2 convicted of casino murder

Jury deliberates for 2 hours before ruling the women killed 84-year-old in bathroom robbery

Two Moreno Valley women were convicted Wednesday of murdering an 84-year-old LongBeach woman while trying to take her gambling money in a Pechanga Resort Casino bathroom in 2019.

After a one-month trial in Riverside County Superior Court in French Valley, jurors deliberated for two hours before deciding that Kimesha Monae Williams, 38, and Candace Tai Townsel, 42, were guilty of first-degree murder, robbery and elder abuse in the slaying of Afaf Assad at the casino near Temecula.

They face up to life in prison without parole, which is the penalty the District Attorney's Office will seek, spokeswoman Amy McKenzie said.

“I would like to personally thank the jurors for their service in a lengthy trial and for returning with the guilty verdicts for the women that victimized and murdered my mother,” Assad's daughter, Mary Assad, said in a statement released by the DA's office. “My family has a measure of peace that justice was finally served, and those women will be unable to devastate and hurt another family ever again.”

During the trial, prosecutors played a casino surveillance videotape from Aug. 31, 2019, that shows the women heading out the door but then turning around when they see Afaf Assad, carrying a large pink purse, and husband Youanness Assad enter.

They followed Afaf Assad into the bathroom and, out of sight of cameras or witnesses, robbed Assad of about $900.

Williams, listed in jail records as 6 feet, 1 inch tall and 300 pounds, was the first to enter the bathroom, followed by Townsel, listed as 5 feet 5 inches tall and 200 pounds.

Prosecutors contended that Assad fell or was knocked down and hit her head during the robbery, leading to her death on Sept. 4.

Committing a robbery during a homicide made the defendants eligible to receive the death penalty, but District Attorney Mike Hestrin did not pursue that punishment.

After the attack, warrants were issued for the arrests of the suspects. Sheriff's investigators recognized them from the video.

Williams was apprehended Sept. 3 in Perris, and

Townsel was arrested on Sept. 5 when a Hemet police officer stopped her for jaywalking and discovered the warrant.

Williams and Townsel had criminal records for theft but nothing more violent than snatching a purse. Williams

had been banned from the casino after she was convicted of stealing a wallet out of a purse there in 2015.

That same year, Williams was arrested on suspicion of trespassing at Morongo Casino Resort in Cabazon and pleaded guilty to intimidating a business, court records show.

Williams is the sister of Clippers basketball star Kawhi Leonard.

Defense attorney Virginia Blumenthal sought to establish that Assad was already unsteady on her feet and could have slipped on wet tile in the bathroom. Assad had suffered neck injuries both in a Mother's Day traffic collision in 2019 and two years before during a fall down the stairs at home.

Blumenthal wrote in a March court filing that video shows Williams and Townsel leaving the casino without bulges under their shirts that would have been created had they attempted to hide the purse, which Mary Assad testified was 18inches wide and 6 inches tall.

The purse was never recovered, Blumenthal said.

“There is no evidence a robbery occurred,” Blumenthal wrote. “And if there was no robbery, there is no evidence that Afaf Assad was assaulted; hence, no evidence of a murder.”

Youanness Assad, now 96, testified that his wife was healthy and in fact was caring for him, his daughter and her husband, and Assad's granddaughter in their Long Beach home. Family members had dropped them off at the casino.

In a 2019 interview, Mary Assad described her mother as the energy that drove the family.

“She was the first person up in the morning. She would start the coffee or the tea; she would pack my daughter's lunch,” Assad said.

Afaf Assad also watched over her street, urging neighbors on sweeper days to move their cars so they wouldn't get a ticket.

“They stole the heart of our family,” Assad said.