Posts Tagged ‘crime’

After two days of deliberations, jurors have recommended life in prison for notorious criminal Jesse James Hollywood in the 2000 kidnap-and-murder of a 15-year-old West Hills boy.

The 29-year-old former marijuana dealer was spared the death penalty when jurors handed down their decision in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday, making Hollywood the fifth to be charged and convicted in connection to the slaying of Nicholas Markowitz over a $1,200 drug debt incurred by the boy’s elder half-brother, Ben.

Of the four others who were convicted, only one was sentenced to death – gunman and Hollywood “lacky,” Ryan Hoyt.

The crime inspired the 2006 film Alpha Dog, starring Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake and Anton Yelchin.