Judge Rejects Venue Change for Thornton Trial

Mark Scott Thornton’s trial in the murder of Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan will remain in Ventura County, a Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.

Defense attorneys had asked that the trial be moved to another county because of extensive pretrial publicity.

But Judge Charles R. McGrath ruled that defense attorneys had failed to prove that news coverage of the case had compromised Thornton’s right to a fair trial in Ventura County.

The judge said he believes that an impartial jury could be seated in the case in Ventura County.

Defense attorneys, who had put on three days of evidence to show why the case should be moved, were quick to criticize the decision.

“I disagree,” Deputy Public Defender Howard J. Asher said after the ruling. He said there have been more than 170 newspaper stories and 120 television broadcasts on the matter since O’Sullivan disappeared Sept. 14.

“I think that we have met our burden,” he said. “If this is not a reasonable likelihood of the defense not being able to get a fair trial, I don’t know what would be.”

Edward J. Bronson, a law and political science professor at Cal State Chico, testified before McGrath that 85% of eligible jurors in the county had some knowledge of the case and that two-thirds of them believed that Thornton was guilty of killing O’Sullivan.

Bronson designed a scientific survey conducted of 403 respondents in the county.

In his ruling, McGrath acknowledged that publicity in the case had been extensive.

But he said Ventura County, with nearly three-quarter million people, is a large enough area to overcome the level of publicity.

The judge also said that while the O’Sullivan homicide is unfortunate, it does not meet the usual legal requirement for a change of venue.

Normally, cases are moved to other jurisdictions because they have captured the public’s attention with multiple murders, torture or child victims, lawyers said.

Prosecutors applauded the judge’s decision. Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris said a prosecution survey showed that 78% of the people in the county had knowledge of the case. But most of those surveyed were not familiar with the specific details, he said.

Thursday’s ruling is the latest in a series of setbacks on pretrial motions for the defense.

Defense attorneys have twice tried unsuccessfully to get the indictment against Thornton thrown out.

In one motion, they challenged the ethnic makeup of the grand jury that returned the indictment against Thornton. They claimed that the panel did not contain enough minorities.

In April, a judge ended that challenge by refusing to force county officials to provide the defense with detailed historical data on the ethnic makeup of the grand jury.

In May, defense attorneys argued that prosecutors asked leading questions during the grand jury proceedings in the case and acted improperly in performing background checks on potential grand jurors.

But another judge ruled that prosecutors were not out of line in their dealings with the grand jury and thus Thornton’s constitutional rights to due process were not violated.

On Thursday, McGrath left defense lawyers the option of renewing their request to move the trial to another location if the lawyers are unable to find enough impartial people to fill the jury box.

Kossoris said he believes that McGrath’s ruling limits a renewed request to only a worst-case scenario. “If 80% of the people come in and say, ‘I’ve already got my mind made up and let’s string him up today,’ then they can renew the motion,” he said.

The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 6.