Press Release

Left to right: Kellie Hill, Anna Green, District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr., Sheila Ross and Clint Rucker

NATIONAL DISTRICT ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATION AWARDS ATLANTA, GA PROSECUTORS WITH ITS “HOME RUN HITTERS” AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ALEXANDRIA, VA – April 18, 2007 – Clint Rucker, Sheila Ross, Kellie Hill and Anna Green were the recipients of the National District Attorneys Association’s (NDAA) “Home Run Hitters Award” of excellence at its Board of Directors meeting last week. They were presented with an engraved, authentic, Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat and a plaque in recognition of their outstanding prosecution of James Sullivan. Paul Howard, the District Attorney in Atlanta, GA nominated these Assistant District Attorneys for this award because of their outstanding work on this case. Mr. Howard calls them his “Dream Team.”

On the morning of January 16th, 1987, socialite Lita Sullivan was gunned down on the doorstep of her Buckhead townhouse in Atlanta, GA. A man posing as a floral deliveryman fatally shot the 35-year-old woman in the head. On the morning of Lita’s murder, she was due to attend a court hearing, in downtown Atlanta, regarding the divorce and postnuptial agreement from her millionaire husband James Sullivan.

Raised in a prominent black Atlanta family, Lita was accustomed to an affluent life-style. She married James Sullivan. The 10-year marriage went down-hill in 1981 when the couple moved to Palm Beach, FL to start a new life. Shortly thereafter, Lita accused her husband of infidelity and cruelty and left him in 1985 to return to Atlanta and begin divorce proceedings.

After Lita’s murder, police suspected her husband, James Sullivan, but, at the time of her murder, he was in Palm Beach. An indictment was issued in 1987 for him, but the judge soon dismissed it for lack of evidence linking him to the crime scene. Less than eight months after Lita’s murder, Sullivan married his third wife Hyo-Sook Choi Rogers, who filed for divorce in 1998. During the divorce proceedings, Rogers implicated Sullivan in the murder of his second wife, Lita, by testifying that he had admitted he hired a hit-man to kill Lita to avoid a costly divorce settlement.

There are many twists, turns and people involved in this complex murder mystery. And, even though Sullivan was indicted in federal court for violation of interstate commerce in the early 90s, his trial ended with an acquittal. However, in 1998, Belinda Trahan, after viewing a story about Litas’s murder on TV, came forward and identified Sullivan as the man who hired her ex-boyfriend, Tony Harwood, to kill Lita. Harwood was arrested in 1998 and eventually pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter. He also agreed to testify against Sullivan.

Sullivan fled the country before authorities could re-indict him. In July 2002 – more than 15 years after Lita was murdered, the FBI managed to track down and arrest Sullivan. Sullivan’s attorneys tried to prevent this case from going to trial and filed a motion to support a theory of double jeopardy. The Court ruled against them.

Clint Rucker, Sheila Ross, Kellie Hill and Anna Greene worked days, nights and weekends throughout this case and trial to prosecute Sullivan. Each possesses extraordinary talent and skills. In fact, Clint’s closing argument became widely viewed as one of the most rousing in criminal prosecution history. By working together, they were able to succeed where federal prosecutors had failed. After closing arguments, it took the jury less than five hours to render a guilty verdict – 19 years after Lita’s death.

Mathias (Mat) H. Heck, Jr., President of NDAA and Prosecuting Attorney of Montgomery County (Dayton), OH said, “These prosecutors possess dedication, skill and tenacity and are outstanding examples to all prosecutors. They faced enormous challenges but never gave up in their quest for truth and justice.”

CONTACT: Velva M. Walter
Director, Media Relations NDAA
703-519-1689 – Email: velva.walter@ndaa.org