Thornton Upset Over the Absence of His Mother at Trial, Defense Says

Thousand Oaks murder defendant Mark Scott Thornton is upset that his mother has made only one brief appearance at his death-penalty trial and has now moved from the state, his lawyers said Tuesday.

Thornton, charged with the murder of Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan, feels abandoned by his mother as he fights for his life, the defense attorneys said outside the courtroom.

“What kind of good reason could there be for leaving?” railed Deputy Public Defender Susan R. Olson. “What kind of reason for her to leave her son in this situation right now?”

Prosecutors, concerned that the defense was trying to build sympathy for Thornton, sought to clarify in court the reasons for the mother’s sudden departure, but the judge would not allow such questioning. Prosecutors declined to discuss the matter outside the courtroom.

The statements about Thornton’s mother, Markita Sarrazin, came as the defense neared the end of its case by calling a witness who testified to seeing a woman who resembled O’Sullivan driving alone about the same time prosecutors say Thornton had already abducted her.

But Nancy Briscoe of Thousand Oaks said the woman seemed deeply upset as she drove down Fairview Road.

“She was not a happy camper,” Briscoe recalled.

Fairview is near the route that prosecutors say Thornton took with O’Sullivan before shooting her three times in the chest and back at a remote area of the Santa Monica Mountains on Sept. 14, 1993.

When O’Sullivan’s body was found 12 days later, Thornton told his grandmother in an audiotaped jailhouse visit that he feared being deserted by his mother and other loved ones.

“I’m just scared that everyone’s gonna leave me in jail to rot,” he told Lois Thornton.

For defense attorneys, Markita Sarrazin’s performance as a parent has been a major theme during the trial. His biological father is dead, according to court testimony.

Thornton’s attorneys first touched upon the subject of the mother moving to Nevada while Lois Thornton was on the witness stand Tuesday.

The grandmother told jurors that she helped her daughter pack up before leaving. Prosecutors wanted to know what prompted the mother to leave, but Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath stopped the questioning.

Outside court, the 68-year-old grandmother said Markita Sarrazin moved Oct. 6, as lawyers were still selecting a jury in the case. She said her daughter and stepson were forced to move from their rented home in Thousand Oaks because it had been put up for sale.

Asked why they went to Nevada, Lois Thornton threw her hands in the air: “You better ask her.”

According to testimony and court records, Markita Sarrazin constantly belittled her son, kicked him out of her home when he was 17 or 18 and allowed him to go homeless for more than a year without providing any assistance.

Markita Sarrazin appeared at several of her son’s pretrial court hearings, including his arraignment. But she has been absent throughout most of the trial, attending for only half a day a week after it started.

Briscoe testified Tuesday to seeing a woman who looked like O’Sullivan driving on Fairview Road in the hours after the nurse first disappeared. The woman appeared to be alone in a black truck and was visibly upset, according to Briscoe.

The witness said she made a report with authorities about a week later, after seeing a television news story on the missing nurse. “The picture I saw on the TV was similar to the woman I had seen,” Briscoe testified.

Fairview Road is close to Hampshire Road, the place another witness testified to seeing a couple resembling Thornton and O’Sullivan tussling in a truck. That witness, however, testified that the man was driving and fended off the woman, who was reaching for an object in his lap.