Defense Concludes Case in Thornton Murder Trial : Courts: Soon after, defendant’s mother is arrested on suspicion of violating probation on a welfare fraud conviction.

Attorneys for accused Thousand Oaks murderer Mark Scott Thornton rested their case Thursday without calling the defendant to testify.

Moments later, the defendant’s mother, Markita Sarrazin, was arrested outside the courtroom on a Los Angeles County warrant alleging she had violated her probation on a welfare fraud conviction.

As late as Wednesday afternoon, Thornton’s attorneys were saying they were unsure whether he would take the witness stand to defend himself against a charge that he killed Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan.

Thursday, however, testimony in the six-week trial lasted barely an hour before Deputy Public Defender Howard J. Asher said abruptly that the defense case had concluded. During the brief court session, defense attorneys questioned their own investigator and two prosecution investigators on statements other witnesses had made to them outside court.

The defense appeared to be trying to establish inconsistencies in the statements of other witnesses, who had testified earlier in the trial.

Jurors were then sent home until Monday and told they will hear rebuttal evidence from the prosecution before closing arguments begin.

Sarrazin, who attended her son’s trial Thursday for the first time in a month, was put on notice almost immediately by Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris that she would be arrested.

As Sarrazin sat in the courtroom with her mother, Kossoris told Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath about the warrant and said his office ethically could not ignore it.

“We don’t wish to do anything that would disrupt the trial, for that would be contrary to the court’s wishes,” Kossoris said in court. “On the other hand, I think the court can understand when you’re dealing with law enforcement agencies, we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”

After hearing more information about the warrant, McGrath ordered that the arrest not take place “in this courtroom or in the presence of any of the jurors.”

Sarrazin stayed in the courtroom for the morning session. At the conclusion of the testimony, she was led into a court anteroom and arrested, district attorney’s investigator Richard Haas said.

A district attorney’s official who did not want to be named said Sarrazin was “very cooperative” during the arrest. She was escorted by district attorney investigators to the Ventura County Jail, where sheriff’s deputies prepared to transport her to Los Angeles County, officials said.

Sarrazin’s sudden reappearance in her son’s trial came as a surprise, because just two days earlier defense attorneys publicly complained that Thornton felt abandoned by his mother while fighting for his life.

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

If jurors convict Thornton of first-degree murder in the course of either a kidnaping or a robbery, the trial would enter a second phase to determine whether he should be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison without parole.

Deputy Public Defender Susan Olson said earlier this week that Thornton was upset because his mother had moved out of state and had made only one appearance at his trial. Olson’s complaints echoed fears Thornton himself expressed to his grandmother in a taped conversation, in which he said he feared she and others would “leave me in jail to rot.”

Sarrazin’s performance as a parent has been a major theme for the defense during the trial. According to testimony and court documents, Sarrazin constantly belittled her son and kicked him out of her home when he was 17 or 18.

The reason for Sarrazin’s arrest was unclear. Asher told the judge that Sarrazin was on probation for a welfare fraud conviction in Los Angeles County and may not have kept up with her restitution payments. Haas told McGrath that the warrant, issued Nov. 28, was for failing to make a court appearance.

Los Angeles district attorney officials confirmed that they had prosecuted Sarrazin, but were unable to provide details of the case Thursday.