Jesse James Hollywood

Seeing images of their slain son's duct tape-bound body projected on a courtroom screen, the parents of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz sobbed Tuesday as a prosecutor urged a jury to find Jesse James Hollywood guilty in his death. "Justice has waited nine years," Joshua Lynn told the jurors. "The time has come." The dramatic moment came on the first day of closing arguments in the case, which was the basis for the 2007 film "Alpha Dog."

After three hours' deliberations, a jury on Wednesday gave a life sentence rather than the death penalty to Jesse James Hollywood, the former marijuana dealer convicted last week in the slaying of a 15-year-old West Hills boy. Found guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder, Hollywood, 29, was portrayed by prosecutors as the ringleader of a convoluted plot to avenge a $1,200 drug debt owed by Nicholas Markowitz's older half brother.

In a dramatic second day on the witness stand, Jesse James Hollywood denied ordering the execution of a 15-year-old West Hills boy to avenge a $1,200 drug debt owed by the boy's older half-brother. At least a dozen times, the 29-year-old former marijuana dealer told a Santa Barbara County Superior Court jury how much he regretted the events that led to the 2000 death of Nicholas Markowitz, who was shot nine times and buried in the Santa Barbara foothills.

It was an unusual true-crime tale of kidnapping and murder that made its way onto the movie screens before the man accused of orchestrating the crime stood trial in court. But on Monday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for prosecutors in Santa Barbara to begin a capital murder trial against Jesse James Hollywood, who is accused of masterminding the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz in August 2000.

THE elements of the murder case seemed tailor-made for Hollywood's "true-crime" treatment: As the summer of 2000 waned, a band of affluent friends in the San Fernando Valley, bored, unsupervised and stoned, kidnapped a teenager over his half brother's drug debt, partied with him for two days, then shot him to death in cold blood so he couldn't turn them in, leaving him in a shallow grave near a hiking area called Lizards Mouth.

A judge Monday denied a prosecution request for a gag order in the murder trial of Jesse James Hollywood, ruling that intensive publicity -- including a recent feature film -- has not been "unduly prejudicial." In a brief hearing, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Brian Hill turned down a motion that would have prevented attorneys on both sides from speaking substantively about the case outside of court.

Siding with murder defendant Jesse James Hollywood, the state Supreme Court has ordered a hearing to determine whether a prosecutor improperly cooperated with the producers of "Alpha Dog," an upcoming movie based on the case. A ruling in Hollywood's favor could mean that the state attorney general would prosecute the first-degree murder case instead of the Santa Barbara County district attorney's office. "Alpha Dog" likely will be released this fall, said a spokeswoman for New Line Cinema.

Lawyers for Jesse James Hollywood argued Thursday that the Santa Barbara County district attorney's office should be booted off the murder case because a lead prosecutor shared confidential files with the producers of an upcoming movie. The unusual hearing before the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura was unanimously ordered by the state Supreme Court in April.

A state appeals court has booted a Santa Barbara County prosecutor from the case of accused killer Jesse James Hollywood because the attorney shared his investigative files with a movie director. According to the ruling, Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Zonen overstepped his bounds in cooperating with Nick Cassavetes, writer and director of "Alpha Dog," a film starring Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis and Justin Timberlake.

An appeals court Thursday ordered the removal of a deputy district attorney from a death penalty case against Jesse James Hollywood, saying the prosecutor overstepped his authority when he served as a consultant for an upcoming movie based on the murder plot. The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura said that Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty.