GUILTY GA - Lita Sullivan, 35, dies in contract killing, Atlanta, 16 Jan 1987

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PrayersForMaura

PrayersForMaura

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ATLANTA - 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.

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.

Nearly 19 years after Lita Sullivan was fatally shot on the doorstep of her townhouse in the city's Buckhead neighborhood, her husband, James Sullivan, once one of the FBI's "Most Wanted" fugitives, will go on trial for murder Thursday in a Fulton County courtroom.

More:
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/13535024.htm
 
Finally, is all I can say. I have been watching this case for years and years. Her parents were totally dedicated to seeing this guy get justice.
 
Jury selection begins this week in Sullivan murder trial

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — James Sullivan's eventful life has included four wives, four offspring, a landmark oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, furtive years living in foreign countries and the exhumation of a long-dead uncle to determine whether Sullivan hastened his demise to inherit his business.

Now another momentous chapter in his life is about to begin, one that will determine whether Sullivan, 64, spends the rest of his life in prison or possibly is executed.

On Thursday, jury selection begins in Atlanta, where Sullivan is in custody on charges that he arranged the murder of his second wife, Lita McClinton Sullivan, 19 years ago this month. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the former Palm Beach millionaire.

Lita Sullivan, then 35, was shot in the face by a man carrying a dozen long-stemmed pink roses and a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol. She had just opened the door of her townhouse in Buckhead, a section of Atlanta that is home to the Georgia governor's mansion, as well as the estates of Coca-Cola executives, golfing legend Bobby Jones and a former U.S. attorney general. Saturday would have been Lita Sullivan's 54th birthday.

More: http://www.oxfordpress.com/hp/content/shared/news/stories/SULLIVAN_TRIAL_0108_COX.html
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
About damn time.
Click to expand...


That is a long time to wait for justice for the family. I wonder if her parents are still living? I'm so glad that he is going to trial. I'll bet he thought he was home free after all of this time. Two marriages after her. I wonder if they had any children. Was he a fugative because of her murder? So many questions :p

Can someone let us know what is going on in this trial or what happened please?
 
Bobbisangel said:
That is a long time to wait for justice for the family. I wonder if her parents are still living? I'm so glad that he is going to trial. I'll bet he thought he was home free after all of this time. Two marriages after her. I wonder if they had any children. Was he a fugative because of her murder? So many questions :p

Can someone let us know what is going on in this trial or what happened please?
Click to expand...

I just check the ajc archives and the last article was 1-13-06 regarding jury selection. Yes, her parents are still living and no, Lita and Sullivan didn't have children together. He was on the run so long there could have been other charges besides conspiracy to murder.

As soon as something new shows up I will post it here.
 

From the newspaper a month ago ...

Now a jury selection that could take a few weeks is about to begin.

The 12 jurors and two alternates who are selected will be sequestered in a hotel throughout the trial, which could last a month.

The judge has set a tentative date of Feb. 20 for the start of testimony.


13th Juror
 
Bobbisangel said:
That is a long time to wait for justice for the family. I wonder if her parents are still living? I'm so glad that he is going to trial. I'll bet he thought he was home free after all of this time. Two marriages after her. I wonder if they had any children. Was he a fugative because of her murder? So many questions :p

Can someone let us know what is going on in this trial or what happened please?
Click to expand...
I think somewhere along the line, he realized it was easier to do a pre-nupt than having them killed.
 
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/14001465.htm

- A palm print on the flower box handed to Lita Sullivan by a killer posing as a delivery man has never been identified in the 19 years since she was shot to death, an investigator testified Thursday in the murder trial of the victim's husband.

Only two prints were found on the box, a right thumb print matching the victim and the palm print, which is believed to be the victim's but authorities never took impressions of her hands to make a comparison, said Lou Cuendet, a retired Georgia Bureau of Investigation fingerprint expert.

"A request was made for the palm prints to be submitted and they never were," Cuendet told jurors in James Sullivan's murder trial. He couldn't explain why.

The prints of the alleged triggerman, Phillip Harwood, were not found on the box.

Defense lawyers for James Sullivan have argued that police were sloppy in handling some crime scene evidence, and have insisted there is no physical proof that their client hired Harwood to kill his socialite wife at her Atlanta town house on Jan. 16, 1987.
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MORE AT LINK
 
The lawyer from small-town Texas they had on teh stand, corroborating the hitman's girlfriend's story, is going to do a lot to sink that smug, stingy sociopath's boat.

Apparently his stinginess extends to a compulsive habit of stealing and hoarding condiment packages.
 
i have watched this trial until today, when i had to take my car to the shop. i did not have a ride so i was there for 6 hours. i got home for the last 30 minutes of CTV.

did suki testify today? what did she say.

the gal that was on the stand when i got home had apparently done a lot of damage b/c she saw him pay the boyfriend-hitman. was it as dramatic as the people on CTV were saying that it was?????????


so far the prosecution has done a great job! i hope this man finally faces justice for his crime.

i certainly admire the dignity of the victim's parents.
 
izzyB said:
i have watched this trial until today, when i had to take my car to the shop. i did not have a ride so i was there for 6 hours. i got home for the last 30 minutes of CTV.

did suki testify today? what did she say.

the gal that was on the stand when i got home had apparently done a lot of damage b/c she saw him pay the boyfriend-hitman. was it as dramatic as the people on CTV were saying that it was?????????


so far the prosecution has done a great job! i hope this man finally faces justice for his crime.

i certainly admire the dignity of the victim's parents.
Click to expand...
I don't think Suki was allowed to testify before the jury. She got up on the stand and said her piece for the judge, but I think he ruled against it as being prejudicial because of spousal privilege. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong.
In any case, he's toast.
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
I don't think Suki was allowed to testify before the jury. She got up on the stand and said her piece for the judge, but I think he ruled against it as being prejudicial because of spousal privilege. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong.
In any case, he's toast.
Click to expand...

BGG, i went over to the CTV site and read the thread....pages long....of yesterday's testimony. the BIG witness yesterday was Belinda Trahan who witnessed sullivan give her then boyfriend the $25K after the hit.

Jean Cassaras (sp) of CTV said the defense had suitcases of stuff on Suki so the prosecution did not use her for much.

the defense cross on belinda should be good!
 
izzyB said:
BGG, i went over to the CTV site and read the thread....pages long....of yesterday's testimony. the BIG witness yesterday was Belinda Trahan who witnessed sullivan give her then boyfriend the $25K after the hit.

Jean Cassaras (sp) of CTV said the defense had suitcases of stuff on Suki so the prosecution did not use her for much.

the defense cross on belinda should be good!
Click to expand...
I saw Belinda's testimony--or some of it. She looks pretty good 19 years after the fact. makes me wonder how old she was at the time. 19? 20?

The lawyer's testimony was more intriging, because it proved than she was talking about the situation and that others knew what was going on. She just didn't come forward and make it up out of whole cloth decades later.
 
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