Fugitive declares innocence, fights extradition

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Posted 8:19AM on Friday, October 25, 2002

BANGKOK, THAILAND - A fugitive Florida millionaire wanted for the 1987 murder of his socialite wife told a Bangkok court Friday that he's innocent and should not be extradited to the United States. James Vincent Sullivan, 61, who allegedly paid someone $25,000 to kill Lita McClinton Sullivan to avoid losing property in a costly divorce, said he wasn't even in Georgia at the time. Lita Sullivan, 35, was killed Jan. 16, 1987, at her posh Atlanta home by someone posing as a flower delivery man. Lita's mother, Jo Ann McClinton, is a Georgia state legislator. ``I was 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away in Palm Beach, Florida,'' Sullivan told the Bangkok Criminal Court at his first extradition hearing since his arrest in July. The next hearing was set for Jan. 23. Lita Sullivan's alleged killer, Phillip Anthony Harwood, was arrested in April 1998 and remains in Fulton County jail without bond. Prosecutors say he shot her in the head and are seeking the death penalty. James Sullivan was tried in 1992 on the charge of making telephone calls across state lines to facilitate the murder, but was acquitted. He told the court Friday that the United States is now trying to extradite him on the same charges, which he claimed is not allowed under Thai law. But Robert H. Cahill, legal attache for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation present at the hearing, told The Associated Press that Sullivan was misrepresenting facts. He said Sullivan is not sought for the 1992 charge but is wanted under a new indictment on murder, aggravated assault and other charges. ``This is not an issue of double jeopardy. He is just trying confuse the court,'' he said. Sullivan, dressed in his prisoner's brown uniform and shackled at the ankles, told the court that he will fight his extradition even though he has faith in the U.S. judicial system. Sullivan, who once owned a large mansion in a Palm Beach, Fla., was arrested in Thailand after weeks of police surveillance of his condominium in the beach resort of Cha-am, 100 miles south of Bangkok. Authorities were tipped off after someone had recognized him from the television show, ``America's Most Wanted.'' Sullivan is in custody of Thai authorities. Sullivan is believed to have left Florida in 1997 for Costa Rica, where he bought a second home. He fled Costa Rica after his 1998 indictment by a U.S. court. Sullivan obtained a residency permit in Thailand in 1998 when he married a local woman. His Thai wife was present in court Friday.