/ 4 January 2006

One of FBI’s ‘most wanted’ to face trial for wife’s murder

The case has it all — money, power, an international manhunt and a hit by a killer carrying a gun along with a dozen long-stemmed pink roses.

On Thursday, nearly 19 years after Lita Sullivan was fatally shot on the doorstep of her townhouse in a wealthy neighbourhood, her husband, James Sullivan, once one of the FBI’s ”Most Wanted” fugitives, will go on trial for murder.

The defendant is a millionaire businessman who faces the death penalty if convicted. The victim was an Atlanta socialite whose mother is a state lawmaker.

Related charges against James Sullivan were thrown out at a federal trial in 1992, but the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that double jeopardy does not prevent the 64-year-old from being tried again in state court. Sullivan has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege Sullivan paid suspected triggerman Phillip A ”Tony” Harwood $25 000 to kill his wife because he feared losing money and his Palm Beach, Florida, mansion in the couple’s divorce. Harwood, of Albemarle, North Carolina, is serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter, but in court papers filed after his guilty plea he claimed he was innocent.

”I don’t think our hopes are any different than what they were on day one, and that is that we find the person who did this, and we believe that is Mr Sullivan,” said the victim’s father, Emory McClinton.

He added that in his mind, even a guilty verdict would not bring closure for he and his family.

”You always will have memories and remembrances of her,” McClinton said. ”When that happens, you will bring back all of the horrors that go along with that. There’s no closure for us in this.”

It’s been a long road to this point for McClinton and his wife, state Republican Jo Ann McClinton.

Their 35-year-old daughter was shot in the head on January 16, 1987, by a gunman posing as a flower delivery man. Police have said the killer and possibly two other men bought the roses at a florist minutes before the shooting.

Prosecutors have relied mostly on circumstantial evidence, including Harwood’s confession, long-distance telephone calls they say Sullivan made setting up the murder and the testimony of a Beaumont, Texas, woman who says she was present at a restaurant when Sullivan allegedly paid off Harwood.

Prosecutors did not know about Harwood when Sullivan was first tried in federal court, but learned about him several years later when a new lead surfaced, presumably the statement of the Texas woman, who was Harwood’s girlfriend at the time.

Harwood, a truck driver who moved James Sullivan’s furniture from Georgia to Florida, later agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge and testify against Sullivan. Around the time Sullivan was indicted on state murder charges in 1998, he fled the country.

In 2002, Sullivan was captured in Thailand, where he had married a local woman and bought a condominium in a posh beachside neighbourhood. He was extradited to the United States two years later. Authorities believe Sullivan also had spent time in Costa Rica while on the run.

His lead attorney, Don Samuel, said police have charged the wrong man.

”I can’t wait to once again prove him innocent,” said Samuel, who won a judge’s dismissal of the federal charges.

He said prosecutors have very little new evidence since the 1992 trial.

”The only thing they have in addition is the most incredible witness that could ever walk into a courtroom, if he walks into the courtroom,” Samuel said sarcastically, referring to Harwood.

Samuel wondered aloud whether prosecutors would even call Harwood to the stand. Prosecution spokesperson Erik Friedly said the state does plan to call Harwood as a witness.

Samuel would not say whether Sullivan will testify in his own defence. The trial, which will begin with potential jurors filling out questionnaires followed by jury selection and then opening statements a few weeks from now, is expected to last up to two months.

Friedly said that after nearly 19 years, his office hopes justice is served.

”For the McClinton family, this has been a long time coming,” Friedly said. ”So we are very pleased that this day has finally come.” – Sapa-AP