While James Sullivan is serving a life sentence for hiring a hit man who killed their 35-year-old daughter nearly three decades ago, an elderly Atlanta couple hasn't given up hope of forcing the former Palm Beach socialite to pay for his crime with something he truly holds dear: money.
Convinced Sullivan stashed millions in bank accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and other well-known money havens, Emory and JoAnn McClinton recently persuaded a Palm Beach County circuit judge to take the unusual step of giving them extra time to scour the globe for their former son-in-law’s hidden cash.
“Why should someone be rewarded because they were clever enough to hide money for 20 years?” attorney J. Brad Moores said, summing up arguments he made last month to persuade Circuit Judge Richard Oftedal to let him keep the search alive.
Had Oftedal not lifted a 20-year limitation, a $4 million civil court judgment, which has ballooned to more than $13.5 million with interest, would have expired.
Sullivan, who charmed his way into the social fabric of Palm Beach and then ripped it apart when he was accused of killing his estranged wife, Lita Sullivan, would have escaped once again.
The onetime accountant and savvy investor became one of Palm Beach County’s most notorious murderers not only because of the vicious nature of his 1987 crime, but his ability to evade prosecution.
Finally charged with his wife’s murder in 1998, he fled to Costa Rica, then Panama, Venezuela and finally to Thailand, where he was caught in 2002. Brought back to Atlanta for trial, he was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to life in prison.
Had Moores and Atlanta attorney David Boone not pursued Sullivan in civil court and launched a national media campaign, he may have gotten away with hiring a hit man, who shot Lita Sullivan when she opened the door of her Atlanta townhouse to a man holding three dozen pink roses. A similar 1990 murder in Wellington, this one using a clown bearing flowers, was never solved.
But publicity surrounding a Palm Beach County civil jury’s 1994 decision to hold Sullivan responsible for his wife’s murder, and the attorneys’ appearances on TV shows such as “America’s Most Wanted,” flushed out key witnesses who convincingly testified against Sullivan during his criminal trial. They also led to his capture in Thailand.
Sullivan’s life on the lam convinced Moores and Boone that Sullivan hadn’t left his millions behind when he fled from Palm Beach, where he lived in a historic oceanfront mansion and chaired the town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. In Thailand, he lived large, buying a luxurious beachfront condo and a BMW.
At the time of his arrest, The Bangkok Post reported the condo was valued at $96,000, and his Thai bank account had received transfers of $1,200-$1,440 every month.
Records he left behind also showed he was in regular communication with bankers in Liechtenstein, Moores said. “It was classic Sullivan,” Moores said. “These faxes he kept with him in Thailand showed he was (ticked) off about some of the fees he was being charged.”
In another lawsuit filed to stop Sullivan from declaring bankruptcy to void the jury verdict in the wrongful death lawsuit, Moores discovered Sullivan’s criminal defense attorney had been paid through a Swiss bank account.
While he and Boone originally thought Sullivan had stashed away $4 million by investing the millions he made when he sold a Georgia liquor distributorship he inherited from an uncle, Moores said it could be much more. The problem, he acknowledged, will be finding it.
He said he plans to track down Sullivan’s fourth wife, Chongwattana Sricharoenmuang. Sullivan met the Thai woman here and she travelled with him to Thailand.
Another ex-wife, Hyo-Sook “Suki” Sullivan, who was dating Sullivan when Lita was killed, famously testified during their 1990 divorce and in his 2006 trial that he had celebrated the murder. “He said, ‘It’s good for us,’ ” she testified.
Moores said he will try to persuade Sullivan to finally admit he has accounts overseas. If Sullivan refuses, as Moores expects him to do, he said he has no way to force him to talk.
“A judge can sanction him but he’s already suffering the worse sanction there is — life imprisonment in a maximum security Georgia prison,” Moores said. “What’s he going to do, take away his Wall Street Journal?”
Still, he and Boone say they aren’t giving up.
Describing himself as an “eternal optimist,” Boone said the prosecution of Sullivan was built on unexpected breaks. He still remembers receiving a call from Belinda Trahan after she saw an episode about the murder on a national television show. Then living in Texas, she told Boone she was with her then-boyfriend, Phillip Anthony Harwood, when Sullivan paid him $25,000 to kill Lita on the night before a key hearing in the couple’s divorce.
Trahan’s story checked out. It spurred prosecutors in Atlanta to charge Sullivan with murder. Harwood, now 64, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be released in May 2018.
Now 74, Sullivan exhibits none of the bravado he showed during countless court years in years past, Moores said. He was on the phone last month when Oftedal extended the life of the $13.5 million judgment. But, he said little and didn’t contest the judgment.
“Back when we started on this odyssey, James Sullivan was full of himself,” Moores said. “I don’t think being in a maximum security prison in Georgia is very good for your health.”
Even if Sullivan dies before the search for his hidden accounts is over, the judgment won’t, Moores said. Any money would become part of his estate and the McClintons would be eligible to receive it.
Now in their 80s, the McClintons, built a prosperous life for themselves and their three children. Emory McClinton was a member of the Georgia Department of Transportation Board. His wife was a state legislator. All their success was tarnished by Sullivan, who was worried Lita Sullivan would get his money during the divorce.
“The McClintons never gave up hope that justice would be done,” Moores said.
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