Prosecutors Will Seek Death Penalty Against 19-Year-Old

Ventura County prosecutors announced Wednesday that they will seek the death penalty against Mark Scott Thornton, the Thousand Oaks teen-ager charged in the September slaying of Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury decided to push for the death penalty after reviewing the case with key staffers Tuesday morning, officials said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris, who will try the case, said the decision was not influenced by Bradbury’s announcement Tuesday that he will seek a fifth term in office.

Decisions on capital punishment cases usually come after a defendant is charged but before arraignment, Kossoris said. A grand jury charged the 19-year-old Thornton with the murder in a 14-count indictment returned last month. His arraignment is scheduled for Monday.

“Our universal procedure is that we have a meeting on cases where the death penalty is a possibility,” Kossoris said. “We discuss the case and everybody states their opinion, and Mike makes the ultimate decision.”

Bradbury was out of the office Wednesday and could not be reached for comment on his decision.

Kossoris declined to explain the factors considered in deciding to seek the death penalty against Thornton.

The public defender’s office immediately issued a news release criticizing the decision.

“We feel strongly that, should there be a conviction in this case, the appropriate sentence for this troubled teen-ager would be life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” the statement said.

Defense attorneys also said in the terse, one-paragraph statement that they were surprised by Bradbury’s decision to go for the death penalty. Deputy Public Defender Howard Asher, co-counsel for Thornton, declined to elaborate.

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

Thornton was arrested in Reno, Nev., on Sept. 19. He was in possession of her car. Thornton has admitted to police that he stole O’Sullivan’s car and used it to abduct his ex-girlfriend, whom he then drove to Reno. But the defendant has denied killing O’Sullivan.

Kevin White, O’Sullivan’s boyfriend and coordinator of the 12-day civilian search for her body, said he was pleased by the decision to seek the death penalty.

“I just hope that things go smoothly and happen as they should,” he said. “It just seems that these cases take so long.”

Kossoris said he expects the Thornton trial to start no sooner than summer because attorneys will need several months to prepare their cases.

Thornton would be the second man to face the death penalty in Ventura County in 1994.

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Christopher James Sattiewhite, a 21-year-old convicted felon from Oxnard who is accused of shooting an Oxnard woman at point-blank range two years ago.

The announcement to seek the death penalty against Thornton comes as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a major challenge to California’s death-penalty law. The high court has agreed to rule whether jurors in the state are given enough guidance in choosing between a death sentence and life imprisonment.

Ventura attorney Wendy Lascher, who will argue the Supreme Court appeal of a Shasta County man who killed a teacher, said local authorities should narrow the grounds on which they seek the death penalty while the high court makes up its mind.

“Prosecutors should not argue to the jury, for example, that the death penalty is warranted because of ‘the circumstances of the crime,’ ” said Lascher, who said that phrase is overly vague.

She also said there should be a clear standard for how Bradbury and other district attorneys decide to seek the death penalty.

“We just should not have prosecutors making it up as they are going along,” she said.

But Ventura County prosecutors said they have been instructed by the state attorney general’s office to continue their current procedures for deciding whether to seek the death penalty in murder cases.