4TH DEFENDANT CONVICTED IN VALLEY YOUTH'S MURDER.Byline: Marianne McCarthy Special to the Daily News SANTA BARBARA Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. - A 19-year-old Goleta man was convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder in the slaying of Nicholas Markowitz - the fourth defendant to be convicted in the shooting death of the West Hills teen. Graham Pressley sobbed and laid his head on the defense table after the jury in his retrial retrial n. a new trial granted upon the motion of the losing party, based on obvious error, bias or newly-discovered evidence. (See: newly-discovered evidence) pronounced him guilty. During his first trial, the jury acquitted Pressley of kidnapping 15-year-old Nicholas, but deadlocked on a first-degree murder charge. A change in the law since that time allowed the jury to consider a less serious charge of second-degree murder. ``I wouldn't have wanted to be one of those jurors. It was a tough job,'' Nicholas' mother, Susan Markowitz, said after the trial. Prosecutors say Nicholas was abducted abducted Distal angulation of an extremity away from the midline of the body in a transverse plane and away from a sagittal plane passing through the proximal aspect of the foot or part, or away from some other specified reference point from his neighborhood in August 2000 because his older halrother owed drug money to Jesse James Hollywood Jesse James Hollywood (born January 28, 1980 in Los Angeles, California) was a drug dealer and fugitive. He allegedly kidnapped and ordered the murder of Nicholas Markowitz. , the alleged mastermind of the murder plot. Nicholas was taken to Santa Barbara by Pressley and his co-defendants, who partied with the youth for several days, prosecutors said. The teen then was led to a remote hiking spot called Lizard's Mouth, where he was shot nine times with an automatic pistol owned by Hollywood. Pressley led the convicted shooter - Ryan Hoyt Hoyt is the posse member of Jesse James Hollywood who was convicted of the slaying of Nick Markowitz on August 9, 2000. He reportedly owed Hollywood money for drugs and was offered the opportunity to kill Markowitz as a way of erasing his debt. , 22, of West Hills - to Lizard's Mouth and helped dig Nicholas' grave, prosecutors said. Pressley testified during his trial that he acted under duress duress (dy  `rĭs, d`–, d and was in fear for his life. Pressley faces a sentence of 18 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 15. A jury has recommended that Hoyt face the death penalty when he is formally sentenced Jan. 16. Another defendant, William Skidmore, of Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. is serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to kidnapping and robbery charges. Jesse Rugge, also of West Hills, is serving a 15-year sentence for kidnapping. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Hollywood, who remains a fugitive. |
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