Hollywood comes to his own defense

By COLBY FRAZIER — June 23, 2009

Jesse James Hollywood raised his right hand and took the oath, swearing to tell the truth before testifying yesterday in his own murder trial.

Dressed in a black suit, white shirt and striped tie, Hollywood answered many of his attorney’s questions with a simple “Yes, sir.” But while detailing his life as a “health nut” and marijuana dealer, he elaborated matter-of-factly with a boyish voice.

“I worked out every day, I was always on a diet,“ Hollywood said of his lifestyle, adding that he was “very” organized, was conscious of his credit score and could be described as having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

“Full blown OCD,” he said when asked to describe himself. That “sums it up.”

At times Hollywood, who prosecutors say ordered the execution of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz in August 2000 over a drug debt owed by the boy’s older brother, appeared relieved to finally be telling his story.

Prosecutors say Hollywood, in an effort to cover up the kidnapping, ordered Ryan Hoyt, his longtime friend, to kill the boy. Hollywood, 29 has pleaded not guilty to murder and kidnapping charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 9, 2000, roughly two days after being kidnapped from a street near his home in the San Fernando Valley, Hoyt shot Nicholas nine times with a TEC-9 machine pistol, and buried the boy in a shallow grave at an area in the Santa Barbara foothills known as Lizard’s Mouth. Multiple witnesses have said the murder weapon belonged to Hollywood.

While the prosecution contends Hoyt, who is awaiting the death penalty in San Quentin State Prison, committed the murder at the behest of Hollywood, defense attorney James Blatt, in his opening statements, said no such order was given.

Court was adjourned before Hollywood could discuss the killing, which he referred to as a “mess,” but the defendant spoke about Hoyt, whom he called a “really good friend.”

“We were really close,” he said. “I went on family vacations with him, he went on family vacations with us … He would take my little brother to baseball practice and pick him up. It was like as if it was his brother.”

The defendant said Hoyt grew close to the Hollywood family because his mother had mental health issues and his father was abusive.

For one reason or another, Hollywood developed an affinity for Hoyt, whom he said was known to “tell stories.”

For instance, Hollywood said Hoyt maintained for months that he was joining the U.S. Navy to become a Navy Seal. The defendant said he held a going-away party for Hoyt, but the next day, Hoyt was still in town.

“He wouldn’t follow through,” Hollywood said.

Hoyt’s flakiness, however, transcended story telling. A year before Nicholas was murdered, Hollywood said he bought Hoyt a car and gave him money to buy some new tires and register it in his name.

A couple of months later, Hollywood said he discovered Hoyt had failed to register the vehicle. Inside the car’s glove box, the defendant said he found roughly $800 in parking tickets, which he paid.

Because Hoyt lacked a job at that time, Hollywood said he also gave him a half of a pound of marijuana to sell, an endeavor that apparently never materialized.

“Somehow he ended up blowing that also,” Hollywood said.

In order to work off the parking ticket and marijuana debt, Hollywood said Hoyt agreed to help renovate his home. The duo sanded down an old hot tub together, worked on the wooden fence and laid new turf in the backyard, he said.

Prosecutors have characterized Hoyt’s work for Hollywood as an endured servant-like position, in which the man was forced to clean up after the defendant’s dogs, among other things.

Regardless of what sorts of activities were done, Hollywood said Hoyt, at the time of the kidnapping and murder, had worked the debt down to $100 or $200.

Hollywood spoke candidly about his drug dealing past, saying he got involved with marijuana between the ages of 14 and 17, while his father owned a sports bar in Colorado.

Asked by Blatt if he knew his father was also dealing marijuana, Hollywood said he didn’t for certain, though he’d long suspected his father to be involved in “illicit activities.”

When the Hollywood family returned to California, the defendant said he bounced through three different high schools, leaving one because he got into trouble, and moving a second time to a third high school to play baseball, a sport he characterized as “his life until his junior year of high school.”

It was then that Hollywood was involved in some sort of accident, in which he injured his shoulder and back and received a $15,000 settlement.

Because of the injuries, he said he was “never the same” on the baseball diamond, and eventually stopped playing.

Through all this, Hollywood said he continued to sell marijuana, slowly moving his way up the drug food chain from dealing in several ounces, to quarter-pounds and half-pounds, to several pounds per week.

He bought a partial share of a home at the age of 17 or 18, he said, using the insurance settlement and $5,000 he’d earned through his “marijuana business.”

A year after living in this home, Hollywood said he decided to move. With a modest profit on the first home, Hollywood said he used this money, and drug money he’d saved to put a $45,000 down payment on another home.

Around the same time the defendant was making this move, in late 1999, Hollywood said he started fronting marijuana to Nicholas’s older half-brother, Ben Markowitz.

Hollywood estimated the drug debt Ben Markowitz owed was near $2,000. Court adjourned before the defendant could be asked at length about his falling out with this man, though he said at one time, Ben Markowitz was “doing well selling marijuana for me.”

Hollywood will resume his testimony today.

OTHER DEFENSE WITNESSES

The jury also heard testimony from the defendant’s second cousin and real estate agent, Jerry Hollywood.

The substance of his testimony came to light just a couple of weeks ago, when he revealed to the defense that he’d spoken to Jesse Hollywood on Aug. 8, 2000, just a couple of hours before Nicholas was killed.

Before allowing Jerry Hollywood to take the stand, Superior Court Judge Brian Hill held two evidentiary hearings concerning the man’s testimony, one last Wednesday and another yesterday morning.

After hearing from Jerry Hollywood last Wednesday, Hill expressed concern that Blatt’s investigator, who has come under fire during the trial for obtaining statements from witnesses by using leading questions, or putting words in one’s mouth, did the same with Jerry Hollywood.

However, the investigator, Ashley T. Fauria, said from the witness stand yesterday that the only thing he used to jolt Jerry Hollywood’s memory with was Aug. 8, 2000; the date the conversation took place.

After hearing from Fauria, Hill said he would allow Jerry Hollywood to be heard by the jury. The judge said he’d let the jury decided if the man’s testimony was credible.

At the time of the kidnapping, Jesse Hollywood was moving, apparently because of threats he was receiving from Ben Markowitz. Jerry Hollywood said he was consulted, and at around noon on Aug. 8, Jesse Hollywood showed up at his home and signed several forms, which essentially would allow Jerry Hollywood to list and sell the home.

At this meeting, Jerry Hollywood said his cousin told him that some of his friends had taken a boy and he needed to speak with an attorney.

At 10:22 p.m. that night, just hours before the murder, Jerry Hollywood said he received a call from the defendant. After asking if everything was OK, he said Jesse Hollywood told him it was, and that “someone was taking the boy home.”

Chief Trial Deputy Josh Lynn, the prosecutor, repeatedly asked Jerry Hollywood why he had never told police about this phone call.

With his eyes concealed behind tinted eyeglasses, Jerry Hollywood, 70, said up until recently, he’s never been asked about the phone call. He said if it were important, he figured someone would have asked.

While Jerry Hollywood’s statements could end up being a key piece of the defense’s case, it raises other questions. Most notably, why prosecutors and investigators, knowing Jesse Hollywood phoned his cousin just a couple of hours before he allegedly ordered the execution of Nicholas, wasn’t contacted until now.

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. in Hill’s Dept. 14 courtroom.

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: 6/23/2009

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trial : 6/23/2009

gotta luv it!

BRUTA

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: 6/23/2009

bulllllllllllshit kill the midget

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Hang the Guy : 6/25/2009

As much as i want to hate this guy, either by what he looks like or what people are saying he is guilty of.. i actually think that the American justice system need to set a strong precedence to strongly go after the people who actually do the murder itself, not the people that influenced the crime; based on weak evidence. This guy may be guilty of being an accessory to kidnapping , without prior planned intent, nothing else. In fact, he is quite believable in that he had a guilty conscience about doing something he didn't know the extent of legality at the time of the crime. His actions after the fact reflect someone who inquired about the law, realized his mistake in being a role in it, and naturally as any young person would be scared to death that he would be found guilty of being friends with these guys. He ran, as many people might try to do, to buy more time to think and figure out how to cope. He watched and realized how the media vilified him, rather than being a "person of interest" he was deemed "America's most wanted; mastermind and Alpha Dog. Hang the Guy? the more I hear what he has to say, the more i can relate as a young man myself... i actually think he should be found not guilty of all things related to the murder. Kidnapping, well that is another story. Then on the other hand OJ got a kidnapping conviction, and he never took anyone anywhere. Stop this scapegoat mentality of the justice system. How many kids in gangs in town here should be convicted of murder, for just saying to each other, "get those westsiders" when they may not even be around the crime during these stabbings etc?

Sarah

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