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Jesse James Hollywood found guilty of kidnap and murder of California teen
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In this 2005 file photo released by Brazilian federal police, Jesse James Hollywood, who is accused of orchestrating a plot to kidnap and kill 15-year-old Nick Markowitz, is seen at a federal police precinct in Brazil. On Wednesday July 8, 2009, a jury convicted Hollywood of kidnap and murder that inspired movie "Alpha Dog." (AP)
After a six-week trial, a Santa Barbara, Calif. jury found Jesse James Hollywood guilty of the 2000 kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz.
The crime was depicted in the 2006 movie “Alpha Dog” starring Justin Timberlake. Hollywood’s defense claimed the movie publicized the crime, thereby tainting the testimony of witnesses and creating further prejudice against Hollywood.
Prosecutors alleged that Hollywood ordered his friends to kidnap and beat up Markowitz by forcing him into a van near his home. He was driven to Santa Barbara and held for ransom, the goal being to obtain the $1,200 drug debt his older half-brother, Ben, owed to Hollywood, an admitted drug dealer.
The defense argued that Markowitz was free to leave after arriving in Santa Barbara and that a friend of Hollywood, Ryan Hoyt, decided to kill the teen to gain favor with Hollywood.
Hoyt was sentenced to death for killing Markowitz. Another teen, Graham Pressley, was sentenced as a juvenile for digging Markowitz’s grave in the Santa Barbara foothills, and is now a free man.
Pressley testified that Jesse Rugge, an accomplice in Markowitz’s kidnapping, said Hollywood offered him $2,000 to kill the teen, but he refused. Rugge was given a life sentence for aggravated kidnapping.
In this 2000 file photo released by the Markowitz family, Nick Markowitz, who was murdered in 2000, is shown at age 15. (AP)
Hollywood fled the country after the killing and remained a fugitive until 2005 when he was captured in Brazil.
When sentenced for his convictions, Hollywood could face the death penalty.
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