Augusta Military Divorce Lawyer - Prosecutor: Husband told 'Merry Christmas' after wife killed by hit man
As Lita Sullivan lay dying in her home, her husband James Sullivan got a call at his Florida mansion from a man who said the millionaire's troubles were over, a prosecutor said in opening statements in the husband's murder trial Monday.
"Merry Christmas," the caller told James Sullivan, prosecutor Sheila Ross said.
Sullivan, 64, a Boston native who prosecutors say feared losing his Palm Beach mansion in the couple's divorce, was once one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives before he was captured in Thailand in 2002.
He is accused of paying triggerman Phillip Harwood $25,000 to kill his wife. The 35-year-old socialite was shot to death on the doorstep of her Buckhead townhouse by a man carrying a dozen long-stemmed pink roses on Jan. 16, 1987.
Ross told jurors that a hearing to discuss property distribution in the divorce was scheduled for the same day Lita Sullivan was killed. Ross said Mrs. Sullivan was seeking about $1 million in the divorce, including the Atlanta townhouse, a Mercedes, alimony and jewelry
"Thee evidence will show the defendant hired a hit man to make sure she didn't get that money," Ross said.
Defense lawyers were expected to give their opening statements later in the day.
Sullivan fled the country around the time of his 1998 indictment on state murder charges.
Related charges against Sullivan were thrown out at a federal trial in 1992, but the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that double jeopardy does not prevent Sullivan from being tried again in state court.
Harwood, of Albemarle, N.C., and a second man who claims he was also asked to commit the murder are both expected to testify during the trial, which started with jury selection on Jan. 5. It took lawyers in the high-profile case more than a month to seat the jury, which includes 12 jurors and four alternates. There are three men and 13 women among the 16.
Harwood is currently serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter after pleading guilty to killing Lita Sullivan. However, in letters written to the court over the last two years year, he has denied being involved in the killing.
Earlier this month, as jury selection continued, another witness, Bill Hawley, a felon with a 79-page criminal record who is currently serving time for theft in Florida, came forward to claim that James Sullivan had approached him to kill his wife. Hawley claimed he agreed to do it for $50,000.
The exact timing of the alleged conversation with Sullivan and further details about why Hawley didn't follow through have not been revealed.
Defense lawyers sought to exclude the testimony of Harwood and Hawley, but a judge rejected their motion.
Sullivan lived in luxury as he eluded authorities on a cross-continent run _ from Palm Beach to Costa Rica to Panama to Venezuela, and then to Thailand, where he married a local woman and bought a condominium in a posh beachside neighborhood. He was extradited to the United States in 2004.
The Sullivans' troubles started in 1983 in Palm Beach, where James Sullivan bought an oceanfront mansion for $2 million after selling a Georgia liquor company for $5 million that he inherited from his uncle.
Newly rich, he wanted to break into the Palm Beach elite. Later, the Sullivans moved to Atlanta. He started seeing other women, and his wife eventually filed for divorce.
Last year, authorities exhumed the body of Sullivan's uncle from a Braintree, Mass., cemetery to determine if he, too, was murdered. But test results did not show any signs of foul play. The uncle, Frank Bienert, died in 1975.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta Georgia Military Divorce Attorney - Husband arrested in freeway shooting
Augusta Georgia Military Divorce Attorney - Husband arrested in freeway shooting
MOLLY HOTTLE
mhottle@dmreg.com
Police today arrested the husband of a Des Moines woman who was shot to death last week as she drove on Interstate Highway 235.
Randy L. Davis, 52, was arrested at home without incident, police said. He is charged with first-degree murder. Bond is set at $500,000.
Maj. Craig Zubrod said the arrest was based on “witness statements and other evidence.” He was not specific.
Police would not say what kind of gun was used or whether they have the alleged murder weapon.
Michele Davis, 41, died Sept. 11 when her eastbound car went out of control and crashed on I-235 north of downtown Des Moines. Police initially investigated her death as a fatal car crash, but an autopsy showed that she had suffered a gunshot wound to the head.
Witnesses linked a red pickup truck to the crime scene. Police said Thursday that an image of the truck, a 2002 red Ford F-150 with an extended cab, was also captured on Department of Transportation traffic cameras before the crash, which involved four other vehicles.
A red Ford F-150 with an extended cab was in the driveway Thursday at the Davis home at 1409 King Ave. A man in the garage who did not identify himself told a Des Moines Register reporter to leave the property.
Michele Davis had moved out of the south-side home in April, according to her father, Michael Cosner of Des Moines, who described Randy Davis, 52, as “a pretty hot-tempered guy.”
An online records search shows Davis, a Vietnam-era military veteran, with only a handful of traffic tickets.
Cosner said his daughter had asked for a restraining order against her husband of 17 years and that the couple were in the midst of a divorce when she was slain.
“The way I understand it, the day of her funeral was the day she would have signed the papers,” Cosner said Thursday. “Things had been rough for a long time, and it just kept deteriorating.”
Court officials would not confirm that a protective order had been filed. They said the information is confidential. Cosner said his daughter had left her husband once before and was dating a co-worker at TMC Transportation, a Des Moines trucking firm.
The co-worker, Matt Jorgensen of Des Moines, told The Register on Thursday that he had dated Davis since May and the two had tried to keep the relationship quiet while Davis avoided her estranged husband “as much as possible.”
“She didn’t want any confrontation; she just wanted to keep her distance,” Jorgensen said. “Everyone knew how great of a person she was.”
Cosner is “taking some time away” and preferred not to comment on today's arrest, according to Stephanie Kimbley, Michele’s Davis' sister.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
MOLLY HOTTLE
mhottle@dmreg.com
Police today arrested the husband of a Des Moines woman who was shot to death last week as she drove on Interstate Highway 235.
Randy L. Davis, 52, was arrested at home without incident, police said. He is charged with first-degree murder. Bond is set at $500,000.
Maj. Craig Zubrod said the arrest was based on “witness statements and other evidence.” He was not specific.
Police would not say what kind of gun was used or whether they have the alleged murder weapon.
Michele Davis, 41, died Sept. 11 when her eastbound car went out of control and crashed on I-235 north of downtown Des Moines. Police initially investigated her death as a fatal car crash, but an autopsy showed that she had suffered a gunshot wound to the head.
Witnesses linked a red pickup truck to the crime scene. Police said Thursday that an image of the truck, a 2002 red Ford F-150 with an extended cab, was also captured on Department of Transportation traffic cameras before the crash, which involved four other vehicles.
A red Ford F-150 with an extended cab was in the driveway Thursday at the Davis home at 1409 King Ave. A man in the garage who did not identify himself told a Des Moines Register reporter to leave the property.
Michele Davis had moved out of the south-side home in April, according to her father, Michael Cosner of Des Moines, who described Randy Davis, 52, as “a pretty hot-tempered guy.”
An online records search shows Davis, a Vietnam-era military veteran, with only a handful of traffic tickets.
Cosner said his daughter had asked for a restraining order against her husband of 17 years and that the couple were in the midst of a divorce when she was slain.
“The way I understand it, the day of her funeral was the day she would have signed the papers,” Cosner said Thursday. “Things had been rough for a long time, and it just kept deteriorating.”
Court officials would not confirm that a protective order had been filed. They said the information is confidential. Cosner said his daughter had left her husband once before and was dating a co-worker at TMC Transportation, a Des Moines trucking firm.
The co-worker, Matt Jorgensen of Des Moines, told The Register on Thursday that he had dated Davis since May and the two had tried to keep the relationship quiet while Davis avoided her estranged husband “as much as possible.”
“She didn’t want any confrontation; she just wanted to keep her distance,” Jorgensen said. “Everyone knew how great of a person she was.”
Cosner is “taking some time away” and preferred not to comment on today's arrest, according to Stephanie Kimbley, Michele’s Davis' sister.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
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