Confession in Killing Was a Lie, Lawyer Says

An attorney for Ryan Hoyt, who is accused of machine-gunning a 15-year-old West Hills boy to death, told jurors Monday that her client lied to protect his friends when he confessed.

Defense attorney Cheri Owen made the assertion during her opening statement in Hoyt’s capital murder trial. It is the first of four trials set for defendants in the killing of Nicholas Markowitz.

Owen told the jury in Santa Barbara Superior Court that Hoyt, 22, was an outcast used to getting kicked around even by his supposed friends. Hoyt’s misplaced loyalty to those friends caused him to tell detectives in a videotaped statement that he shot Markowitz, the attorney said.

“Mr. Hoyt surrounded himself with friends, sort of as a pseudo family, because his own family wasn’t close-knit,” Owen said. “Now, that doesn’t mean he was accepted. Mr. Hoyt was the, quote unquote, lame guy. Mr. Hoyt was the outsider.”

In his opening remarks before Judge William L. Gordon, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Zonen said Hoyt killed Markowitz to settle a debt that Hoyt, a small-time marijuana dealer, owed another trafficker.

The boy’s bullet-torn body was found bound and gagged in the mountains outside Santa Barbara in August 2000.

Zonen sketched out the story of a ring of suburban drug dealers, many of whom once played baseball together while growing up in the west San Fernando Valley, and the squabble among them that allegedly led to the killing.

Hoyt, Zonen said, was one of several marijuana dealers working for Jesse James Hollywood. Among the others was Markowitz’s older half brother, Benjamin, who testified Monday that he and Hollywood had a falling-out last year over a $1,200 drug debt.

As the partnership disintegrated into insults and threats, Hollywood and a van full of his friends went to the Markowitz home in West Hills, Zonen said. Instead of finding Benjamin, they came across Nicholas as he walked down the street, the prosecutor said. They beat him, threw him into the van and drove off, Zonen added.

It was only later, Zonen said, that Hollywood consulted a lawyer and learned that the penalty for such a kidnapping--committed to extort money from Benjamin--was life in prison.

“A decision [was made] that they can’t take the chance on life in prison. They have to kill him,” Zonen said to the jurors. “The person that is contacted is Mr. Hoyt, because Mr. Hoyt has a debt” to Hollywood. “He can satisfy the debt by taking care of the problem.”

Owen did not dispute Zonen’s kidnapping account, but told the jury that her client played no part in the abduction. He was not invited along in the van, she said, because “Mr. Hoyt was at Jesse Hollywood’s home, cleaning the house and watching the dogs, because, of course, he’s the outsider.”

After he was arrested in the killing, Owen said, Hoyt took the blame to protect Hollywood and the others. He later pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Hoyt listened attentively as the lawyers outlined their cases. He rocked in his seat, eyebrows raised, occasionally jotting notes on a pad.

The three other men scheduled to stand trial are Jesse Rugge of Santa Barbara and William Skidmore of Simi Valley, both 21, and Graham Pressley, 18, of Goleta. All have pleaded not guilty; they will not face the death penalty if convicted.

Hollywood, 21, is a fugitive wanted for murder.

Jurors also heard testimony Monday from Benjamin Markowitz and his father, Jeffrey. Benjamin, 23, is serving time in Corcoran State Prison for an unrelated robbery attempt.

Jeffrey Markowitz, struggling to maintain his composure on the stand, described the troubled lives of his sons and their tight bond. He said Nick idolized Ben, a street tough covered with tattoos who dealt drugs, stole cars and picked fights.

Testimony resumes today. The trial is expected to last several weeks.