Legal Expert Urges Venue Change in Thornton Case

Testifying for the second day, a defense legal expert urged a Superior Court judge to move the high-profile murder trial of Thousand Oaks teen-ager Mark Scott Thornton out of Ventura County because of the local publicity that has surrounded the case.

Edward J. Bronson, a professor of political science and law at Cal State Chico, said during Thornton’s change-of-venue hearing that too many potential jurors in the county have already decided that Thornton killed Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan.

“There is at least a reasonable likelihood that Mr. Thornton will not be able to receive a fair trial in Ventura County,” Bronson said, providing for the first time a conclusion to a survey he conducted on publicity in the case.

If Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath decides against the motion to move the trial, Bronson suggested several alternatives that he said would offer the 19-year-old Thornton a better chance at getting a fair trial.

The judge could grant attorneys in the case additional peremptory challenges to disqualify more jurors who appear prejudiced against the defendant, Bronson recommended. Or the judge could delay the start of the September trial until memory of the case fades from the public, he said.

But any of those alternative solutions, he said, were secondary to moving the trial to another county.

“All these things are useful,” Bronson said. “They can ameliorate some of the prejudices. But they cannot cure them.”

Thornton is charged with kidnaping and fatally shooting O’Sullivan, 34, the mother of a young son. A grand jury indictment in the case includes a “special circumstance” that could send Thornton to the gas chamber, if convicted.

Bronson testified on Monday that a survey he designed to gauge public awareness and possible prejudice of the case also supported moving the trial out of the county. Eighty-five percent of the 403 respondents knew about the case, and two-thirds of those with knowledge of it believe Thornton is guilty, he said.

He said media coverage of the case had been fairly accurate, but that news reports tended to portray Thornton in a negative light and O’Sullivan in a sympathetic way.

Under direct examination by Deputy Public Defender Howard J. Asher on Tuesday, Bronson said the case should be moved from the county for the same reasons that the district attorney’s office decided to seek the death penalty in it.

Ordinarily, he said, the crime of which Thornton is accused--a single slaying with no allegation of rape or torture--does not merit the death penalty or a change of venue.

But, because O’Sullivan was white, middle-class and a mother, the tragedy of her death resonated with the community more than other killings, he said.

“This is not a terrible, sadistic, multiple murder-type killing,” Bronson said. He added that the uniqueness of the case is the fear and loathing it left in the community during a 12-day search for O’Sullivan’s body after she was discovered missing Sept. 14.

Under cross-examination, Bronson acknowledged that he is personally opposed to the death penalty, sends $50 a year to the American Civil Liberties Union and favors more rights for criminal defendants.

“I teach civil liberties,” he told Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris, “and I am deeply committed to civil liberties.”

He said that he has testified in 56 change-of-venue hearings, mostly to have trials moved out of the counties where crimes occurred. He also acknowledged that in some of those instances defendants have wound up being found not guilty, even after he testified that their chances of getting a fair trial were limited.

The hearing, which is expected to last until next Wednesday, will continue today with Bronson back on the stand for more cross-examination.