Nic Markowitz 15, Kidnapped(Found Dead) "ALPHA DOG" Case

[MuffyBee]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JESSE_JAMES_HOLLYWOOD?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Jun 23, 8:39 PM EDT

Dealer says he regrets kidnap in 'Alpha Dog' case
By GREG RISLING
Associated Press Writer

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) -- An admitted marijuana supplier testified Tuesday that he and two friends grabbed a 15-year-old boy off a street nine years ago but said a cohort acting without his knowledge later killed the boy whose slaying inspired the movie "Alpha Dog."
Jesse James Hollywood told a packed courtroom that he didn't orchestrate the killing of Nicholas Markowitz and regretted an impulsive decision to take the teen.
"I just feel terrible about everything that happened," Hollywood said while being questioned by his attorney. "I feel terrible for the Markowitz family. I feel terrible that anyone would think I could do something like that."
Hollywood, who has pleaded not guilty to kidnap and murder, said the teen was abducted in an escalating dispute over a drug debt with the boy's older half-brother. Hollywood said Ben Markowitz owed him $2,500 - more than twice the amount prosecutors have cited.
Hollywood, 29, said he wanted to find Ben Markowitz to end their feud and there was "no purpose or plan" in abducting Nicholas. He and two friends were driving in a van when they saw Nicholas on a street, he said.
"I pinned him up against a tree and said, 'Where's your brother, where's your brother?'" Hollywood testified. "He didn't know where he was."
Hollywood said he smoked marijuana and played video games with Nicholas and the teen wasn't in any danger. He was taken to various spots around the Santa Barbara area over two days before he was killed. His body, buried in a shallow grave, was later found by hikers.
Prosecutors contend Hollywood decided to get rid of Nicholas after learning from an attorney that he could face life in prison for kidnapping. They also believe the murder was a way for the gunman, now on death row, to settle his own drug debt with Hollywood.
On cross examination, Hollywood acknowledged he did things that were wrong. "Not taking him (Nicholas) home. Pinning him against a tree. Taking him to Santa Barbara," Hollywood said.
He added taking the teen was a big mistake and reiterated it wasn't well thought out.
Earlier in his testimony, Hollywood said he believed the gunman, Ryan Hoyt, was going to drive up to Santa Barbara and return with Nicholas to Los Angeles. Instead, Hollywood said, Hoyt told him Nicholas had been killed because of concern about Ben Markowitz finding out about the abduction.
"Ryan Hoyt articulated to me that he and (associate Jesse Rugge) had shot Ben's brother and buried him," he testified. "I said, 'You gotta be kidding me. What were you thinking?'"
Hollywood fled after the slaying and testified he lived in Colorado, the Mojave Desert and various parts of Canada before he was captured in Brazil more than four years later.
Rugge was convicted of kidnapping but acquitted of murder. Hoyt and two other people have been convicted in the case.
"Alpha Dog," released in 2007, starred Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone and Emile Hirsch, who played "Johnny Truelove," a character based on Hollywood.

[Nut44x4]

I have no idea where I have been all these years, but I have never heard of this case 

The real story behind 'Alpha Dog'
The hunt for a modern-day outlaw named Jesse James Hollywood

WEST HILLS, CALIF. - In Los Angeles, it’s a story that caused bewilderment disbelief and has now inspired a new movie, “Alpha Dog.”  It has provocative new roles for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars like Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone.

In fact, it’s a story set not far from Hollywood itself.

In the West Hills section, there are million dollar homes. But amidst the swimming pools and tidy lawns of this well-kept neighborhood, a devoted mother got the worst possible news.

Susan Markowitz, Nick Markowitz’s mother: When I was paging him, and he wasn’t answering I knew something was definitely wrong.

Like the stream of expensive cars cruising down the Boulevard, a dark undercurrent had been flowing beneath West Hills’ glossy views. A group of seemingly nice kids had become caught up in a lifestyle where life itself was cheap.  An entire city was shocked when these same kids stood accused of an unspeakable crime. 

But the accused ring leader got away for six years. But Susan Markowitz never gave up on bringing him to justice.

6 Pages w/ Chris Hansen 'Dateline NBC' >>>>>.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16636250/

[MuffyBee]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JESSE_JAMES_HOLLYWOOD?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Jul 1, 11:06 PM EDT

Calif. jury gets 'Alpha Dog' kidnap-murder case
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) -- A jury is considering the case of Jesse James Hollywood, who is accused of kidnapping a teenager over a drug debt and ordering his death.
In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutor Joshua Lynn argued Hollywood had escaped conviction for too long in the 2000 killing that inspired the 2007 movie "Alpha Dog."
Lynn told jurors: "The time has come."
Hollywood testified he kidnapped 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz because the boy's half-brother owed him money for marijuana but he denied any role in Nicholas's death.
In defense closing arguments in Santa Barbara Superior Court, attorney Alex Kessel called the case "manufactured."
Jurors started deliberations Wednesday. Hollywood could face the death penalty if convicted.
(This version CORRECTS that quotes from closing arguments were said Tuesday, not Wednesday.)

[MuffyBee]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JESSE_JAMES_HOLLYWOOD?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Jul 8, 8:43 PM EDT

Jesse James Hollywood convicted of murder, kidnap

By JACOB ADELMAN
Associated Press Writer

 SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) -- Jesse James Hollywood was convicted Wednesday of the kidnap and murder of a 15-year-old boy that inspired the 2007 movie "Alpha Dog."

After deliberating about four days, a Santa Barbara Superior Court jury also found Hollywood, 29, guilty of the special circumstance allegation of being involved in a crime in which an assault weapon or machine gun was used, making him eligible for the death penalty.

Hollywood stared straight ahead as the verdict was read.

"I can't believe they found him guilty of that murder," his father, Jack Hollywood, said outside the courtroom.

The victim's parents said they were relieved but declined to comment further because of a gag order issued in the case.

The penalty phase of the case was scheduled to begin Monday.

Hollywood was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and eventual killing of Nicholas Markowitz in August 2000 because the teen's half brother owed a drug debt.

Nicholas was taken to Santa Barbara and held for several days before being shot and buried in a shallow grave. Four others have been convicted in connection with the crime.

Hollywood took the stand in his own defense, a move legal experts say is rare and potentially risky. He testified that he and two friends grabbed Markowitz off a street in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles but did not order the teen's murder.

He said the teen was taken in an escalating dispute between him and the boy's older half-brother, Ben Markowitz. Hollywood, an admitted marijuana dealer, said Ben Markowitz owed him a $2,500 drug debt - more than twice the amount prosecutors have cited.

Hollywood said he was afraid after Ben Markowitz left threatening messages, poisoned his dog and broke a window at his home, only hours before Nicholas was abducted. Hollywood called the taking of Nicholas irrational and not well-thought out.

Hollywood said Ryan Hoyt, the gunman who was convicted and sentenced to death, acted on his own because of concern about Ben Markowitz finding out about the abduction. Hollywood also said the gun used to kill Nicholas was once his but that he gave it to Hoyt months before the murder.

Prosecutors did not call Hoyt as a witness - the one person who could definitely say if Hollywood ordered the slaying. Also left out of Hollywood's trial were Jesse Rugge and William Skidmore, two others convicted in the case.

Prosecutors contend Hollywood decided to get rid of Nicholas after learning from an attorney that he could face life in prison for kidnapping. They also believe the murder was a way for Hoyt to settle his own drug debt with Hollywood.

Hollywood had pleaded not guilty to kidnap and murder in the case that inspired "Alpha Dog," which starred Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone and Emile Hirsch, who played "Johnny Truelove," a character based on Hollywood.

Hollywood fled after the slaying and later testified he had lived in Colorado, the Mojave Desert and various parts of Canada before he was captured in Brazil.

[Nut44x4]

Los Angeles Times
 
July 16, 2009 Thursday

Life sentence for teen's killer;
Jury declines to issue the death penalty to Jesse James Hollywood in slaying of Nicholas Markowitz, 15.
 
After three hours' deliberations, a jury on Wednesday gave a life sentence rather than the death penalty to Jesse James Hollywood, the former marijuana dealer convicted last week in the slaying of a 15-year-old West Hills boy.

Found guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder, Hollywood, 29, was portrayed by prosecutors as the ringleader of a convoluted plot to avenge a $1,200 drug debt owed by Nicholas Markowitz's older half brother. Hollywood was the target of an international search before his arrest four years ago in a Brazilian beach town.

After Wednesday's verdict, defense attorneys said they will ask for a new trial, citing possible jury misconduct.

"It's not over," attorney James Blatt said.

He contended that Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Brian Hill had not taken a juror's complaints seriously enough.

The accusations came to light Tuesday, when a juror told the judge she had been bullied by the foreman and others into a guilty verdict, Blatt said. The woman also said another juror had prejudged Hollywood's guilt, joking after an electrician's testimony about Hollywood being electrocuted.

Blatt again raised the issue of the 2007 film "Alpha Dog." He had unsuccessfully asked for a change of venue, charging that the movie and intense media attention in Santa Barbara jeopardized his client's right to a fair trial.

The movie's producers received confidential investigative files from Ron Zonen, a deputy district attorney who prosecuted four others in the case. Blatt had tried to block the movie's release.

After Wednesday's decision, jurors were unwilling to talk with attorneys or reporters.

Jeff and Susan Markowitz, the slain boy's parents, expressed no regret over the sentence of life without parole rather than death by lethal injection.

"Another son's dying isn't going to bring Nick back," Jeff Markowitz said.

Family members on both sides gave emotional testimony this week.

Dressed in black, Susan Markowitz described the moment in 2000 when she learned her missing son's body had been found in a shallow grave at a Santa Barbara hiking spot called Lizard's Mouth.

"Five men in black suits showed up at our door," she said. "They had that look in their eyes and that smell of death."

She spoke of the emptiness she has felt since the murder. Responding to questions from prosecutor Joshua Lynn, she said she could not imagine what her son would be like now -- "he's forever 15," she said -- but sometimes requests a hug from young men about his age "just to see how it feels."

Asked for the story behind some family photos, she identified one as "my son's new home." It was Nicholas' headstone.

"He died a month shy of his 16th birthday," she said, recalling the learner's permit on the refrigerator door. "Instead of a car, he got a coffin."

In arguing for the death penalty, Lynn alluded to Hollywood "sunning himself in Brazil" on his long flight from the law, describing him as "callous, self-absorbed, narcissistic -- and now, a child-killer."

On the defense side, Hollywood's attorneys urged jurors to consider their client's respectful demeanor in court, the lack of violent acts in his past, and testimony from family members that painted him as a caring young man whose friends got him in deep trouble.

"If you believe Jesse Hollywood has the capacity to love, to be responsible to others, to give love back to others -- then his life should not be extinguished," Blatt told jurors.

In her testimony, Hollywood's mother, Laurie Haynes, described a happy home life that revolved largely around the family's passion for baseball. Her ex-husband Jack Hollywood was a Little League coach even before the couple had children.

Later, friends and relatives would gather to watch Jesse, who was described as a "phenomenal" player.

Off the field, Jesse would help out a sick aunt, dropping by with groceries -- an image at odds with the criminal mastermind portrayed by prosecutors.

"I don't believe he did this," his mother, an oncology nurse, told jurors, answering defense attorney Alex Kessel's question about why her son's life should be spared. "It would be a great injustice to deprive a son of his father, and to deprive the rest of the family of having any more interactions with him," she said, her voice cracking.

Hollywood had a son with a Brazilian girlfriend, who was pregnant when he was caught.

In court, witnesses, including a nurse at the Santa Barbara County Jail, described him as a doting father who speaks glowingly of the son he has not met, a boy who turned 4 this week.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1006875658&start=1

[Nut44x4]

Jesse James Hollywood Gets Life Sentence
Fri Feb 5, 7:25 pm ET 

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Jesse James Hollywood was sentenced to life in prison Friday for orchestrating the kidnap-murder of a teenager, ending a 10-year legal odyssey that included an international manhunt and a movie inspired by the high-profile crime.

Superior Court Judge Brian Hill sentenced Hollywood, 30, to life without the possibility of parole in a Santa Barbara courtroom after denying a defense motion for a new trial.

Hollywood had faced a possible death penalty, but jurors recommended life after finding him guilty in July of first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Prosecutors said Hollywood ordered the killing of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz in August 2000 over a $1,200 drug debt owed by the victim's half-brother.

The case drew national interest because of the brazen daylight kidnapping of Markowitz from a San Fernando Valley street, the details of his murder and Hollywood's notorious name.

It also captured the attention of producers who made the 2007 movie "Alpha Dog," with Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake and Emile Hirsch, who played "Johnny Truelove," a character based on Hollywood.

"I feel strongly that my client could not receive a fair trial because of the movie and the pretrial publicity," argued defense attorney James Blatt, who said Hollywood's case was the first ever in the U.S. depicted in a movie released prior to trial.

Four other defendants have been convicted in the killing, including the gunman, who was sentenced to death.

Hollywood fled after the slaying and testified at his trial he lived in Colorado, the Mojave Desert and various parts of Canada before he was captured in Brazil in 2005. He claimed he didn't order the murder and was not present when Nicholas was shot and buried in a shallow grave in the hills above Santa Barbara.

The case stalled for years after it was learned that Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen had turned over probation reports, police files and other documents to "Alpha Dog" director Nick Cassavetes.

Zonen said in court documents that he gave the files to Cassavetes to help publicize the hunt for Hollywood. An appeals court removed Zonen from the case, but the state's highest court and the U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that he and the district attorney's office could stay on the case.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100206/ap_en_ot/us_jesse_james_hollywood