Clinton woman shoots, kills man during break-in

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/021705/new_woman001.shtml

Woman kills intruder

Clinton resident shoots, fights off attacker

By JAMES MINTON
jminton@theadvocate.com
Baker-Zachary bureau

Advocate staff photo by Arthur D. Lauck
Assistant Police Chief Arkell Merritt of Clinton stands near the open door of a firewood box that investigaters believe Arthur Sanford used as a way to enter Georgia Belle Sullivan's home early Wedneday. East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Talmadge Bunch said Sullivan shot and killed Sanford as the man attacked her in the kitchen-den area of her residence near Clinton.
CLINTON -- A Clinton woman fired her pistol at a man who lunged at her in the darkness of her home Wednesday morning, then survived a severe beating as the intruder tried to wrestle the gun from her hands.
"I didn't know if I hit him or not," Georgia Belle Sullivan recalled later Wednesday. "He grabbed me, and we went to the floor and we struggled for a while. He was trying to get the gun away, because he kept saying, 'I want your money, and I want your gun.' "

The man, Arthur Sanford, 44, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Talmadge Bunch said.

"After she shot him, he fought her until he died," Bunch said.

Sullivan, who lives in a farmhouse off Plank Road south of Clinton, suffered multiple bruises to her face and other areas of her body, as well as lacerations on her arms in the brief but violent encounter.

Sanford, 11808 Clarence St., Clinton, had worked for Sullivan and other members of her family on their cattle farm for years, but Sullivan said she fired him three or four years ago because she suspected he was using drugs.

Bunch said Sanford entered the home about 2:15 a.m. through one of two firewood storage boxes adjacent to the fireplace. The boxes are equipped with doors on the outside and inside of the house.

"He probably filled those wood boxes many a time for her," the sheriff said.

Arkell Merritt, assistant Clinton police chief and a longtime friend of Sullivan's family, said investigators were puzzled at first about how Sanford got into the house, because all of the doors were locked and no windows were broken.

He said Bunch solved the puzzle when he took a flashlight, went outside and found pieces of firewood lying on the ground outside the exterior wood box entrance.

Bunch said Sanford had a pair of scissors in his pocket and wore gloves. Sanford also had a sweat shirt over his head that was taped to form a makeshift mask.

Sanford cut the telephone wires on the outside of the house before he broke into the residence.

"He went in there to do her some bodily harm," Bunch said.

Sanford
The sheriff said Sullivan's former husband tried to help Sanford by giving him work. Sanford had a string of arrests and served time in a state prison for armed robbery, Bunch said.

"They let him live in a travel trailer on their place," the sheriff said.

Sullivan said she woke up during the night but couldn't go back to sleep right away. She turned on her television set, but eventually dozed off as her two dogs slept in her bedroom.

"Then I heard a noise, and my boxers started barking," Sullivan said.

She said she arose from her bed, got her .357-caliber pistol loaded with .38 Special ammunition from an armoire, and decided to take the gun with her as she investigated the noise.

In the darkness of her kitchen-den, she said she saw a shadow move behind a line of chairs, then a man lunged at her with his hands raised.

She said she fired one shot at close range before Sanford reached her.

"We struggled for a good while, and he beat me with his fists. He was trying to get the gun out of my hand, but he never did," she said.

Sullivan said the gun discharged several more times during the struggle.

"I think what he was trying to do was turn the gun on me," Sullivan said.

"Then he realized he was hit, and he said, 'Miss Georgia, don't shoot me again. This is Arthur.' By then he was loosening up, and he let me go," she said.

Merritt said Sullivan probably maintained her grip on the revolver because it has a short barrel that prevented Sanford from gaining leverage to pry the gun from her hand.

Still, Sullivan said she suffered a severe bruise to her palm as she held tightly to the gun.

"I'm lucky to be alive, and I'm glad to be alive, I can tell you," Sullivan said.

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