fled with Leeds's black purse,
ignoring the victim's jewelry. Leeds was found bleeding out and
died of her injuries minutes after being rushed to the hospital.

(02:39):
Townshend's chaotic escape and subsequent denial fueled the long legal battle.
Blurry surveillance captured her gold Chevy Sedan fleeing the scene,
but she left behind a crucial mistake, her own selfie
filled cell phone, which was found lodged directly under the

(03:00):
victims mercedes. After her initial arrest in May of twenty eighteen,
she was released days later. Duet police later claimed was
quote unquote shaky evidence. Townshend then spoke to KNBC four
News Listen, they had to blame somebody. They told me
I didn't have any business over there, or I didn't

(03:20):
look the part. Townshend subsequently sued the county, vehemently claiming
her innocence and arguing she was wrongly accused. However, the
case was revitalized in August of twenty twenty three when
new leads triggered a grand jury indictment, leading to her
rearrest on charges of murder and robbery. Deputy DA Paul

(03:44):
Thompson is hammering the prosecution's case with a web of clues,
the frantic Google searches, sell tower pings tracing Townsend's escape
and her damning Facebook message sent to another cheer parent
hours later that quote something huge happened today. I could
not get on that plane tonight. End quote. The defense,

(04:06):
led by public defender Elizabeth Langraft, counters with a crucial question.
Zero DNA match from Townshend on forty crime scene swabs,
and no murder weapon ever found. If Townshend is convicted
of murder and robbery, she faces a mandatory sentence of
life in state prison without the possibility of parole. The

(04:28):
trial continues more crime and justice news After this, a
young Chicago mom lifts the blanket on her two month
old son's stroller, only to uncover a scene of unspeakable horror.
Her baby was dead, rigid, bruised, and cold to the touch.

(04:52):
The man charged with this monstrous act his own father,
Anthony Evans, twenty three, who allegedly used the stroller as
a tiny rolling coffin to disguise the infant's brutal fatal injuries.
Cayla Flowers, Cason's mom, spoke to the media at the courthouse.
My son didn't deserve that. He was only too much,

(05:15):
too much because he can't fight back. The chilling discovery
occurred when Evans returned his son, Casin Flowers, to the
boy's mom, Cala Flowers, after a week long custody visit
court Docks State, Evans handed over the child in a
car seat stroller, covering Cason with a blanket and coldly
assuring Cayla the two month old was quote just asleep

(05:38):
end quote. Trusting that claim, the mom wheeled her son
into her home in the two hundred block of West
one hundred and sixth Street. Minutes later, the blanket was lifted,
revealing the horrifying cover up. Casson's lips were blue, his
pupils were dilated, his face was marked with deep bruises,

(05:58):
his tiny body was already stiff with brigor mortis. Doctors
pronounced little Cayson dead at the hospital and estimated the
child had been dead for six to eight hours, meaning
the fatal injuries occurred while he was still with his dad.
The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled Cason's death a homicide

(06:19):
caused by multiple blunt force injuries consistent with repeated closed
fist strikes to the head and body. When confronted by cops,
Evans initially remained stonily silent, but later offered a really
bizarre defense he claimed, quote, a demon possessed him end
quote and caused him to fatally assault his infant son.

(06:43):
Evans also has a documented history of domestic violence against
Cayson's mom. Chicago police arrested Evans. He has been charged
with one felony count of first degree murder with strong
probability of death injury. Evans is currently being held without
bond in Cook County Jail and is set for his
next court hearing on December twod. If convicted of first

(07:06):
degree murder, Anthony Evans faces a maximum sentence of life
in state prison. The exact motive for the fatal assault
is not known, and finally, the legal saga that lasted
three decades is finally over. O J. Simpson's a state executor,
Malcolm Laverne, who once vowed that Goldmans would not see

(07:29):
a dime, has stunningly flipped his stance. The money stems
from the thirty three million dollar nineteen ninety seven wrongful
death judgment, where OJ was found liable for the brutal
nineteen ninety four double slang of his ex wife, Nicole
Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Laverne officially accepted

(07:52):
a fifty eight million dollar creditor claim for Ron Goldman's family,
finally settling the debt. Fred Goldman initially demanded at one
hundred and seventeen million, but agreed to the negotiated sum.
For decades, the Juice dodged the tab through pensions and
legal maneuvers. Now the estate is fighting to recover stolen

(08:12):
memorabilia and plans to auction OJ's possessions, but the IRS
gets first DIBs on the cash, prioritizing federal taxes over
the justice payout. But still, after thirty years of legal evasion,
the Juice is finally squeezing out what's owed. Justice delayed,
not denied, hopefully. For the latest crime and justice news,

(08:36):
follow the Crime Alert hourly update on your favorite podcast
app with this Crime Alert. I'm Jennifer Goulder