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American Morning

19-Year-Old Murder-for-Hire Case Finally Comes to Trial in Atlanta; 'Consumer Reports' Out With Annual List of Leading Cars and Trucks

Aired March 02, 2006 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's now 8:30. We're not going to hold him to that. That's give or take.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You are so tough on poor Chad.

O'BRIEN: No I'm not. I'm a big fan of Chad. Huge fan of Chad.

COSTELLO: OK.

O'BRIEN: He's my hero.

COSTELLO: He is. He's a great meteorologist, and it is snowing in New York, and we're expected to get a couple of inches. We're also going to talk later this hour about this murder trial going on in Georgia. This case has been dragging on since 1987. Very sensational case that involves money, a murder for hire, a millionaire who escaped to some very exotic places. We're going to talk all about that coming up.

O'BRIEN: And a cryptic call from the alleged trigger man to him, Merry Christmas. Interesting.

COSTELLO: Weird.

O'BRIEN: Kelly Wallace has some headlines for us. Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning to you. And hello, everyone. We're beginning with President Bush, who says there are no limits on the partnership between the United States and India. The president and India's prime minister announcing a landmark agreement on nuclear cooperation.

India will separate its civilian and military programs, allowing it to receive assistance for its nuclear energy needs. In exchange, the country must agree to national inspections. The United States Congress still has to approve the deal.

The president's south Asia trip includes a stop Saturday in Pakistan. That country reeling from a pair of explosions this is morning. They hit near the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. At least four people were killed, including an American diplomat. The president is saying those attacks won't deter his trip.

We're also watching the situation in Iraq. At least 16 people killed in attacks across the country this morning. Among those attacks, a bomb that went off at a Baghdad market place. And this is a video from the scene of that explosion.

There was also an attack on a checkpoint north of Baghdad. Ten Iraqi forces were gunned down.

And in New Jersey, Charles Cullen is set to be sentenced to life in prison next hour. He's a former nurse who has admitted to killing more than 20 people by lethal injection. And it is expected to be a very emotional hearing. Family members of the victims will confront him with statements expressing their anger and sorrow. And of course, our own Allan Chernoff is covering that hearing and will bring us any developments as he gets them. Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Kelly.

A 19-year-old murder-for-hire case has finally come to trial in Atlanta. The prosecution's case reads like a made-for-TV movie. A millionaire husband hires a hit man to kill a socialite wife just to avoid a costly divorce settlement. Now the drama is playing out in that Atlanta courtroom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHEILA ROSS, FULTON COUNTY D.A.: On the morning of January 16, 1987, Lita McClinton Sullivan opened her door to a hit man carrying flowers.

COSTELLO: For three days now, the prosecution has hammered away at James Sullivan. The Atlanta millionaire is accused of being unwilling to hand over any of that money to his estranged wife Lita, deciding instead to have her paid to have her killed.

ROSS: And he put a bullet in her brain at close range.

COSTELLO: He is this man, Tony Harwood. The hit man admits he shot Lita Sullivan in the foyer of her townhouse 19 years ago, and says James Sullivan paid him $25,000 to do it. The defense, however, says that Harwood cannot be trusted.

DON SAMUEL, SULLIVAN'S ATTORNEY: Every time the man talks, he tells a different story.

COSTELLO: The murder happened on the morning of a crucial court date in the Sullivan's divorce. It also happened while a friend of Mrs. Sullivan was staying with her.

POPPY MARABLE, LITA SULLIVAN'S FRIEND: I heard her open the door. And I heard her say, "Good morning." I heard three shots. A gun. Pow, pow, pow.

COSTELLO: Prosecutors contend that the hit man had tried to make the same deadly delivery just days before the murder. But she didn't answer the door. They say that led Sullivan to make a phone call to a friend and neighbor of his wife, asking if he had seen anything suspicious. ROBERT CHRISTENSON, LITA SULLIVAN'S FORMER NEIGHBOR: I hadn't talked to him in a long time, and to have him call me out of the blue like this and ask about suspicious stuff around the house just seemed strange to me.

COSTELLO: The state claims Sullivan was trying to find out if anyone had noticed Harwood. The defense insists though that there is no physical evidence linking Sullivan to the crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Jean Casarez is covering the Sullivan trial for Court TV. She joins live now from the Fulton County Courthouse.

Good morning.

JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So at what point in the case are they?

CASAREZ: Well, we're in the middle of the prosecution's case in chief, but we're getting to the witnesses that are so critically important to the prosecution. First of all, you've got that trigger man -- or alleged trigger man.

If you're the defense, you're going to say that's Tony Harwood. And also his girlfriend, Belinda Trahan, an important witness because she was living in Texas, she saw a television show. She said, "Wow, that's the man that paid my boyfriend $25,000." She called the FBI, and that's how the case broke open.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, it seems like such an open and shut case. This Garwood guy, the trigger man, he's already in prison for the murder. Why doesn't he just come out and say what happened?

CASAREZ: Well, now he's changed his story, as you just said. He's changed his story numerous times. Now he's saying, "I didn't even do it." And so it gives defense a lot to work with because if he's changed his story so many times, then why could we even believe him? But the fact is, he pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter. And the prosecution is going to say, "Why would somebody just sit in prison for 20 years?"

COSTELLO: The strange part -- Lita's parents, the victim's parents, they wanted judgment against the husband, Mr. Sullivan, right? And as that case was being decided and appealed, he escaped to all these other countries. That's why this case has been so long in coming to justice, right?

CASAREZ: It took seven years, he was out of the country. Because after the civil verdict and he was found liable for her death, a couple years after that, he went to Costa Rica. And then two days after the charges were filed here in Fulton County in Atlanta, he drove from Costa Rica to Panama, flew to Venezuela, flew to Thailand, lived there for four years before he was arrested, and then he fought his extradition. He didn't want to come back to the U.S. COSTELLO: And he got married a few more times, too, didn't he?

CASAREZ: He got married eight months after Lita was murdered. And then in Thailand, he had a girlfriend, wife, we're not sure. Authorities say they never really figured out what that was, if it was a marriage or just they lived together.

COSTELLO: So what is your sense? Where is this case going?

CASAREZ: Well, the difficulty with this case is that it's a cold case because it happened in 1987 and you don't have any forensics at all. And juries these days, they love forensic. They want to see the DNA. They want to see the fingerprints. They want to see the matches.

It is a circumstantial case, so prosecutors have to build it building block by building block, which they are doing. But remember, we're in a criminal court. And if there is reasonable doubt, then you can't convict the man. And that's what the defense is looking for here.

COSTELLO: Wow, Jean Casarez from Court TV. Thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Much has been made of the fact that the 9/11 hijackers learned to fly jets at American schools without being caught by law enforcement. But one man was caught. And the story of how that happened will be told tonight on "Paula Zahn Now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

I'm Kelli Arena in Minnesota. Tonight on "Paula Zahn Now," I'll have a report about two men who tipped off the FBI about a suspicious flight student named Zacarias Moussaoui a full month before the September 11th attacks. Tim Nelson is the son after cop and once took the FBI entrance exam. With Moussaoui, things just didn't add up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what this guy is up to, but he's paying a lot of money for nothing he can use legitimately.

ARENA: And at the end of Moussaoui's first day at flight school, Simms (ph) was also troubled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What in the world is this guy doing here spending that kind of money, by himself to learn to try and take off and land a 747-400. That is the most sophisticated of the 747s.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You can see the exclusive full report tonight, 8:00 Eastern on CNN.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

O'BRIEN: NASA with an important step as they try to get the space shuttle Discovery in the air in May. They're still aiming for an end of May launch window. There you see, that is the external fuel tank being towed in. It's underneath that barge, that specially designed barge. It arrived at the so-called turn basin at the Kennedy Space Center.

But as it comes, they made some modifications to it that they still have to verify to make sure that big pieces of foam don't continue to fall off of it. So still not clear to fly, but the tank is there. So while they do the work, they're still proceeding with the processing of the shuttle Discovery.

If, in fact, they're able to launch in May, they hope to do a total of three missions this is year. That would be a bit aggressive. If they don't make it in May, they'll try for July.

COSTELLO: Poor NASA.

O'BRIEN: It's a tough time to be in the shuttle program, there's no question. It's a transitional time. I mean, it's exciting because they want to go to the moon and Mars and all that stuff, but it's a period of time when they're figuring all that out. It's very difficult.

COSTELLO: Definitely so.

O'BRIEN: Andy is here minding your business, though. What's up?

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Carol, do you know about this KFC TV ad secret code controversy? Well, we're going to get into it big time, coming up next on "American Morning."

O'BRIEN: Lou Reed should be the new bond. Take a walk on the wild side. Just do it.

COSTELLO: They are talking about it. I think Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, is like primo. These two, they don't even think...

SERWER: We'd rather go on a date with Lou Reed.

O'BRIEN: The truth is, we both think we're more handsome than the new Bond.

COSTELLO: Yes, that's really the rub.

O'BRIEN: It's the rub, yes. All right, you've got to stay tuned now, folks. Because there's something really special coming up. And Andy's going to -- you're going to get something free if you stay tuned, maybe.

SERWER: Let's talk about -- this is the new KFC TV commercial secret code controversy. I don't know if you heard about this. There's a KFC commercial with a secret code embedded in it. And you have to slow down the commercial to watch it. In other words, you have to Tivo it and then watch it on Tivo to freeze it for one frame.

ABC is declining to run the ad because they call it subliminal advertising. I don't understand that position at all. But here, we have the ad, and with the frame of the secret code. So if you're not interest in getting a free buffalo snacker sandwich, please avert your eyes from the television. Let's run the commercial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To think, we could have had noodles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good one.

MALE ANNOUNCER: The new 99-cent buffalo snacker from KFC.

SERWER: OK, now, right there is the frame. Now, we probably shouldn't keep this up too long.

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: There's the frame. OK. Just to give it away a little bit, it is the name of a New York State city upstate that has something to do with chicken wings.

O'BRIEN: It has something to do with KFC snacker, too.

SERWER: It might be Syracuse, it might be Utica.

COSTELLO: And ABC is not running this.

SERWER: They're saying it's subliminal advertising.

COSTELLO: So they won't be doing the Beatles' "White Album" anytime soon.

SERWER: Yes, right. Actually, you know, this sort of helps advertisers because everyone's scared that their advertisements aren't being viewed when people are Tivoing the shows. Now you have to watch the commercial, though.

O'BRIEN: I think it's brilliant.

SERWER: I think it's a really clever idea.

O'BRIEN: It's a reason to watch the ads on Tivo, right there. So we'll be seeing more of this, undoubtedly. Maybe.

SERWER: Unless we give them all away.

COSTELLO: And I'm going in for my free chicken sandwich.

SERWER: Well, you have to go to the Web site, put the code in. There's a whole lot of work to do.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: "Consumer Reports" has the top ten car list out. Have you -- I know you've seen it.

SERWER: Yes, I have seen it. O'BRIEN: And there's not even a European vehicle, much less an American vehicle. It's all Japanese vehicles. We're going to talk to one of the guys who put this list together. And we'll see why Detroit is just on the shoulder trying to fix a flat, and actually probably has some trouble under the hood, too. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: This is a list a lot of people waiting for. "Consumer Reports" out with its annual list of leading cars and trucks, the magazine's top picks for 2006 is a first. It is a first which they are going to have to do some 'plaining about.

As a matter of fact, there's a note from the editor right in the magazine saying, "Don't send me email, now." David Champion is the senior director of "Consumer Reports" auto test division.

David, not a single American car? Not even a European -- not even a German vehicle. Going into it, would you have predicted that?

DAVID CHAMPION, "CONSUMER REPORTS": Well, we've usually had a lot of Japanese cars on our top ten list. But there's usually been the American and European car. But this year, all Japanese.

O'BRIEN: Wow. So big picture here, the Japanese just get it. They know, they know how to build cars that have the things you like, but more importantly, those things tend to work, and work over time, don't they?

CHAMPION: They tend to redesign their cars about every five years. So they've always got something new coming out. So it stays up with the marketplace. Japanese reliability has been known for many years, and it continues to lead the industry. And when you look at the cars, they really do listen to the consumer and really get what the consumer is looking for in the vehicles that they drive.

O'BRIEN: Now, we're not going through all ten vehicles. We don't have time to do that. But here's what struck me. There were a couple that really struck me.

First of all, in the SUV category the Highlander hybrid, which is a very interesting vehicle. And it's very similar to the Lexus version of this, by the way, if you want to get a little fancier version of this. This is going after Detroit where they're making hay in the bigger categories. What is Toyota know that Detroit doesn't know about SUVs?

CHAMPION: Well, a lot of consumers buy SUVs. And if it has sort of an off-road capability, they never use it. So Honda, Toyota, among the Japanese, have been building these sort of more lightweight SUVs, good for snowy weather like we might get today, and does everything that you want it to. And with the hybrid technology, not only do you get better fuel economy, which is very important these days, but the car is actually quicker and accelerating as well.

O'BRIEN: They are very responsive. CHAMPION: They are.

O'BRIEN: And the other -- here's the one that surprised me most. Pickup truck category. This is Detroit's bread and butter. We're not -- and you would think, "OK, what is it going to be this year. The F150 or the Silverado?" Every now and then, the Dodge has one. But this year, it's a Honda in the pickup truck. Tell us about that.

CHAMPION: Well, this is a pickup truck that's more geared towards a consumer-type buyer. And it does everything that you want the consumer to do without all the heavy chassis and everything else with a regular type of pickup truck.

So we see pickup trucks for the family person going more towards the way the SUVs have gone, much lighter weight, not so heavy to cart around. But very responsive handling and good fuel economy.

O'BRIEN: So if -- putting those two together, the SUV we just saw and the pickup truck, it seems like the theme is the Japanese recognize that we like big cars here. They also recognize gas prices are going up. They're trying to straddle the fence here. Are they pulling it off?

CHAMPION: They are for the sort of family man that wants a pickup for his snowmobiles and jet skis or whatever else he wants to put nit back. The ridgeline is not really geared towards a contractor. We're still going to see very high sales of F-150 and Silverado for the contractor type businessperson.

O'BRIEN: They're not going after that niche, yet. But who knows. And then, of course, if you go into the larger SUV category, the big suburbans or the Yukon XL, that's still Detroit's country. But who knows what they're after next, right?

CHAMPION: Yes, Chevrolet has just come out with a new Tahoe. It's much improved over last year's model. So we'll just have to see how it goes in our testing.

O'BRIEN: The other one that surprised me, too, was fun vehicles. Because you think of the Japanese as being well made, kind of almost utilitarian in a sense. Not flashy. But they're getting the flash thing, too, aren't they?

CHAMPION: Yes. Our most fun to drive was a Subaru WRX. It's an absolutely blast to drive. You can drift it sideways around the corners. It's virtually like a rally car for the road. Styling isn't what you might call the most flashy in many ways, but to actually drive it, it's an absolute blast.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Just looking at it doesn't look like anything too special. But you're having fun, yes?

CHAMPION: Oh, this is one of my favorite cars.

O'BRIEN: All right, here's the $64 billion question. How is Detroit going to catch up? I mean, just the problem is you're trying to hit a moving target. The Japanese are constantly improving. How can Detroit catch up?

CHAMPION: I think they need to do it with product and reliability about. If you look at Kia and Hyundai maybe five, ten years ago, they were in the dumps. They came out with good cars, with good reliability, and backed it with a long warranty. That's what Detroit needs to do.

O'BRIEN: It sounds so simple, doesn't it?

CHAMPION: It does, but they're a bit short of cash at the moment. It's going to take a while for them to really get to grips with what they need to do.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks for dropping by, David.

CHAMPION: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: David Champion, "Consumer Reports." And that's the top ten list for 2006. You can see that "Consumer Reports" annual auto issue on newsstands nationwide. You get reliability ratings, reviews of hundreds of models, in addition. For more information, we invite you to go to consumerreports.org -- Carol?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Top story that's coming up, a bombing in Pakistan kills a U.S. diplomat. A nurse who killed 29 people will be sentenced today. New FEMA transcripts reveal government confusion before Katrina. The East Coast braces for a big snowstorm. And fierce wild fires burn in New Mexico and Oklahoma. We'll get a live report for you. That's coming up on this "American Morning."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a tradeoff between being safe and being efficient. What's missing right now is a consistent security in all airports. And the ideal state for me would be an all-in-one system, whether it (inaudible), puts you on a conveyor belt, but you're moving the whole time. Because I have nothing to hide.

I travel every week. I just want to be as efficient as possible. As for the future of security, I'm not sure what direction we're headed in. I would like to know, where are we heading for my safety?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Gary's wish is shared by many. To feel secure when flying, but not to waste time on inefficient screening systems. So how close are we to getting the best of both worlds?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The future of airport security is this man's mission, chief technology officer for the Transportation Security Administration, Randy Null. RANDY NULL, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Since 9/11, there is a lot more research and development. (INAUDIBLE) with the newest applyment that we've had.

O'BRIEN: As passengers walk through these so-called puffer machines, quick bursts of air dislodge and collect tiny particles from the person and test them for explosive materials, all within eight to ten seconds.

Also in the works, a machine that captures images like these. It's an x-ray device with the power of Superman. The machines may make security types happy, but many passengers may feel violated.

NULL: We need things that will allow us to replace equipment rather than add equipment. We'll actually be doing better things, but doing them less intrusively and faster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Well, it kills as many as 98,000 people every year. But it's not a disease or a kind of accident. It's mistakes at the hospital. Ahead, medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen will tell you what you can do to protect yourself. Don't go to the hospital would be one option. But that sometimes doesn't work. Stay with us for more "American Morning."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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