'Crock-Pot Killer' Takes Plea Deal

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Tewana Sullivan, the woman dubbed the “Crock-Pot killer” after she bludgeoned her friend to death with a slow cooker, recounted in court Thursday that she struggled with the victim, who was also armed with cookware, after an argument last October.

Sullivan’s lawyer, John McWilliams, entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill on behalf of his client, The Detroit News reports. She faces 23-50 years in prison when she is sentenced on June 15.

The plea was accepted by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hathaway, even though Sullivan previously had been found competent to stand trial in the death of Cheryl Livy, 66, in Livy’s Livonia apartment on Oct. 22, 2014.

“I got into an argument with her. I tried to leave but she wouldn’t let me leave,” Sullivan, 50, told Hathaway. “We were hitting each other ... . I was a little bit harder at hitting her than she was at hitting me. I hit her with a Crock-Pot ... in her head and all over ... .”

Related Links:

• Police: Woman Killed Friend with Slow Cooker in Political Spat
• Competency Exam Ordered for Accused Crock-Pot Killer

Livy died of blunt force injuries to her head, face and mid-back. The cord to the Crock-Pot was around Livy’s neck, according to the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office, which conducted the autopsy.

Though she didn’t claim she was acting in self-defense, Sullivan said Livy was armed with a small cooking pot.

Sullivan’s blood-alcohol content was 0.41 percent, more than five times higher than the legal limit for driving , when the fatal cookware assault took place, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Though the reason for the fight didn’t come up in court Thursday, McWilliams previously said the two longtime friends who often vacationed together got into a heated argument over politics. – “whatever the controversy is between Democrats and Republicans.”

McWilliams offered the explanation at Sullivan’s competency hearing earlier this spring.

Though the forensic competency exam didn’t find Sullivan legally insane, “she is mentally ill,” the judge said Thursday, noting a number of psychiatric issues and diagnoses over a period of time. Sullivan’s attorney said she had undergone several brain surgeries and had suffered an aneurysm.

Marvin Jones Jr., who said he is Sullivan’s godfather and friend, said the case has been tragic for everyone involved.

“I don’t like what happened. I feel this was just something that shouldn’t have taken place, but it did,” Jones, 69, told The Detroit News. “We were all friends, so for that to happen – it threw me for a loop.”

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