Background: The senior living facility in Norfolk, Va., where Cleo Loizides died in 2024 (Google Maps). Inset: Heather Cummings (Norfolk City Jail).
A woman who traveled with her son to a senior living facility in Virginia so she could kill her own mother has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Heather Cummings, 53, was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of her mother, 81-year-old Cleo Loizides. Heather Cummings admitted to her role in her mother’s death on June 30, 2024, and now her son will stand trial for the part he allegedly played. According to prosecutors, Heather Cummings held down her mother’s wrists while her son, 24-year-old Clifton Cummings, allegedly strangled Loizides with a handbag strap.
Prosecutors said Heather Cummings told her mother during the fatal act, “This is for the best. You know what you did to my dad.”
According to court documents obtained by local CBS affiliate WTKR at the time of Loizides’ death, Heather Cummings — who was living in Indiana at the time — confessed to being partly responsible for her mother’s death after she and her son were charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder on July 9, 2024.
On June 30, 2024, Loizides was found unresponsive in her room at Commonwealth Senior Living. She was pronounced dead the following day. After an autopsy, the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.
According to court documents, Clifton Cummings reportedly confessed to police that he was the one who strangled his grandmother to death with a handbag strap that was purchased at a Dollar Tree store in Virginia. Heather Cummings confessed to holding down her mother’s wrists during the alleged strangulation and saying to her mother, “Just let go, it’s for the best.”
Prosecutors said in court that Heather Cummings also told her, “You know what you did to my dad.” According to courtroom reporting by local ABC affiliate WAVY, Heather Cummings spoke to the court during her sentencing hearing and accused her late mother of being responsible for her father’s death. She also told the court that even though she suffered physical abuse at the hands of her mother, she still loved her and missed her.
According to prosecutors, Heather Cummings showed no remorse following her mother’s killing and discussed how she planned to live a peaceful life after the trial and make a book about her father’s photography.
Heather Cummings pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Clifton Cummings is scheduled for a bench trial on Aug. 4.
