Officers help deny parole for cop killer
Every time the killer of Herbert Sullivan comes up for a parole hearing, the slain officer's colleagues get together in opposition.
By JON WILSON
Published April 10, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - Herbert Ray Sullivan's brother police officers haven't forgotten him. Nor will they ever.
Several spoke on his behalf at a March 30 parole hearing for the man who killed him. And they spoke out against the release of Sammie Lee Mathis, who is serving a life sentence for Sullivan's murder.
Sullivan was the most recent of 12 St. Petersburg officers killed in the line of duty. It happened on a steamy, August afternoon in 1980. Sullivan, 30 years old, was an undercover narcotics detective.
At a 54th Avenue N motel off Interstate 275, Sullivan and a partner were trying to buy $65,000 worth of cocaine and Quaaludes from two dealers.
But seeing the cash was too much temptation for one of the dealers. Mathis shot Sullivan twice in the chest, point blank with a pistol. Mathis fled with the money. The detective died two hours later.
Mathis was arrested the next day and convicted of first degree-murder a few months later.
On March 30, during the 25th anniversary year of Sullivan's death, Mathis came up for a parole hearing.
Several current and former St. Petersburg officers went before the Florida Parole Commission, hoping to make sure Mathis wouldn't get out the date a parole official initially had recommended as a presumptive date - Aug. 15, 2010.
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, who prosecuted Mathis' murder trial, also spoke in opposition to a release date, as did members of Sullivan's family.
"I talked about the fact Herby was my best friend," said Maj. Ron Hartz. He said he and Sullivan "essentially were rookies together" when they joined the police department in the 1970s.
Hartz recalled that after the murder, Mathis told police "he can't remember a time when he had $100 in his pocket.
"He knew what he was doing. He was willing to take the chance. If he got caught he was going to have to live with the consequences."
"My request was that (Mathis) spend the rest of his life in jail," Hartz said.
It appears that will be the case.
Parole commissioners did not affirm the initial presumptive date, restructuring Mathis' parole situation with aggravating factors such as firearm use, sophisticated criminal conspiracy, the act of robbery and Sullivan's being a law enforcement officer.
Mathis' new presumptive parole date: Aug. 18, 2281.
Many people, officers and residents, had wanted Mathis to receive the death penalty in 1980. But the jury, believing there was no proof that Mathis knew Sullivan was a police officer, recommended life. The judge followed the recommendation.
Now 48, Mathis still be interviewed every five years by parole officials. Sullivan's comrades will follow every step.
"No doubt," Hartz said.
Mathis is held in close-custody status at the state Department of Corrections' Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler. Though the facility is typically used to process new inmates, long-term inmates are housed there as "permanent party" to do some of the work associated with prisons, said a DOC spokeswoman.
William Haake was another drug dealer with Mathis when Sullivan was killed. Prosecutors said he used sugar to resemble cocaine in setting up the deal that resulted in Sullivan's death.
Haake got away that day and eluded Florida law for seven years, although he was spent four years of that time in a Spanish prison. He eventually was extradited to Florida, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life. He is being held at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford.
Romeo Mathis, Sammie Lee Mathis' brother, was convicted on unrelated federal drug charges in 1991 and is serving life in prison.
The police department in 1997 inaugurated the Herbert Sullivan Award, which goes annually to an outstanding vice and narcotics investigator.