Police Track Fugitive to Colorado

Fugitive Jesse James Hollywood, who is wanted in the murder of a 15-year-old West Hills boy, has been tracked to Colorado where he may be staying with friends, police said Tuesday.

Bankrolled by drug money and staying at swanky hotels, Hollywood, 20, of West Hills, stopped in Palm Springs, Las Vegas and Colorado Springs as he fled east, said investigators with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

Authorities said Hollywood is wanted for his alleged role in the kidnapping and grisly slaying of Nicholas Markowitz, whose body was found Aug. 12 in a shallow grave north of Santa Barbara. Hollywood was not at the makeshift grave site where Nicholas was shot numerous times after being bound and gagged, police said. But investigators suspect Hollywood was somehow involved in the death.

Detectives recovered Hollywood’s new Lincoln sedan Friday at a friend’s house in Woodland Park, Colo., a bedroom community nestled in the Rocky Mountains about 15 miles from Colorado Springs, said Sgt. Rod Walker of the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Police said they had also recovered two guns--a 12-gauge shotgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle--that Hollywood left with another friend in Colorado Springs.

“It’s pretty obvious that he’s making contact with some people that he used to be acquaintances with here,” Walker said. “Now, whether he stays after the media stories hit is anybody’s guess.”

The last reported sighting of Hollywood was in the Colorado Springs area Sunday, but he managed to elude authorities.

“There may be a situation where individuals may be charged with harboring a fugitive,” Walker said, adding that no arrests have been made there.

Detectives said Nicholas was killed because his older half-brother, 22-year-old Benjamin Markowitz, allegedly owed Hollywood $36,000 for marijuana. Three of Hollywood’s boyhood friends have been charged with murder, conspiracy and kidnapping: Ryan James Hoyt, 21, of West Hills; William R. Skidmore, 20, of Simi Valley; and Jesse Taylor Rugge, 20, of Santa Barbara.

Also charged was 17-year-old Graham Pressley of Goleta. They are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Santa Barbara Superior Court.

Hollywood used cash--which police believe to be proceeds from drug transactions--to finance his trip. He left Los Angeles Aug. 15 after seeing a news story about Nicholas’ death, said Lt. Mike Burridge of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department. He spent his first night as a fugitive resting at the opulent Bellagio Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, authorities said.

“Not many people off the street just walk up and get a room there,” Burridge said.

The next day, Hollywood left Las Vegas and drove to Colorado, where he checked into the Loft House Inn in Woodland Park and then the Ramada Hotel in Colorado Springs, investigators said. He left the Ramada on Saturday.

Police said Hollywood has been taking some precautions--such as paying in cash--to avoid detection. Albert Kosela, manager of the Loft House Inn, said that no one at the hotel remembered seeing Hollywood.

“He wasn’t registered under his name,” Kosela said.

Hollywood, whom detectives said attended high school in Colorado Springs in the mid-’90s, has apparently tapped an old circle of friends. Hollywood gave one former high school buddy the two guns, saying: “Hold on to this because the cops are after me,” authorities said. Police believe Hollywood is carrying a .40-caliber handgun.

Santa Barbara County sheriff’s detectives are being assisted by the Colorado Springs Police Department and the FBI, which issued a federal arrest warrant Monday for Hollywood.

The case has also attracted the attention of “America’s Most Wanted,” a television show that helps authorities locate suspected criminals, Burridge said. Hollywood’s mug shot is slated to air Sept. 2.

Fox is a Times staff writer and Risling is a correspondent with Times Community News.