Jesse James Hollywood Does Not Have A Death Wish

Remember the 2006 classic Justin Timberlake/ Emile Hirsch vehicle Alpha Dog, which captured our heart? Yes, well. It was based on an actual drug-related murder case. The trial is going on now. The suspect says he’s (mostly) innocent!

Jesse James Hollywood—a criminal with a name that will get him everywhere—said on the witness stand yesterday that he did not order the murder of a 15 year-old kid in revenge for the kid’s half-brother owing James a $US1,200 drug debt. Let’s hope not!

James admits snatching the kid, Nicholas Markowitz, off the street and putting him in his van and driving him to Santa Barbara. Markowitz was later found “shot nine times and buried in the Santa Barbara foothills.” His older brother Ben “was described by prosecutors as a white supremacist who wore swastika tattoos, despite his Jewish background.”

Hollywood spent several years on the run as a fugitive in Brazil, and eventually went back to the US after being featured (multiple times) on America’s Most Wanted. He says his friends killed Markowitz without his knowledge, and that he was shocked to hear it had happened.

All we know for sure is that if his name was “Elbert Dean Merriweather,” Justin Timberlake never would have gotten involved.
[LAT]