Alleged Killer’s Lawyers Want to Know How DA Aided Filmmaker

Attorneys representing murder and kidnapping suspect Jesse James Hollywood want to know what prosecutors shared with the makers of an upcoming film on the case.

Hollywood, 25, is accused of orchestrating the August 2000 kidnapping and killing of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz of West Hills because the teenager’s older half-brother owed Hollywood $1,200 for drugs.

Hollywood’s attorney, James Blatt, filed a motion Wednesday asking that the Santa Barbara County district attorney’s office be ordered to give the defense team a detailed list of what prosecutors shared with the filmmakers. Blatt also subpoenaed the film’s director, Nick Cassavetes.

Blatt said he couldn’t recall another case “where you have a major motion picture coming out before trial in a capital case.”

“And I’ve never heard of a D.A.’s office cooperating in the creation of that motion picture,” Blatt said.

A hearing on the defense motion is scheduled for Aug. 12.

The movie, “Alpha Dog,” stars Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone and Justin Timberlake and is scheduled to be released in late 2005 or early 2006.

It is based loosely on the case against Hollywood, who fled after Markowitz’s body was found in a shallow grave in a hiking area outside Santa Barbara.

Hollywood was captured in March in a beach town near Rio de Janeiro after a nearly five-year manhunt.

Prosecutors cooperated with filmmakers when Hollywood was on the run. District attorney’s officials have said they hoped the film would help authorities find Hollywood.

Defense lawyers say the agency allowed the filmmakers to examine the prosecution’s case file, including computer disks, crime scene and autopsy photos and audiotapes and videotapes made during the investigation.

Blatt said prosecutors have turned over to the defense some but not all of the records.

“We want to know just what, if anything, was given to the motion picture company for the purposes of making this film,” Blatt said.

Four other people have been convicted of kidnapping or murder in connection with the case.

In August 2004, when Hollywood was still a fugitive, a Superior Court judge ordered him and two of his four co-defendants to pay $11.2 million to Markowitz’s parents.