WESTLAKE : Girl Could Have Fled Thornton, Court Told

The teen-age girl who testified that Mark Scott Thornton held her against her will appeared to have numerous opportunities to escape the alleged killer in the days after Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan’s slaying, several witnesses said Monday.

The defense in Thornton’s 6-week-old murder trial called to the stand a series of witnesses who saw the defendant and his former girlfriend, Stephanie Campbell, on a five-day trip to Northern California.

When Robert Farmer ran into the pair at Patrick’s Point campsite outside San Francisco, he said Campbell was alone at first. She told him that she had lost sight of Thornton and was trying to find out where he had gone, testified Farmer, who was camping at the site.

Thornton, 20, has acknowledged that he took Campbell, then 16 years old, at force from in front of her Westlake home, but said that once they were on the road she was free to leave him at any time.

Thornton is on trial for a series of crimes, including the Sept. 14, 1993, kidnaping and murder of O’Sullivan, a 33-year-old nurse.

Prosecutors say he stole the woman’s truck after killing her and used the vehicle to abduct Campbell at gunpoint later that night.

During her two days on the witness stand, Campbell said she did not want to stay with Thornton, but that he threatened to kill her if she tried to escape.

The defense is expected to wrap up its case Wednesday.