Lawyer: Slow-cooker killing followed fight over politics

LIVONIA (AP) — A defense lawyer says an argument about presidential politics led to a fight in which his client is accused of beating her 66-year-old friend to death with a slow cooker.

A suburban Detroit judge last Thursday ordered 50-year-old Tewana Sullivan of Detroit tried for first-degree murder in the October death of Cheryl Livy at Livy’s home in a Livonia senior housing complex.

Police Officer Michael Lewallen says he found Sullivan sobbing near her mortally injured friend and saying she was “sorry” she “did it.”

Defense lawyer John McWilliams tells The Detroit News the women were arguing over “presidential politics” and “whatever the controversy is between Democrats and Republicans.” He won’t say which woman took which side.