{"id":123842,"date":"2020-01-08T07:36:44","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T15:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=123842"},"modified":"2020-01-14T07:31:19","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T15:31:19","slug":"kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard Sister Accused in Pechanga Casino Murder Gets Hotshot Legal Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman accused<\/a> of beating to death a defenseless senior citizen in the restrooms of the Pechanga Casino in Temecula, California will be represented by an all-star defense team as she bids to dodge a possible death sentence.<\/p>\n

\"Kawhi
Kawhi Leonard (left) and his sister, Kimesha Monae Williams, who could face the death penalty for her alleged roll in the killing of Afaf Assad. (Image: 7News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It helps that Kimesha Monae Williams is the big sister of NBA star Kawhi Leonard, who signed a $103 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers\u00a0over the summer.<\/p>\n

The Press-Enterprise<\/em> reports that Williams, 35, and her co-defendant, Candace Tai Tounsel, 39, were in court on Wednesday for a status hearing. They\u2019re pleading not guilty to charges of murder, robbery, and cruelty to an elder over the death of 84-year-old Long Beach woman Afaf Assad, who was found in the Pechanga restroom with a broken skull on August 31.<\/p>\n

Best Defense Money Can Buy <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Organizing the Williams defense is Leonard\u2019s own attorney, Peter Ginsberg, who is currently representing the athlete in an ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit against Nike.<\/p>\n

New York-based Ginsberg — a former criminal prosecutor who now focuses on white-collar criminal defense, sports law, and civil rights cases — told The Press-Enterprise<\/em> that he was \u201casked by the family to find the best, so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams will be defended by Virginia Blumenthal, who is widely considered one of the top criminal defense lawyers in the country.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tounsel is represented by Richard Swanson, a court-appointed attorney, but one who has defended nine death penalty cases over the past two decades \u2013 four successfully.<\/p>\n

\n

Prosecutors allege that Williams and Townsel saw Assad enter the casino with her husband at around 7:30 a.m. on the morning of August 31 and noticed a pink purse dangling from her arm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

According to court documents, the accused were observed by the casino\u2019s security camera following her into the restroom and emerging four minutes later.<\/p>\n

Assad was found shortly afterwards by a hotel guest and casino employee and taken to the hospital. Her handbag, which contained $1,000 in cash, was missing.<\/p>\n

Criminal Histories <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Williams was apprehended on September 3. A day later, Assad died from her injuries, making it a homicide investigation. Townsel was picked up on September 5 after she was stopped for jaywalking.<\/p>\n

Tounsel has a prior conviction for petty theft, while Williams has a lengthy criminal history that includes petty theft, grand theft, misappropriating lost property, grand theft auto, and attempted robbery.<\/p>\n

At the time of the alleged murder, she was banned from the Pechanga Resort because she had been caught stealing a wallet from a slot machine player back in 2015.<\/p>\n

While the defendants are eligible to be tried for capital murder, the Riverside District Attorney\u2019s Office told Casino.org<\/em><\/a> in September it had not yet determined whether to seek the death penalty and will make a decision at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman accused of beating to death a defenseless senior citizen in the restrooms of the Pechanga Casino in Temecula, California will be represented by an all-star defense team as she bids to dodge a possible death sentence. It helps that Kimesha Monae Williams is the big sister of NBA star Kawhi Leonard, who signed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":123844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKawhi Leonard Sister Accused in Pechanga Murder Gets Hotshot Lawyers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kawhi Leonard\u2019s sister is accused, with an accomplice, of murdering 84-year-old Afaf Assad in a restroom at California\u2019s Pechanga casino resort.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kawhi Leonard Sister Accused in Pechanga Murder Gets Hotshot Lawyers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kawhi Leonard\u2019s sister is accused, with an accomplice, of murdering 84-year-old Afaf Assad in a restroom at California\u2019s Pechanga casino resort.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-08T15:36:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-14T15:31:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/kawhi-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/\",\"name\":\"Kawhi Leonard Sister Accused in Pechanga Murder Gets Hotshot Lawyers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/kawhi-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-08T15:36:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-14T15:31:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Kawhi Leonard\u2019s sister is accused, with an accomplice, of murdering 84-year-old Afaf Assad in a restroom at California\u2019s Pechanga casino resort.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kawhi-leonard-sister-accused-in-pechanga-murder-gets-hotshot-lawyers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/kawhi-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/kawhi-1.jpg\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":864,\"caption\":\"Kawhi Leonard (left) and his sister, Kimesha Monae Williams, who could face the death penalty for her alleged roll in the killing of Afaf Assad. 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