Thornton Rejects Lawyer Picked by Judge

Hoping for a new trial and a chance to testify on his own behalf, convicted Thousand Oaks killer Mark Scott Thornton appealed Friday for a new lawyer who is not connected to the public defender’s office.

In his second interview with The Times since a jury recommended last month that he be put to death, Thornton rejected the services of a veteran local criminal defense attorney appointed by Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath to review his case.

The 20-year-old defendant also leveled his strongest accusations to date against the two public defenders who he claims refused to let him testify during his four-month trial.

“They threatened me that if I got up there to testify, they wouldn’t do anything else for me,” said Thornton, sporting a new Marine-like haircut. “They said they would let me twist in the wind.”

Thornton’s comments, his most detailed yet as he tries to maneuver for a new trial, came as the mother of his murder victim said that she would rather see him sentenced to life in prison without parole than to Death Row.

Charlene Cunningham, whose 33-year-old daughter was abducted by Thornton and killed in 1993, criticized the lengthy appeals process afforded death-penalty convicts and said Thornton should not be provided the protective custody of Death Row.

“I just hate the idea of him sitting on Death Row endlessly,” Cunningham said in a phone interview from her office in Torrance. “If we did what we are supposed to do, we would carry it out. But having him sit on Death Row in comfort, I don’t believe that is right.”

Neither of Thornton’s two public defenders, Susan R. Olson and Howard J. Asher, could be reached for comment Friday. Prosecutors in the case were quick to discount Thornton’s latest statements, calling him a con artist who is campaigning to have his death sentence reversed.

“Everything that he is saying is self-serving and manipulative,” argued Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael K. Frawley, who prosecuted Thornton.

“The presence he has tried to project in court from Day One is that he is a quiet, demure, meek, sad case--and we know that to be completely contrary to what he really is.”

Frawley said prosecutors were hoping that Thornton would testify during his long trial.

“If he did testify, you would be able to see that he was nothing but a con artist,” Frawley said. “No one can keep him from testifying. That was his decision. He’s trying to put the blame somewhere else, on his lawyers.”

McGrath last week assigned longtime local criminal defense attorney Willard Wiksell to review Thornton’s case with the defendant. Thornton said he met with Wiksell, but he is not satisfied with his appointment.

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Thornton noted that Wiksell represented Christopher J. Sattiewhite, a 24-year-old Oxnard man sentenced to death last year for the murder of an Oxnard mother of four. Thornton and Sattiewhite had adjoining cells and talked about Wiksell’s performance before Sattiewhite was transferred to San Quentin, Thornton said.

Thornton said he is also dismayed by Wiksell’s analysis of his public defenders’ performance.

“Everything he told me was like, ‘Oh, your lawyers did a perfect job,’ ” said Thornton.

He said his attorneys had no right dissuading him from taking the witness stand. He said he asked them more than two dozen times for permission to testify.

“They treated me like a little kid: ‘Sit in the back seat and put your seat belt on and shut up. We’ll do the driving.”’

If he testified against his lawyers’ advice, “They said they were going to let me twist and turn in the D.A.’s fingers.”

He said he had asked McGrath on at least eight occasions to appoint him a new lawyer, before the judge finally sent Wiksell to discuss his case with him last week.

Since he went public with his complaints in an interview with The Times two days after the jury verdict, Thornton said his attorneys have dodged him. Before the verdict, public defender Asher told the jury and reporters that he repeatedly accepted collect calls at home from Thornton, whom Asher described in terms of being like a son to him.

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But now, Thornton said, Asher has not talked to him in more than three weeks--and won’t return his calls.

Earlier this week, public defender Olson said defense attorneys had not decided whether they would file a motion asking McGrath to reduce Thornton’s sentence to life in prison without parole. Asked about her relationship with the young defendant, Olson simply said that it is the same as always. She would not elaborate.

“I think what’s making them mad is I don’t care about the penalty,” Thornton said. “After the verdict, they broke down in tears and I was just kind of laughing.”

In the first interview, Thornton expressed sorrow for killing O’Sullivan, who was kidnaped Sept. 14, 1993, taken to the Santa Monica Mountains and shot once in the chest and twice in the back.

He claims the shooting was accidental, but has refused to give details about it. O’Sullivan’s mother said she doubts the murderer’s expressed remorse.

She wants citizens to write to the judge about the crime so that prison officials can have an idea about Thornton’s victim--should he ever be eligible for release. Cunningham asks that letters be sent to her at 2785 Pacific Coast Highway, No. 123, Torrance 90505.