Flower delivery turned murder

It is said that justice delayed is justice denied. But after so many years of frustration, Emory and Jo Ann McClinton would take any justice they could get.

Jo Ann McClinton: It was a goal that we could not allow him to kill our daughter and just walk the street.

On February 27, the McClintons and their family and friends entered the Atlanta courtroom where the man they believe engineered Lita Sullivan’s execution was to stand trial for murder. If convicted, Jim Sullivan could face the death penalty.

Victoria Corderi, Dateline correspondent: Lita’s parents have waited a long time for this day to come.

Clint Rucker, prosecutor: Yes.

Corderi: How much did that weigh on you?

Rucker: A lot.

Lita Sullivan’s mother was the first witness called to the stand. Jo Ann McClinton’s emotions were still raw after all these years.

But prosecutors would need much more than the tears of a grieving mother—this was a largely circumstantial case. There was no direct evidence tying Jim Sullivan to the crime.  And it had been 19 years. How reliable are witnesses? Was there enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jim Sullivan took out a hit on his estranged wife?  Prosecutors would have to weave together a complex case, beginning with motive.

Prosecutors called Lita’s divorce lawyer and a friend of the couple’s to testify that Sullivan had been hell bent on limiting the amount of money Lita would win in court.  Prosecutors drew the jury’s attention to evidence that on its face, didn’t seem like much: a divorce court hearing date. But in context, they said, it was explosive.

The divorce hearing was scheduled for January 16th— the day Lita Sullivan was killed. That hearing would have decided whether Sullivan would have to pay his wife $250,000 dollars or a million. But now, Sullivan didn’t have to pay her a penny. And that, said prosecutors, tells you all you need to know about the motive.

Rucker: Greed.

Corderi: Pure and simple.

Rucker: Pure and simple greed.

Corderi: Strong enough greed to commit murder?

Rucker: Yes.

Prosecutors walked the jury through the morning of January 16.  Bob Christensen, Lita’s friend and next door neighbor, was outside and saw the man with the flowers approach Lita’s door.

Christensen testified he got a clear look at the man carrying flowers from about 15 feet away  and picked him out in a photo. The man in the picture he pointed to is named Tony Harwood.

Tony Harwood is the man who confessed back in 1998 to taking part in the murder, and pocketing a $25,000 dollar payoff from Jim Sullivan. He plea-bargained his way to a 20 year sentence in exchange for his testimony. Now, he was the state’s star witness, and prosecutors were about to see if that deal had been worth it. 

Rucker: Sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil in order to get at the truth.  What you don’t want to do is have the deal come back and bite you. 

Under careful questioning from the prosecutor, Tony Harwood told the jury about his first meeting with Jim Sullivan just two months before Lita was killed. He had worked for a moving company, and said he’d gone to Sullivan’s palm beach home to deliver a piano.

Lawyer (in court):  Can you tell the jurors how long total did you stay at the mansion of James Vincent Sullivan on November of 1986?

Tony Harwood: Probably no more than 2 hours.

Somehow, in that short time, prosecutors say, the two men hatched a bizarre and deadly conspiracy.  Prosecutors then asked the former mover-turned-convicted felon, to turn into an actor, and play the role of Jim Sullivan as he asked to have his wife killed.

Harwood (playing Jim Sullivan): You know I’ve got this wife of mine up in Atlanta and she is just trying to take everything I’ve got. And I don’t know what to do about it. I need somebody to help me take care of my problem. Do you know anybody that can possibly take care of my problem for me? Because I need some help.

At first, Harwood testified, he thought Sullivan was joking.

Lawyer: When did you think Mr.Sullivan wasn’t joking anymore?

Harwood: When I received $12,500 in the mail.

Harwood said Sullivan wanted Lita murdered before Christmas, but the plan got delayed until January, when he drove to Georgia with two friends  and checked into a Howard Johnson’s.  He said one of his friends went to Lita Sullivan’s doorstep before dawn, intending to shoot her. But there was a flaw in the plan.

Harwood: Especially a woman ain’t going to answer the door at 5:30 in the morning.

Harwood testified that he and his cohorts returned to Lita’s home three days later this time with those long stemmed pink roses to lure her to the door. After the deed was done, Harwood said he notified Sullivan by calling his Palm Beach home from a truck stop, and saying simply, “Merry Christmas.”

Harwood: His problem was supposed to be taken care of before Christmas.

Prosecutors knew they could not rely on the words of a convicted felon alone. So they introduced a registration card from Howard Johnson’s which an expert said matched Harwood’s handwriting perfectly, as well as those records of calls from that Howard Johnson’s and the truck stop nearby— both to Jim Sullivan’s Palm Beach home.

And the state produced another key witness to back up Harwood’s story— his former girlfriend, Belinda Trahan. She was the one who eventually led police to Harwood eight years ago.

Rucker: Belinda was the lynchpin. She was the person with the courage to come forward.

Trahan testified that she’d learned about the murder for hire scheme when Harwood returned from that trip to Palm Beach, after moving Sullivan’s piano.

Belinda Trahan: He told me that some white guy wanted to take out his black wife because she was going to divorce him and he didn’t want her to have anything.

Trahan said she didn’t believe Harwood and had assumed he was telling her a whopper of a lie to cover up an affair with another woman. She said Harwood did take a trip to Georgia in January but that he said he’d been unsuccessful because the woman wouldn’t answer the door. What she told Harwood next would play a role in Lita Sullivan’s murder.

Trahan: I said anyone knows that if you wanted to get a woman to answer the door all you would have to do is take flowers to the door.

Later, Trahan testified, Harwood told her the hit had been carried out.

Trahan: He said the job was done.

She says she still didn’t believe him, so he drove her to a restaurant where they waited until a stranger appeared.

Trahan carefully reenacted the scene for the jury by sitting in a restaurant booth brought in by the prosecution. The stranger, she said slid a folded up newspaper across the table into Harwood’s hands.

Trahan: Then Tony put his hand on it and took it from there.

After they left, Trahan testified, Harwood opened the newspaper and took out an envelope stuffed with cash.

To emphasize that Trahan did indeed know the identity of that stranger who made the payoff, the prosecution asked her a question.

Prosecution: I want you to look around this courtroom and tell me if you see the person that you saw in that restaurant back in 1987?

Trahan: Yes I do… He’s right there, he can’t even make eye contact.

Witnesses who fingered Jim Sullivan as the man behind the sordid contract killing of his wife, damning phone records and testimony that Sullivan would do anything to keep his wife from his money... but was it quite that simple?

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