Freshman Accused of Killing College Basketball Star Claims Self-Defense

A Middle Tennessee State University freshman accused of killing her roommate, a star basketball player, was acting in self-defense when she stabbed the woman, the suspect's lawyer said today.

Shanterrica Madden, 18, from Memphis, has been charged with murder in the death Wednesday of Tina Stewart, 21, a junior guard for the Blue Raiders. The slaying has shocked the 26,000-student public university in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Madden's attorney, Joe Brandon Jr., said the two women got into a fight and the freshman was merely acting in self-defense.

"During the course of the fight, Ms. Madden got control of a knife that had originally been in Ms. Stewart's possession," he told AOL News in a phone interview today.

Brandon said the women were fighting over "two or three different things," but would not elaborate.

Police said the self-defense claim was false. "We do not believe that to be the case, and we stand behind the first-degree murder charge," Murfreesboro Police Officer Kyle Evans told the Daily News Journal.

Both young women were from Memphis and had attended Memphis Central High School, but Stewart was older and the two were merely acquaintances. Brandon said they were randomly placed in an off-campus apartment together at the Murfreesboro apartment complex where the slaying occurred.

Just hours before her death, Stewart reportedly sent a Twitter message telling her friends that she had called police on Madden.

"I just called police on my roommate. I feel like a snitch, but I don't like that [expletive]," she wrote, according to NBC/WSMV4.com. Stewart's Twitter account was no longer public this afternoon.

Evans confirmed that Stewart called the private security company at her Murfreesboro apartment complex, but not police, on Wednesday afternoon. He would not comment on any possible motive for the slaying today, and it remains unclear why Stewart called security.

More than 2,000 of Stewart's teammates and classmates gathered Thursday night vigil for a vigil in her honor. Many students carried "20GETHER" signs. Stewart's jersey was No. 20.

Stewart's teammates took a vote and decided to play in the Sun Belt Conference tournament Sunday in Hot Springs, Ark.

"We know Tina would want us to go out and play," team member Anne Marie Lanning said at Thursday night's vigil, according to The Associated Press.

"We just talked about it, and we all just kind of looked at each other, 'Yeah, that's what we want to do. We want to make sure to collectively decide. Not five saying yes, five saying no. We all just talked about it. We're going to go out there and play for Tina and give it our all," she said.

Stewart's boyfriend, K.C. Anuna, said she would have wanted the team to play in the high-stakes games.

"If Tina was here right now, she would want them to play in the tournament," he said, according to WKRN-TV. "For the last few weeks that's all she was talking about."

The Blue Raiders (23-6) are the top-ranked team of the East Division in women's basketball. Stewart averaged 5.5 points and 2.5 rebounds this season, according to the AP.

Blue Raiders coach Rick Insell said he had asked Stewart to step up and lead the team just hours before she died Wednesday, because Lanning, a starting guard, was away at the hospital with her sister, who was in labor, according to USA Today.

"I said, 'Tina, this is your chance to lead this team,' " Insell said, according to the paper. "And she became the best player on the floor, offensively and defensively."

Stewart's high school basketball coach, Niki Bray, said it was tragic that the young woman had met a violent end after escaping crime-ridden Memphis.

"The saddest part is you do all you can to help give these kids a better life, and tell them to get away from some of the drama, so to speak, that comes from living in Memphis," Bray told The Commercial Appeal. "And yet for her to be murdered by a girl from Memphis, and I believe even a Central graduate, that's really disturbing."