SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Jesse James Hollywood was convicted Wednesday of the kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old boy that inspired the 2007 movie “Alpha Dog.”
After deliberating about four days, a Santa Barbara Superior Court jury also found Hollywood, 29, guilty of being involved in a crime in which an assault weapon or machine gun was used, making him eligible for the death penalty. The penalty phase of the case is to begin Monday.
Hollywood was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and eventual killing of Nicholas Markowitz in August 2000 because the teen’s half brother owed a drug debt. Markowitz was taken to Santa Barbara and held for several days before being shot and buried in a shallow grave. Four others have been convicted in connection with the crime.
Hollywood fled after the slaying and later testified he had lived in Colorado, the Mojave Desert and Canada before he was captured in Brazil.
