THOUSAND OAKS : No Decision Yet on Thornton Testimony

A day away from completing their case, attorneys for accused Thousand Oaks murderer Mark Scott Thornton said they still had not decided whether to put the defendant on the witness stand.

Inching closer to the case’s end, attorneys questioned half a dozen witnesses Wednesday in an attempt to cast doubt over the allegation that the defendant killed Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan.

Deputy Public Defender Howard J. Asher told reporters that his camp would announce the decision on Thornton’s testimony today.

“The decision still hasn’t been totally made yet,” he said, “so you will know when the court knows.”

Thornton, 20, is charged with murder in the Sept. 14, 1993, shooting death of the 33-year-old nurse. He is also charged with using O’Sullivan’s truck to kidnap his 16-year-old former girlfriend later that same day.

Prosecutors said they will call rebuttal witnesses after the defense rests, but they will not know the extent of that testimony until they learn whether Thornton will testify, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris said in court.

“We don’t at this time anticipate any real lengthy testimony,” Kossoris told Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath.

The most extensive testimony Wednesday came from Ventura County sheriff’s investigator Richard E. Gatling.

He told the jury about his interview with a Thousand Oaks woman who said she had seen someone resembling O’Sullivan driving around her neighborhood shortly after the nurse’s disappearance. The woman, Nancy Briscoe of Thousand Oaks, testified Tuesday that she could not remember whether the person she saw was indeed O’Sullivan.

But Gatling said she had told him: “I swear to the heavens that I thought I saw her in her black Ford Explorer coming up our street.”