the sister of Los Angeles Clippers Star Kawhi Leonard has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of an elderly woman at the Pechanga Resort Casino in 2019.
Kimesha Williams, Leonard’s sister, and Candace Townsell were sentenced Friday for the murder of Afaf Assad, an 84-year-old woman from Long Beach, California, according to The press company in Riverside, CA.
LA Clippers number 2 Kawhi Leonard speaks to the media during a press conference after the first game of round one of the 2023 NBA Playoffs against the Phoenix Suns on April 16, 2023 at the Footprint Center from Phoenix, Arizona. (Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)
The two women were sentenced in February for first degree murderrobbery and elder abuse after a long trial.
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Assad was found unconscious on the floor of a Pechanga Resort Casino bathroom with a broken skull in 2019.
Williams and Townsell were reportedly at the casino on August 31, 2019, when Assad walked in with her husband and a bag containing around $1,000 to bet on, according to the publication.
Assad went into the bathroom, where Williams followed her and Townsell kept an eye out.
A woman at another booth heard a thud, and Williams and Townsell made a “straight line” to the exit of the casino.
LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, center, looks on from the bench in streetwear against the Phoenix Suns in the first half of Game 3 of an NBA playoff first round basketball game at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 20, 2023. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
Assad was found by a janitor and the woman who heard the bang on the bathroom floor, his head bleeding and his skull fractured.
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Assad died four days later and the bag has never been found.
In a statement read to the court by his lawyer, Williams denied killing Assad.
“I am so sorry for your loss,” Williams wrote, according to The Press Enterprise. “I have been praying for you and your family every day. I am not responsible for the death of Mrs. Assad. Though the courts found me guilty as chargedWe all know the truth, and that there is a judge, and that is God, and that he knows the truth.”
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Mary Assad, the daughter of Afaf Assad, read a victim impact statement in court.
Kawhi Leonard, #2 of the LA Clippers, looks to pass against Devin Booker, #1 of the Phoenix Suns, during the first half of Game One of the Western Conference First Round Playoffs at Footprint Center on April 16, 2023, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
“This has been a long and painful journey through the criminal justice system“, Mary Assad read to the court. “I still cannot believe that my mother was the victim of a violent crime. . . . A part of me died in that hospital room with her.
“My father does not have his wife or his partner and he is isolated and alone in a way that we cannot begin to understand… We do not seek revenge, but there must be a reckoning for his heinous act,” Assad said.
Williams was banned from the Pechanga Resort Casino in 2015 for stealing a wallet.
