Millionaire Indicted In '87 Murder Of Wife

April 25, 1998|By JONATHON KING Staff Writer

For more than a decade, he was legally pursued and highly suspected of the contract murder of his wife. Now, James V. Sullivan, a millionaire who once lived in an oceanfront mansion and drove the streets of Palm Beach in a Rolls-Royce, has been charged.

On a January morning in 1987, Lita Sullivan opened the door of her Atlanta townhouse to a flower deliveryman. Bearing an armload of long-stemmed pink roses and a 9mm handgun, the man shot her dead.

At a news conference in Atlanta on Friday morning, James Sullivan was charged by the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney with arranging that shooting.

``After a careful evaluation of the available facts and circumstances, we have all concluded that an arrest warrant should be issued,'' said District Attorney Paul Howard. ``We would like to see Mr. Sullivan arrested immediately.''

But police can't find him.

Police encouraged Sullivan's Atlanta attorneys to persuade the 57-year-old liquor distribution heir to turn himself in, but they were not optimistic.

``Our understanding is that at the present time, he is out of the country,'' said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Buddy Nix. ``We will request the assistance of the FBI and other federal authorities to apprehend Mr. Sullivan, if necessary.''

Sullivan had reportedly moved to Boynton Beach after selling his Palm Beach mansion. But West Palm Beach lawyer Richard Lubin, who defended him in earlier court cases, said this week that he has not seen or spoken to Sullivan in years.

Calls to Sullivan's Atlanta attorneys were not returned.

Sullivan lived at Bellamar House, an oceanfront condominium in Gulf Stream, in 1996, according to state Department of Motor Vehicles records. A woman who identified herself as the complex manager said he lived in the building for about a year.

Sullivan has repeatedly denied having anything to do with his wife's death, but authorities have long suspected he placed a contract ``hit'' on her because he thought he would suffer financially in an upcoming divorce.

The case against Sullivan appeared to be dormant until this week, when police arrested Phillip Anthony Harwood, 47, of Albemarle, N.C., and charged him with Lita Sullivan's murder.

Acting on a tip to GBI inspector Bob Ingram, the only investigator still with the bureau who was on the original case, a team of agents focused their attention on North Carolina and made a case against Harwood.

On Friday, police declined to elaborate on the evidence against Harwood or about what he may have told them to bolster their case against Sullivan. They did say that at least one additional arrest could be forthcoming.

Investigators have suspected a North Carolina connection since they tracked a collect phone call to Sullivan's Palm Beach mansion 40 minutes after his wife was killed. The call had been made from a phone along a northward interstate out of Atlanta.

Investigators also tracked a suspicious motel registration where a false North Carolina address had been recorded.

But despite their leads, the case against Sullivan simmered for 11 years as both federal and civil courts squelched attempts by prosecutors and Lita's parents to hold him responsible.

In January 1992, five years after the killing, a federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted Sullivan on charges he arranged his wife's murder by long-distance telephone. But months later, a federal judge dismissed the charges.

In 1994, a jury hearing a civil suit filed by Lita's parents, Emory and Jo Ann McClinton, found Sullivan culpable and ordered him to pay them $4 million. That decision was later thrown out by an appeals courts.

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