Jury Hears Police Interview of Thornton Denying Killing : Courts: Prosecution plays videotape in which Thousand Oaks man says he never saw Kellie O’Sullivan but admits stealing her truck.

Jurors on Monday finally heard Mark Scott Thornton proclaim his innocence in the slaying death of Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan, but his words came in a year-old videotape, not the witness stand.

In the Sept. 20, 1993, interview with a Ventura County sheriff’s sergeant, Thornton vigorously defended himself against suggestions that he had harmed the nurse even though he had been caught driving her truck. His statement came six days before her body was found in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Thornton acknowledged to Sgt. Mike Barnes that he had stolen the truck, but said it was parked outside a pet store on Thousand Oaks Boulevard with the keys in the ignition. He said the owner was nowhere in sight when he took the truck.

“Are you being truthful with me, Scott, about not murdering her?” Barnes asked.

“I did not murder nobody, sir,” Thornton said. “I could not hurt somebody like that. I can’t even imagine doing something like that. That scares me so bad.”

He then looked at Barnes and said defensively, “How (could) you think that I did that?”

The interview was taped at the Reno Police Department. Thornton had been arrested at a casino there a day earlier. In his possession, police found the keys to O’Sullivan’s truck and a .38-caliber revolver.

Six days later, O’Sullivan’s body was found in a remote area of the Santa Monica Mountains. An autopsy showed that she had been shot three times in the chest and back. A ballistics expert has testified that the cartridges taken from O’Sullivan body match the gun found on Thornton.

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In the taped interview, Thornton denied ever encountering the nurse and assured the sergeant that no physical evidence would ever link him to her disappearance if she ever surfaced.

Prosecutors have charged Thornton with murder under a special circumstance--kidnaping and robbery--that could send him to the gas chamber if he is convicted. They say Thornton kidnaped the nurse, drove her to the mountains and killed her in order to steal her truck. He needed the vehicle, they say, to abduct his girlfriend and leave the state.

Thornton’s defense team has neither admitted nor denied the charge of murder to the jury. They are scheduled to begin presenting their case after the prosecution rests, which could come sometime this week.

Thornton told Barnes that he was walking past the pet store when he noticed the keys in O’Sullivan’s black Ford Explorer. He took the vehicle, Thornton said, and later used it to abduct his girlfriend, 16-year-old Stephanie Campbell.

During that abduction, Thornton fired a shot at Campbell’s mother, Linda, according to police and court testimony. He told Barnes, however, that he could not remember firing the shot.

“I was hyped up,” he said of the Campbell kidnaping. “When you do stuff like that, you’re crazy.”

Thornton said he and Campbell wound up in Reno five days later, after traveling to Northern California and staying at various campgrounds. Thornton also denied that Campbell was held against her will, saying he offered to buy her a bus ticket home on several occasions.

To prove his contention that Campbell was at ease with him, Thornton said that once during the trip she told him she loved him and gave him a kiss.

Thornton was arrested in Reno after he went to play a video game, leaving Campbell alone, according to testimony. Campbell then told a security guard that she had been kidnaped.

Thornton’s interview with Barnes seemed to heat up every time the sergeant brought up the subject of the missing nurse--which was often.

“When we find this lady, Scott, I believe we’re gonna find her dead,” Barnes said.

Moving closer to Barnes’ face and pointing at himself, Thornton responded, “So you’re saying . . . that I did it?”

“I’m asking you, Scott.”

“I didn’t do it.”

Even later, Barnes said: “She didn’t just walk away from this car, Scott, after you stole it. It just didn’t happen. That’s baloney. That’s bull. . . .”