Testimony of Slain Nurse’s Kin Blocked

A judge on Friday barred the 6-year-old son and other relatives of slain Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan from testifying at a hearing to determine whether her killer will be put to death.

The jury that will decide if 20-year-old Mark Scott Thornton should be executed or spend his life in prison already knows enough about O’Sullivan’s life, Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath said.

Last month, the jury convicted Thornton of fatally shooting O’Sullivan in the Santa Monica Mountains after kidnaping her in Thousand Oaks during a carjacking.

In the seven-week trial, witnesses told the jury that the 33-year-old O’Sullivan was a devoted single mother who had made plans for marriage.

McGrath said providing the panel with any more information about the nurse would serve no purpose. He also disagreed with a prosecutor who argued the jury should take into account that Thornton killed a woman who had a child and a good job.

“I don’t think he should be punished any more for killing Kellie O’Sullivan than for killing someone who lived in the Ventura River,” the judge declared, referring to homeless people.

Prosecutors had planned on calling more than half a dozen of O’Sullivan’s relatives and friends during the penalty hearing, scheduled to begin Jan. 23. But they seemed caught off guard by Friday’s ruling.

“I’m surprised and disappointed, and that’s as far as I will go,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade McGrath to reconsider.

Defense attorneys had argued that the so-called victim-impact testimony would prejudice Thornton’s right to a fair trial. They said the judge made the right call.

“What he’s basically saying is that Kellie O’Sullivan’s life and the kind of person she was is already in evidence,” Deputy Public Defender Susan R. Olson said.

McGrath also rejected a request by prosecutors to show the jury a videotape of O’Sullivan at her son’s fifth birthday party, taken just days before her death.

Local prosecutors have put relatives of murder victims on the witness stand in death-penalty cases twice since 1991, when such evidence was first permitted in California courts.

Last year, the mother of shooting victim Genoveva Gonzales testified that she was left to care for four young children. In that case, Christopher Sattiewhite of Oxnard was sentenced to die in the gas chamber.

In 1992, Gregory Smith was sentenced to death for killing 8-year-old Paul Bailly near Simi Valley and setting the boy’s body on fire, after the boy’s mother testified about the crime’s impact on her.

But shortly after the hearing got under way Friday, McGrath said such evidence should be limited to photographs and a brief description of the victim’s physical dimensions. He would allow prosecutors to show jurors a color photograph of O’Sullivan, possibly one that also includes her son, he said.

“I think that the state of the law is a little bit uncertain,” the judge said.

Kossoris, however, quickly cited a series of other cases, including Gregory Smith’s, in which relatives had testified before a jury on the impact of a death. He said he understood the law to admit “far more than just a picture.”

He also contended that the jury should be allowed to hear from young Cliff O’Sullivan Jr., adding that the boy “would easily qualify as a competent witness.” The boy would testify about his relationship with his mother and give his “reaction to her death,” Kossoris said.

But McGrath disagreed.

“I think we would be skating on very thin ice if I would allow you to put on any more victim-impact evidence” besides a picture, the judge said.

As part of his reasoning, the judge said he did not believe O’Sullivan’s role as both a mother and a girlfriend had anything to do with Thornton’s decision to kill her.