SIMI MAN GUILTY IN KIDNAP.Byline: Marianne McCarthy Staff Writer A 22-year-old 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. man pleaded guilty Thursday to robbery and kidnapping in the case of Nicholas Markowitz, the 15-year-old West Hills youth who 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 and killed in August 2000. William Skidmore, 22, was sentenced to nine years in prison in a plea bargain plea bargain n. in criminal procedure, a negotiation between the defendant and his attorney on one side and the prosecutor on the other, in which the defendant agrees to plead "guilty" or "no contest" to some crimes, in return for reduction of the severity of the with prosecutors, but could be released in five years. He originally was charged with kidnapping for extortion and murder. Skidmore was present when Markowitz was abducted on Aug. 6, 2000, and robbed of his possessions, but his lawyer, Russell Halpern of Tarzana, denied that his client had anything to do with the boy's execution-style murder Execution-style murder and execution-style killing are news media buzzwords applied to various acts of criminal murder where the perpetrator kills at close range a conscious victim who is under his complete physical control and who has been left with no course of resistance in the Santa Barbara foothills. ``My client was in Santa Barbara for one or two hours at the most,'' Halpern said outside court. ``He certainly had no prior knowledge that the kid was going to be killed.'' Three other men have already been prosecuted in the case. Ryan Hoyt, 22, of West Hills, who fired the shots that killed Markowitz, was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury that has recommended the death penalty. Jesse Rugge, 22, also of West Hills, was convicted of kidnapping for ransom, but found not guilty of murder. A jury in the trial of 19-year-old Graham Pressley, acquitted him of kidnapping, and deadlocked on a murder charge. Prosecutors expect to retry re·try tr.v. re·tried , re·try·ing, re·tries To try again. Verb 1. retry - hear or try a court case anew rehear Pressley on the murder charge later this month. 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. , 22, of West Hills, who prosecutors say masterminded the plot because of drug money owed him by the victim's older brother, remains a fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list. |
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