Thornton Says He Is Sorry for Slaying : Interview: He calls the ’93 murder of Kellie O’Sullivan ‘an extreme accident’ and says he is thankful jurors sentenced him to die.

Two days after a jury urged that Mark Scott Thornton be sent to California’s Death Row to await execution, the convicted murderer said Wednesday that he is sorry for slaying Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan and thankful that jurors sentenced him to die.

“I’m sorry for what happened,” Thornton told The Times in his first public comments since the 1993 murder. “It was an extreme accident. Nothing I would have ever dreamed of doing. . . . It came out of the blue. I can’t believe it happened. If I could, I would die for Kellie to come back.”

During a wide-ranging interview that lasted almost three hours at the Ventura County Jail, the 20-year-old Thornton--who could become the youngest inmate on Death Row if sentenced to die next month--also said that he favored the death sentence over a life prison term.

“The death sentence is the easiest way out for me,” he said, talking through a glass partition by telephone at the Ventura County Jail. “I am not scared of San Quentin. I was scared that the jury was going to come back with life in prison without parole. On Death Row, I can live in peace and not worry about getting stitches or getting stabbed, raped or none of that stuff.

“Life without parole is like putting me in a room with a tiger and letting him take bite after bite out of me, a little at a time,” he added. “The death sentence--that was my victory.”

Thornton was reluctant to give a detailed account of the murder of O’Sullivan on Sept. 14, 1993, saying he plans an appeal of the jury’s death verdict despite his expressed satisfaction with the sentence he has received.

He will attempt the appeal in order to have a chance to testify so the world will know he is sorry, Thornton said. He also said that although he preferred to die, it might be best for his younger sister if he lived.

“The only way that I want life without parole is that I will be able to get into contact visits and be able to touch my little sister,” Thornton said. “Other than that, I don’t care about going to Death Row.”

While avoiding details of the murder, Thornton did describe it as an accident.

“It was not the death someone would have wanted, but it was not a death of torture or pain,” said Thornton, who spoke calmly and in measured tones. “I never made her beg. I never made her do nothing.”

Thornton also:

* Criticized prosecutors for basing their case against him too much on speculation and not fully seeking the truth. He said prosecutors interviewed one of his former cellmates who claimed Thornton told him the murder was an accident, but they did not put the man on the witness stand.

* Took issue with his own two court-appointed attorneys for refusing to allow him to take the witness stand and Superior Court Judge Charles McGrath for not allowing him to fire the lawyers. Thornton said he wanted to testify to let O’Sullivan’s mother know how her daughter died, but that his attorneys said that would hurt their chances at winning the case.

*

“I want to talk to Kellie O’Sullivan’s mother to tell her what happened,” Thornton said. “I think she should know instead of wondering how her daughter was killed. It would take away the mystery, the grief and the hatred.”

* Blamed his criminal activities on his mother, stepfather and grandmother, saying they never taught him right from wrong. In fact, the people who raised him encouraged him to cheat and steal to a large degree, he said.

* Linked his ultimate downfall to a day when he stole a handgun during a burglary--the gun that was used to kill the nurse. “It doesn’t do anything, but get you into trouble,” he said.

O’Sullivan, 33, a single mother, was abducted after leaving a Thousand Oaks pet store on Sept. 14, 1993. Thornton drove her up winding roads into the Santa Monica Mountains, where she was shot once in the chest and twice in the back, according to court testimony.

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Thornton said Wednesday that it all began the night before the murder, when his landlord confronted him about some stolen checks. Thornton had been planning to steal the landlord’s BMW and leave town, he said. But now he had to find other transportation because he thought he would surely be arrested if he showed up again at the landlord’s house.

He had already wanted to leave California and go to Oregon because his life was a shambles, he said. His parents had evicted him from their home, and his probation officer had issued a warrant because he was behind in restitution payments from a juvenile auto-theft case, he said.

Additionally, he had just concluded a 20-day jail stay in Los Angeles County for harassing his former girlfriend.

“I needed out of California so I could start my own life and be my own person,” Thornton said.

On the day that ultimately led to O’Sullivan’s death, Thornton said he began searching Thousand Oaks about 8 a.m. for a car to steal. Although armed with the stolen handgun, he said he attempted initially to find a vehicle with the keys in the ignition.

“I looked in shopping centers and gas stations,” he said. “You name it, I looked.”

He spotted some likely targets several times, but the owners showed up just as he was about to enter the vehicles, he said. Even though he had the gun, Thornton said he did not want to take a car by force.

*

“I’ve stolen cars, and I’ve robbed stuff out of them,” he said. “But I’m not a confrontational person. I’m not the type of person to pull a gun on you and a knife on you.”

That afternoon, Thornton said, he eventually made his way to Thousand Oaks Boulevard, where he encountered Kellie O’Sullivan. She had just gotten off work and was running errands before picking up her 5-year-old son from day care.

Her new Ford Explorer caught Thornton”s eye, he said.

During the interview, Thornton was reluctant to say anything more about the fatal shooting of O’Sullivan except that it was an accident. He would not say how he confronted her, what happened on their way to the mountains or why he finally shot her.

But he did produce a copy of a court document in which investigators interviewed one of his former cellmates, a man in whom Thornton said he had confided after his arrest.

Thornton told the man, who was not called as a witness during the trial, that he drove O’Sullivan up winding roads to Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains, according to the document.

“He was walking, with a gun on her. But she struggled for the gun and it went off,” the document said.

Deputy Ventura County Dist. Atty. Peter Kossoris, who prosecuted the Thornton case, confirmed Wednesday that the man had been interviewed, but declined to discuss the murder investigation any further.

*

Asked to confirm the man’s story of a struggle, Thornton would only say: “I’m not going to say whether that’s true, because I still have my appeal. But it’s real close.”

Thornton maintained he never intended to kill O’Sullivan.

The plan, he alleged, was to drive the nurse to a place where it would take at least an hour for her to reach a phone and summon help after he drove off in her truck.

During Thornton’s murder trial, prosecutors argued that Thornton and his friends used to party near the out-of-the-way murder site, and that is why he chose it as the place to slay his victim. Thornton, however, said he had never been on Mulholland Highway prior to killing O’Sullivan there. “She was not taken to that mountain to be isolated and killed,” he said.

He said she was taken to the mountain so he could buy time after stealing her truck.

“It would have taken her an hour and a half to get back,” he said.

A house is located several hundred yards from where the murder occurred.

“I know you might say that is pretty stupid with a house around the corner,” he said. “I didn’t see the house.

“I don’t think she deserved to die,” he added. “It wasn’t on purpose. It wasn’t intended. It was a complete accident.”

*

After killing O’Sullivan, Thornton said he went to Simi Valley and got a tattoo on his shoulder with his girlfriend’s name on it. He did not know what to do next and was “extremely scared,” he said.

That is when he decided to kidnap Stephanie Campbell, his 16-year-old estranged girlfriend, Thornton continued. He kidnaped her after she got off work around 10 that night, firing a shot at her mother as he drove away.

He said he selected Stephanie Campbell because he needed someone to talk to, and felt he could trust her. For the next five days, he drove around California and Nevada with the girl, before they wound up in Reno.

Thornton was arrested in Reno on Sept. 19, after she notified security officials at a casino that she had been kidnaped. At the time, he denied ever seeing O’Sullivan. The nurse’s decomposed body, still clad in her uniform, was found a week after his arrest.

When Thornton’s trial started more than a year later, Deputy Public Defenders Howard Asher and Susan R. Olson were assigned to the case. Thornton criticized them Wednesday for not letting him testify in his own defense.

“They told me to just sit there, this is our show, you’ll get out of this,” Thornton said. “I don’t think me and my lawyers have ever gotten along. We have always had arguments.”

Asher declined comment Wednesday on Thornton’s remarks. Olson could not be reached.

*

Thornton was convicted of first-degree murder in December. During the trial, prosecutors used a mannequin to put forth a theory that O’Sullivan was ordered to her knees in an alcove before she was shot. They called Thornton a predator.

He wanted to testify to set the record straight, Thornton said Wednesday.

Told of Thornton’s comments, Kossoris said Wednesday that he does not believe a word Thornton says.

“I wouldn’t put any stock in his version of anything,” the prosecutor said.

McGrath has set an April 17 sentencing date for Thornton. The judge has the option of accepting the jury’s death penalty recommendation or imposing life in prison.

* EXCERPTS

What the condemned killer said. B10