As of now, I’ve been subpoenaed three times in Hollywood’s death penalty case. I’ve testified twice and the court has ordered me to turn over all notes and tapes from my interviews. The prosecutor was thrown off the case because of my testimony, but he was not criminally prosecuted.Both sides then appealed the case all the way to the California Supreme Court, where it presently resides. The Supremes are set to soon make an important precedent setting decision regarding how prosecutors, and probably defense attorneys, should deal with the mass media while trying high-profile cases.
I’m still personally battling the last subpoena from the prosecutor. Last June, the Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge told the attorneys they would decide the validity of the subpoena against me once the California Supreme Court rules. The new prosecutor seems bent on revenge against me for my involvement in the case. If I don’t turn over the information he seeks regarding Jesse James Hollywood’s father, mother, lawyer, and godfather, I could end up going to jail. Just for trying to help save a kid’s life.
Mr. Mehas- I understand your interest in this case as it is facinating and a real depiction of today’s youth gone astray. However, I don’t understand your penchant for “trying to save a kid’s life” in Mr. J.J. Hollywood’s case. I know I wasn’t there at the scene nor involved with any of the suspects in this case, but it clearly appears to me that Hollywood had no care for this innocent boy’s life (not to mention the effect on his parents) when he ordered Nicholas’ life terminated as if he were some Supreme Judge or God even. Having said that and making my stance, I do believe that Mr. Hollywood was (to a lesser extent) and is now a good person deep down inside his demented mind. He seemed to struggle with the decision to have Nick killed and he was really good to his deciples. In fact, I think he can be an excellent father to his son if he ever gets the chance b/c he has gone through so much and would now exactly how to keep his son out of trouble and on the straight and narrow. It’s too bad for him that he made such horrible decisions in his early life that he will have to pay for eternity and probably not get the chance to raise his son. But, that is the way life works; legally and spritually. It is called retribution or Karma. What comes around comes around in this life or the afterlife. Anyhow, I am so enthralled by this case and story, but I am so frustrated that there is practically no new news about it. I have some questions that I am hoping you can answer. When will the J.J. Hollywood murder trail begin? When will Jesse Rugge be up for Parole again since his first attempt in 2006? I think Jesse Rugge was very much victimized by Hollywood’s influence. He really did not want to harm the kid or anyone else for that matter. A real good guy that liked to party too much. Not unlike many of us ‘Real People’ that are law abiding citizens. I look forward to reading your reply.
Sincerely, Ralph (36 yr. old father of 2 from Ft. Laud. FL)
I’m a little confused, exactly what little kids life are you trying to save. If it’s the little kid I’m thinking about you’re too late. If it’s the kid who ordered his murder you’re still too late and waisting your time, that kid is heartless and beyond repair.
Mr. Battiata, your thoughts are very poignant. I very much believe that we bring into our lives what we put out into the universe. There is no question that Jesse James Hollywood had a bad attitude that brought much of this tragedy upon himself. But so did Jesse Rugge and all the other defendants and their families. I will also say this about the victim’s family to a certain extent. These are incredibly wonderful people, all of them, but no one was involved in this case by accident. The collective dynamics behind what happened to this collection of people is truly mind-blowing. That’s why I had to write the book. When the stories of these peoples’ doings are read together it is truly amazing how they all acted in concert with each other to share in the ultimate tragedy. They all fed the energy into the pot of life to reap the final results. And that’s what’s so very sad about this whole thing: they’re all victims in one-way or another. But one of the main lessons to be learned by this Greek tragedy is that we truly do reap what we sew in life. If you conduct your thoughts and words and deeds and desires in a hateful, negative way, you will reap hate-filled, negative results. But, if one were to thread the beads of love and joy and happiness into their every moment of existence, they will breed a world of love and joy and smiles and happiness that just can’t be messed with. But they have to create it proactively, not wait for it reactively. Love and joy don’t just jump on us. We first must create it. We must nurture the joy within, and spread it without.
As for Jesse James Hollywood’s trial, it won’t take place until the California Supreme Court’s decision on the case comes down. Final arguments are actually finally scheduled to take place in the matter tomorrow April 1st (nice day to schedule it). The Supremes decision should be handed down within 90 days after that. The matter will then be kicked back down to the Santa Barbara Superior Court where a trial date will be set as well as a date for completion of all pre-trial motions.
Michael Mehas
Sadie, truthfully, I think you’ve given me somewhat of a cynical response to my statement. And I didn’t say anything about “little” kids, although Jesse James Hollywood, at a whopping five-foot-four inches tall, is about as little as you’re ever going to get. And yes, to me, at 20 years old, which is how old he was at the time of his alleged involvement in Nick Markowitz’s death, he was a kid.
And yes, I do believe that if I hadn’t gotten involved in this case he would be on death row as we speak. I believe negative public sentiment as well as an overzealous prosecution with a desire for speedy justice would have had him tried and convicted without so much as an ear for his side of the story.
Heartless beyond repair? I don’t think so. All known records that I got my hands on indicate that not only was Hollywood devastated during the decision making process regarding what was happening with the kidnapping, he was also heavily under the influence of alcohol. He was beyond impaired. Of course, intoxicating oneself to the point of being beyond the ability to think clearly and judge right from wrong is no excuse to commit such a heinous act, if in fact he did so, but it does show that Hollywood’s decision making process was severely impaired. He didn’t want to kill anyone. But he also did not want Nick Markowitz’s brother coming after his brother or his family or him either. Hollywood already believed his dog had been killed by Markowitz’s brother. His brother had already broken out Hollywood’s windows and had made threats toward him and his family. Hollywood’s actions, no matter what they truly were, were made out of fear, not out of heartlessness, as the prosecutor and media would have had you believe.
Michael Mehas
I have just been reading some of your entries and am somewhat confussed by your perspective. I have sons that are roughly the same ages as these guys and I feel safe in saying that they would never resort to pre-emptive kidnapping and murder because of a conflict with someone else. Hollywood’s kidnapping of Nick is what got Nick killed nothing else. Wether we are under the influence or not, we are respondsible for what we do!! And at 20, you know that kidnapping, holding someone hostage, and then killing them out of fear of what someone might do to you is WRONG. And there is no excuse that covers the taking of innocent life. If Hollywood was truley in fear of Ben he could have directed his anger at him, and he would have had a better chance of defending that sinerio than the mess he is trying to defend himself against now. This situation is the way it is because Hollywood was in fear of losing his freedoms, and a lifestyle where he had become the center of attention. The kidnapping, wether planned of not, was something he did and he new he could not justify it so the need to get out of that situation is what has now become Nick’s murder. The simple fact that he called an attorney showes he was lucid at some point and that he knew what he was doing was wrong. He set it up and put it in motion, like the Big Boss Man he thought he was, and now that he got cought he wants to receive the mercy that he was unable to give. Nick’s innocent life is over and Hollywood is to blame.
Hello Stacey,
Let’s see if we can clear some of this up. Everything that is said at this point it useless because Jesse James Hollywood has not yet been tried. However, if it were found that he orchestrated the kidnapping and murder, he would have to face the legal consequences. He would be sentenced accordingly. My point is that the man should not die for whatever it is he is ultimately convicted of doing. Motivation is important in determinging both the underlying crime as well as sentencing. He will get his just desserts.
No one can bring poor Nick back. But we can love his family. We can feel the compassion for these poor people who have had to endure something most of us never even have nightmares about. And more importantly, we can also help to generate more loving, positive energy in our own lives by feeling compassion for the defendants and their families. We will not improve the world by killing them off. They are humans as well. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, we are all connected by this thing we call our heart.
To make your life better, does it really help to want to see others die? To watch them suffer? Are you really better off?
Would the victim’s family be any better off? Or would they benefit by feeling all our love and compassion, which would enable them to feel love and compassion for all others, including those who set out to hurt their son?
You, them, and I will be much better off if we focus our energies on love and compassion and redemption. Revenge in the form of killing them and destroying their families will only create more of the hateful energy that fills our planet.
Michael Mehas
Where was the love when Nick was killed? Where was the compassion when Jesse decided that the only way for him to servive was through the death of another? I do feel compassion for this poor man, to be in a position where you feel that murder is the only answer is a very sad thing, a lost soul. The pain he has caused his parents is beyond comprehension. I am sure they have had many sleepless nights wondering if his life played out the way it did because of something they did or did not do. The excuses he is using to shade the horror of what he has done is an attempt on his part to elicit sympathy but tell my why he deserves that? Because he is human and breaths air, what has he done since that night that has shown one ounce of respect for the innocent boy that he orchastrated the murder of? Everything he has done has been for self preservation. I realize that he was young at the time but I remember myself at 20 and I absolutely knew that cold blooded murder was wrong and even though I did things wrong I did have respect for the law and understood that there was consequences for my actions. He has yet to show respect for the law beginning with the first bag of pot he sold to the cowardice way he hid himself in another country leaving the people he called his friends to deal with this situation that he created. I understand that the death penelty is harsh and that its opponents say that it is not a determent to crime but what do you do with people who think the rules don’t apply to them? The only reason I think that the death penelty does not work as well as it could is because of the way it is enforced. But, make no mistake about it, I do have compassion and love for the people who are the victims’ of violent, self-centered, arrogant people who bring on these situations and then leave the loved ones to suffer through it. My family has been the ones to suffer and I can assure you there was no satisfaction, no joy, in any part of what we have endured. I hope that everyone in this situation is fairly judged and what- ever the circumstances were surrounding this act are argued vehemently in court and that the facts determine the outcome and that the deserving is punished with whatever punishment is just so that both society and the law are preserved.
Hello again, Stacey. I’m glad to feel the love and compassion flowing through you. Please, elaborate on what you mean by “My family has been the ones to suffer and I can assure you there was no satisfaction, no joy, in any part of what we have endured.” This information might help us to better understand your perspective.
Peace and Blessings,
Michael Mehas
Mr. Mehas,
I grew up in Torrance, California and have followed this case since late 2000. This story is tragic on so many levels. There are no winners here, not the Markowitz Family(sorry if that is not spelled right), Hollywood Family, nor any of the kids involved. Let’s face it, all of the parties involved were kids. Kids who did stupid things and were on the wrong track. While I think that it is important for a trial to decide Mr. Hollywood’s fate, I do not see how killing him, or Mr. Hoyt for that matter, is going to do any good. This is one of those crimes that is beyond comprehension because there were so many people that could have changed the outcome. If just one of the various parents, party goers, witnesses, or the kids themselves had reacted differently, we might be having a completely different conversation. We may never know that psychological processes that led these kids to think that this was rational but we owe it to society to try, and we cannot do that if these kids are killed. On another note, I think that you are an artist of sorts and there is a work-product issue here. I do not think that the court should be compelling you to give over information that was given to you in the process of making art. If you want to cooperate that is one thing but forcing any artist, be it writer, painter, producer, is not exactly ethical considering you were not a part of the actual crime, you just interviewed people who were involved.
My cousin was brutally murdered.
Stacey I am sorry for your loss. It may surprise you to learn that I was brutally raped and stabbed at the age of thirteen. The guy that raped me served four years of a twelve to fifteen your sentence and got out. It took him all of three months to re-offend. This time the girl was seventeen. As much as I have hoped that he got raped and violated in prison I know that hope is dangerous and poison. That line of thinking brings me too my rapist’s level. I did not make my comment to lesson what happened or too offend you. I know from my own experience that it is sometimes hard to be objective about things like this. I just dont think that we as a society should pay the violence forward. I do think that there should be some kind of punishment though.
Stacey and Heather, you have put into beautiful words and feelings something I probably could never even begin to touch upon. I thank you both very much for sharing your thoughts and emotions on such difficult and painful subject matter.
For me, as with the way I try to treat life, I work on what makes me feel good. I’ve mastered the art of generating pain for myself, and now I spend most of my energies toward trying to generate as much positive feeling as I can. I owe it to myself. But it’s a difficult job sometimes.
My happiest state, however, is when I feel joy and love and compassion and understanding toward all things. When I communicate at all times, on all levels, from the center of my heart, and not the fluctuations of my mind and ego.
My beliefs say that we are all interconnected creatures, and through this interconnectedness, we have the ability to make great change around us, as a whole.
That if we put our hearts and minds to the loving aspects of living and the things that bring us so much joy, we will continue to create more of these joyful loving situations for ourselves to experience.
So what might happen if we all begin to put our thoughts and our actions and our feelings and our words toward higher vibrating ideas? Like love. And hope. And compassion. And bliss. And life.
What if we stop judging others, and instead, we love them just like we would want to be loved in return? And then we wish them the very best life has to offer? What if we do this with everyone we ever meet or hear, and we do this with grace, despite the color of someone’s skin, the place of their worship, or the sins they might commit?
Then we send compassion to all, especially those that have hurt us the most. And we see if this doesn’t change the way we view the world around us.
By doing this, wouldn’t we help to create much of the same for ourselves in return? It sure seems that way to me. What you put into life, you get out of it.
We possess the inherent ability to change the nature of the collective reality that surrounds us. And we we should probably get going pretty soon, because they say time is running out.
I do not beleive that the death penelty should be an act of revenge and anyone that receives any sort of satisfaction from it is as lost as the condemned. We live in a world of millions and for the most part law- abiding millions with respect for others and the rules. We have to have those rules in order to live in harmony and when those rules are broken there has to be consequences. I beleive society fails most of the criminal element long before their first crime is committed and once they enter “the system” we fail them over and over again. Punishment in this country is out of control in the sense that it has no value. It is not working to correct the behavior of the offender who goes into the prison one person and comes out a person who is more dangerous than before. Criminals break the rules, go to jail, do nothing for the term of their sentence, some spending years confined and unproductive with no skills and no attempt to attain skills and then we release them out into a world where they go back to doing what they have always done. Since the dawn of time there has been those who break the laws of society and that will go on until the end of time, no matter how much love is in the world. The idea that love and compassion, bliss, hope…..can heal the ill’s of the world is a wonderfull concept but that is all it is. That has to start from day one in all our lives and unfortunatly there are people who give life to another and do not nurture, they abuse and neglect and raise there children in deplorable conditions and then they grow up and perpetuate that cycle and this has no regard to the color of ones skin or their geographical background. Even with the brutal murder of my cousin, I still beleive there is goodness in this world, but I also beleive there is evil and that does not make me an unloving person without compassion or hope. I am so receptive to what you are saying but I am also a realist and I know society can not exist without rules(laws) and when those are disobeyed we have to impose punishment and it is in that punishment that we should try and do the very best we can for each other but most importantly I beleive the victims of the crimes deserve the most love and compassion particularly when the crime is murder because they are the ones who have paid the ultimate price, and for what? In most of these cases, as in this case, the price paid was for nothing. Is this being judgemental? I beleive it is being human.
Mr. Mehas
Tell me everything you know about Jesse Rugge from you research. Or just enough to fill up a long post. Got no files on the guy, would be interested in reading it.
“Eye for an eye” renders both parties blind;
“Tooth for a tooth” renders both parties toothless; the end result is the gumming of mushed food blindly by both parties.