BILLINGS — A man accused of killing a Billings woman in her West End home on July 4 while her daughter was asleep in the house has been charged in Yellowstone County District Court.
Prosecutors on Monday filed charges of deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence against Anthony Ray Sullivan, who authorities said is also known by the first name "Tony."
Sullivan, 40, is accused of killing a 37-year-old woman identified in court records by the initials "K.D." Sullivan was arrested later that same day in Fremont County, Wyo., where he is being held awaiting extradition.
Charging documents filed Monday reveal details authorities allege resulted in the murder and tampering charges.
According to the documents, police were first sent to a residence on Southern Bluffs Lane at about 11 a.m. Friday for a welfare check.
Two people advised that their daughter-in-law, K.D., was not responding to texts or calls. They also informed police that K.D.'s relationship with Sullivan had "recently become hostile."
While officers were headed to the residence, one of the original callers advised police they had entered the house and found K.D. deceased and covered in blankets and had removed K.D.'s 8-year-old daughter from the house.
The girl told them she had heard her mother and Sullivan arguing in the early morning hours, and later woke up and could not find her mother.
In a later interview with police, the girl said she, her mother, Sullivan, and a friend of Sullivan's had attended a downtown Billings outdoor concert on Thursday evening.
She and her mother returned home around 8 p.m., she said, and watched a movie until she went to bed.
The girl told police she then heard Sullivan get home around midnight. She said that at about 4 a.m., while she was getting a glass of water, she heard Sullivan and her mother arguing downstairs and heard her mother say something like, "I love you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." The girl said Sullivan responded by saying, "I'm sorry too, but I'm going to prison."
The girl said she didn't hear any more arguing after that and woke up around 10 a.m. on Friday and could not find her mother. She then called family members for help.
Officers who entered the house discovered K.D.'s body inside a bedroom closet covered in blankets. She appeared to have bruising on her head, neck and arms, court records state. An autopsy is pending, and her name and the cause of death have not been released.
Officers also located two damaged cellphones, one believed to belong to the victim which had been bent in half.
Sullivan's vehicle was later found parked in downtown Billings. At about 4 p.m., as officers were watching his car, authorities in Wyoming informed local police that Sullivan had been arrested for DUI in Fremont County in K.D.'s vehicle.
Wyoming authorities reported that Sullivan appeared intoxicated and told a bystander that he had "killed his girlfriend."
Billings police later learned Sullivan was a professional boxer and the injuries suffered by K.D. "were consistent with blunt force trauma to her head and neck," court records state.
