ATLANTA — On the day his wife was killed, millionaire investor James Sullivan stood to lose a battle in divorce court that could have meant the difference between a $1 million or a $90,000 settlement, his estranged wife's divorce lawyer told jurors in his murder trial Wednesday.

Fulton County prosecutors claim the prospect of a costly divorce settlement was the primary motivation for Sullivan to pay a hit man $25,000 to kill his wife, Lita Sullivan, on Jan. 16, 1987. (VIDEO)

At 2 p.m. that day, the 35-year-old Atlanta socialite was set to appear in the same courthouse where her husband is now standing trial for her murder, after he was extradited from Thailand in 2004.

Records introduced in the 65-year-old's death penalty trial Wednesday also showed that Sullivan needed his wife's signature to refinance his mortgage on his Palm Beach mansion —another reason for him to want her dead, prosecutors contend.

Story continues

advertisement

But lawyers for Sullivan, who defended him a decade ago when he was acquitted on federal charges related to his wife's death, claim their client had reason to believe the hearing could have resulted in his favor, and had no reason to kill his wife.

The morning of the murder, Fulton County Judge William Daniel was expected to rule on the validity of a postnuptial agreement that the couple signed in 1984 , eight years into their marriage.

In 1985, Lita Sullivan left her husband in their Palm Beach mansion and returned to the couple's Slaton Drive townhouse in Atlanta, where she was ultimately killed by a hit man who is expected to testify against Sullivan later in the trial.

The hearing followed two years of legal wrangling in what divorce lawyer Richard Schiffman called the most contentious case of his 25-year career.

"Everything, from the very beginning of the case until the end, was extremely hard fought. Very little was done by cooperation," Schiffman told the panel of 13 women and three men.

The lawyer said he was optimistic the judge would invalidate the postnuptial agreement, which would have netted Lita only $2,500 a month in alimony for three years, a few items of personal property and some jewelry from her husband, with whom she had stopped having sexual relations about five years before they separated, Schiffman testified.

Schiffman said Lita Sullivan wanted ownership of the exclusive townhouse with the mortgage paid by Sullivan, her Mercedes, alimony, personal items and jewelry totaling an estimated $1 million.

Had the judge ruled in Lita Sullivan's favor, the next phase would have been a jury trial, in accordance with Georgia law.

"We thought our chances of prevailing on the motion were very good. There were some real questions of fact," particularly surrounding Sullivan's assets and his ability to pay his wife, Schiffman said.

Judge Daniel, whose portrait hangs in the courtroom of Sullivan's trial, twice held the defendant in contempt for failing to pay temporary alimony to his wife pending the outcome of the divorce trial.

Initially, Sullivan, who was earning a monthly pension of $20,833 from the sale of his liquor distributorship, was fined $15,000 for failing to pay $7,000 in monthly alimony.

Even after Daniel granted Sullivan's motion to reduce the monthly payments to $2,500, Sullivan still refused to give his wife money.

"Normally, if a judge finds you in contempt, the individual tends to learn his lesson," Schiffman said as the defendant listened impassively. "Also, most of the time, if you have a contempt case involving money, there's the question of whether it can be paid."

Schiffman conceded under cross examination that he had no way of knowing how the judge would have ruled, because Lita Sullivan's death effectively terminated the proceedings.

"When Judge Daniel dropped the [support] payments to $2,500, the reading of the tea leaves for Mr. Sullivan's side was good, wasn't it?" defense lawyer Ed Garland asked.

"Correct," Schiffman said.

"Had Mr. Sullivan's position on the postnup been accepted, there would have been no need for a trial?" Garland asked.

"Correct," he said.

Schiffman also testified that the day of Lita Sullivan's death, the only communication he received from Sullivan through his lawyers was the request that his wife's parents not take anything from the home where she was killed.

"I told them I would not call the McClintons on the day their daughter was murdered and tell them not to steal the furniture," Schiffman said, eliciting a smirk from a male juror.

The panel, which is being sequestered for the duration of the trial, also got its first glimpse of graphic crime scene photographs, though the victim was absent in all of them.

Lita Sullivan's parents and relatives left the courtroom as Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Sheila Ross displayed photos of the bloody foyer where paramedics attempted to resuscitate her lifeless body.

Several panelists recoiled as Ross solemnly paraded the bloodstained white terry cloth robe in front of the jury box that the victim was wearing when a hit man carrying flowers knocked on her door and shot her in the head with a .9-mm handgun.

It took authorities 11 years to catch up with the hit man, now the state's star witness against the self-made millionaire with roots in Boston's Irish working class.

But Sullivan's high-profile lawyers claim the state would have no case against the frail, thin-haired defendant were it not for the emergence of the hit man, Tony Harwood, who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for testimony against Sullivan.

Even so, Atlanta Police Officer Welcome Harris testified that Sullivan always remained a prime suspect in his mind, even though it took more than a decade to link him to the crime.

"What kept leading you back to him?" Ross asked the witness, now a major.

"It was that phone call. He never mentioned it," he said.

Jurors also learned of the collect call from a rest stop outside of Georgia to Sullivan's Palm Beach mansion that, until Harwood came along, was the only evidence connecting Sullivan to Georgia the day his wife was murdered.

The one-minute phone call occurred at 9 a.m., approximately 45 minutes after Lita Sullivan was shot.

Lavonne Westbrooks, a records custodian with Bell South Telephone Company, produced records of the call which showed that it originated from a rest stop outside of Atlanta.

"In all my interviews with him, he never once mentioned that phone call," Harris elaborated outside of court. "And it only lasted a minute on the day his wife was murdered. That always stood out to me."

The trial is being shown live on Court TV Extra.