Man Indicted in Slaying of Westlake Nurse : Crime: Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty against the Thousand Oaks suspect.

The Ventura County grand jury has indicted a Thousand Oaks man in the September slaying of Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The 14-count indictment issued Monday includes charges of murder, kidnap, robbery and a special allegation that could send Mark Scott Thornton to the gas chamber.

But prosecutors still have not decided whether to seek the death penalty, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris said. That decision will not be made for at least several weeks, Kossoris said.

District attorney’s investigators are piecing together a profile of Thornton and the circumstance surrounding O’Sullivan’s slaying, he said. When that is completed, Kossoris and other prosecutors will turn their information over to Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

“He has the final call, as I think it ought to be,” Kossoris said.

Police say Thornton kidnaped and fatally shot O’Sullivan, the mother of a young son, on Sept. 14. O’Sullivan’s body was found amid brush in the Santa Monica Mountains 12 days later.

Thornton was arrested Sept. 19 in Reno, Nev. Authorities said he was in possession of O’Sullivan’s car.

Thornton, who has been in Ventura County Jail since being returned from Nevada in late September, made a brief appearance in Superior Court when the indictment was unsealed Tuesday.

His arraignment was postponed until Jan. 10 to give his attorneys time to review a transcript of the grand jury proceedings.

Judge Charles R. McGrath granted a defense motion to seal the grand jury testimony, Deputy Public Defender Howard Asher said. Otherwise, the transcripts would have been made public.

Asher said he wanted the transcript sealed because media interest in the case seems to be unusually high and he wants to make sure Thornton receives a fair trial.

In any event, Asher said the defense expects to ask that the case be moved to another county because of heavy pretrial publicity “if the case proceeds on to trial.” He declined to elaborate whether the case might be resolved with a plea agreement.

He also said the defense had been hoping that a Municipal Court judge, not the grand jury, would determine whether Thornton should stand trial.

In most felony cases, an open preliminary hearing is held in Municipal Court, where both the prosecution and defense can present evidence to a judge who decides whether the defendant will stand trial.

But since Proposition 115 was passed in 1990, prosecutors also have the option of taking the case to the grand jury, a citizens’ panel that hears testimony in secret and can issue indictments requiring the defendant to stand trial. The defense is not allowed to attend grand jury proceedings.

Asher said the district attorney’s office seems to have become dependent on the grand jury in high-profile cases in recent years.

“We would prefer to have an open hearing where we can evaluate witnesses and question them on our own,” Asher said.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee said, however, that prosecutors use grand juries in serious cases for practical reasons. He said grand jury proceedings are faster, and the secret nature of grand juries affords witnesses more confidentiality.

“Any murder case we are usually going to go to the grand jury unless there’s some compelling reason not to,” McGee said.

Kevin White, O’Sullivan’s boyfriend, who coordinated the 12-day civilian search for her body, said he is pleased the case is moving along.

“I just hope the truth comes out of it,” he said.