SANTA BARBARA — Contradicting statements he made to detectives, Ryan Hoyt took the stand Thursday and repeatedly denied he machine-gunned a 15-year-old West Hills boy to death last year.
"I did not kill Nicholas Markowitz," said Hoyt, 22, who faces capital murder charges. "I have never pulled a trigger in my life."
After his arrest in August 2000, Hoyt told Santa Barbara County sheriff's detectives he had killed Markowitz. When they asked whether he had bound the victim with duct tape, Hoyt replied, "The only thing I did was kill him."
Jurors watched that videotaped interview earlier this week in Santa Barbara County Superior Court. But on Thursday, Hoyt said he had lied to the detectives during the interrogation.
His only role in the alleged kidnapping that left Markowitz dead, he told the jury, was to deliver a duffel bag to a Santa Barbara friend the night of the killing. Prosecutors contend that the bag held the automatic 9-millimeter gun he used to shoot Markowitz. Hoyt said he did not know what was in the bag.
"I assumed it was marijuana," he told the jury, after testifying he had been using and selling the drug. Hoyt said he did not learn of Markowitz's death until about a week later. At that time, he added, "things started to click."
"I felt guilty [about] it," Hoyt said, "because whether I knew it or not, I brought the means to this kid's end up to Santa Barbara."
Defense attorneys have portrayed their client as a bumbling misfit from a broken home, an outcast who sought acceptance from a band of drug-dealing friends even as they mocked him. The group's leader, Jesse Hollywood, would supply marijuana to the others and collect money from their sales later, according to several witnesses.
In addition to Hoyt and Hollywood, prosecutors have charged three other young men with kidnapping and killing Markowitz in a botched scheme to collect money owed by the boy's older half-brother. Jesse Rugge of Santa Barbara and William Skidmore of Simi Valley, both 21, and Graham Pressley, 18, of Goleta have all pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Hollywood, 21, who allegedly ordered the killing, remains a fugitive.
Taped Telephone Call Is Played
Often glancing at the jury, Hoyt testified he did not remember his interview with detectives. Asked by his attorney why he told investigators he had killed Markowitz, he said, "You know, I've been sitting and thinking about that for the past year. The only thing I can think would be to protect Jesse Hollywood and those involved."
