Jury Selection Begins in O’Sullivan Kidnap-Murder

Jury selection got under way Monday in the death-penalty trial of Mark Scott Thornton, the Thousand Oaks man charged with kidnaping and slaying Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan last year.

Beginning an expected four-week process, Judge Charles R. McGrath summoned 112 prospective jurors to his courtroom for potential duty in the trial, expected to last four months.

Nearly half told the judge that service in the lengthy case would cause them a financial hardship and were dismissed.

But at the end of the day, more than 60 jurors had survived the initial part of the arduous process. Lawyers in the case hope to have another 120 jurors who have survived the financial hardship question by the end of this week.

The attorneys hope to then cut that group in half by questioning them on their views toward the death penalty. Jurors with fixed attitudes either for or against capital punishment will be dismissed at that stage, said Deputy Public Defender Susan R. Olson, one of Thornton’s lawyers.

That would leave the group pared to about 90 prospective jurors. Each side will then disqualify 20 people using what are called peremptory challenges.

A final panel of 12 regular jurors and four alternates will be chosen to hear the case from those who remain.

Lawyers in the case said they expect the trial to begin in late October or early November, depending on how well jury selection goes.

“We don’t have any idea when jury selection is going to end,” Olson said.

Thornton is accused of kidnaping and murdering O’Sullivan, the mother of a young son, on Sept. 14, 1993. Police say the woman was abducted in Thousand Oaks, taken to the Santa Monica Mountains and shot twice in the back and once in the chest. Thornton also stole her 1991 Ford Explorer, they say.

After the killing, prosecutors say, Thornton kidnaped his ex-girlfriend, shot at the girl’s mother and fled to Reno, Nev., where he was arrested five days later at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino.

O’Sullivan’s partly decomposed body was not discovered until six days after Thornton’s arrest.

Before he summoned the first group of 56 jurors to his courtroom Monday, McGrath ordered reporters covering the trial out of the courtroom, saying later that he decided to ban the media because all space in the courtroom was needed for the jury panel.

By late Monday morning, however, after some of the potential jurors were dismissed and seats opened up in the courtroom, McGrath permitted the media to re-enter the courtroom.

McGrath’s initial closure of the jury selection process followed a series of decisions by the judge blocking the media and public from court proceedings and documents. He earlier held several pretrial hearings in his chambers and out of the view of the public.

He also has allowed prosecutors and defense attorneys to file motions that pertain to evidence in the case under seal, and has refused to release grand jury transcripts on grounds that they could prejudice the Thornton trial.

In addition, McGrath told reporters Monday that they would not be permitted to inspect a copy of a questionnaire that is being handed out to jurors who do not have a hardship that prevents them from being considered for service in the case.

One of the jurors who was excused from service Monday was Rebecca Carman, a 24-year-old Moorpark College student. Outside court, Carman said her school schedule would prevent her from serving four months on the jury. Other jurors had similar reasons for wanting to get off the panel.

“Almost all of them wanted to get off because it’s going to take four months,” said Carman, carrying a book bag. “But if you’re going to be on a jury, you want to get on one like this.”

A second panel of 56 prospective jurors was called to the courtroom Monday afternoon. Like the first group of prospective jurors, about half the people on the second panel also wanted off.

Taking a firm stance, McGrath told them that a hardship applied only to circumstances that might make it difficult for them to serve on the jury--and not on any condition that would inconvenience their employers.

“You can tell me that the school district needs you, the hospital needs you, or they need you at Mugu. But I’m not going to excuse you,” the judge warned.

One man was excused after saying that he is a ticket writer at a local carwash and only gets paid on commission. If he serves on the Thornton jury, he said, he would not get a pay check for four months.

McGrath excused another man, who said he has non-refundable airplane tickets for a vacation in November and December.

A woman was excused when she told the judge that she is a homemaker and responsible for taking her small children to day care.

“Right now, we only have one income. And if I had to pay day care to shuttle them back and forth, we wouldn’t eat,” she declared.