Woman gets maximum possible term for murdering mother at Norfolk senior living facility
The term issued to Heather Cummings last week was the maximum she could get after pleading guilty to second-degree murder earlier this year. Prosecutors agreed not to seek a first-degree murder charge and withdrew a conspiracy charge against her in exchange for the plea. Cummings' son, Clifton Cummings, is scheduled for trial next month.
Cummings' mother, Cleo Loizides, was at an assisted living and nursing facility on Poplar Hall Drive at the time of her June 30, 2024 death. Bruises and other marks were discovered on her neck, face and wrists, according to a statement of facts entered into evidence in the case. An autopsy determined she died from asphyxiation.
Staff at Commonwealth Senior Living at Leigh Hall told police they last saw Loizides alive around dinnertime, and that Heather and Clifton Cummings arrived for a visit later that evening. Surveillance footage showed they were the only ones to go into Loizides' room that night.
Clifton Cummings told detectives he and his mother drove to Norfolk from their home in Hobart, Indiana, for the purpose of killing Loizides, and that he used a purse strap to strangle her while his mother held her down, according to prosecutors.
Heather Cummings, then 53, initially suggested that her mother died from natural causes, but admitted to helping kill her when when confronted with the autopsy results and her son's statements, prosecutors said.
Cummings told police she believed her mother had killed her father three years earlier. John Loizides' July 2021 death was ruled an accident, according to prosecutors.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
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