Ball Field Was Common Ground for 4 Suspects

WEST HILLS —  Eight years ago, the four of them played together as boys on the fields of the Westhills Baseball league. Now three of them are in custody in the kidnapping and execution of a 15-year-old. And the fourth, Jesse James Hollywood, is wanted in the same case.

The victim’s older brother--who detectives said owed drug money to one of the suspects--also played for the league at the same time.

Nicholas Markowitz is dead, shot nine times execution-style in what authorities describe as the violent end to an Aug. 6 kidnapping meant to pressure his older half-brother, Benjamin Markowitz, 22, to pay money he allegedly owed for marijuana.

Authorities have arrested three men on suspicion of kidnapping, murder and conspiracy: Ryan James Hoyt, 21, of Pacoima; William R. Skidmore, 20, of Simi Valley; Jesse Taylor Rugge, 20, of Santa Barbara; and a 17-year-old juvenile from Goleta. Hollywood, 20, of West Hills, was still at large Thursday.

In 1992, these same names read innocently in the black and white pages of the Westhills Baseball league yearbook. Hollywood, Hoyt and Rugge were on the same team for 12-year-olds, the Pirates. Hollywood’s father, Jack, was their coach. Skidmore played on a rival team, the Dodgers, according to the yearbook.

The boys also played together the year before, with Hollywood and Skidmore on the same team.

Hollywood went on to play junior varsity baseball at El Camino Real High School, where Hoyt was also a student. Hollywood’s coach, Bob Ganssle, remembers him as “an emotional kid” who was later asked to leave the school after he insulted the principal.

“Let’s just say his behavior was . . . very extreme and out of line,” Ganssle said. “He was not a kickback kind of kid. He was an aggressive kid, potentially volatile emotionally, but not beyond the point of reason most of the time.”

Hollywood transferred to Calabasas High School, where he joined the baseball team, said Calabasas Coach Rick Nathanson.

“He did very well,” Nathanson said, adding that Hollywood played on his 1997 squad. “He wasn’t a problem at all.”

Jack Hollywood said Thursday that he has not spoken to his son recently.

“I don’t know what’s happened,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of him. I haven’t been able to talk to him in a long time.”

In the past, some of the suspects have had run-ins with police. Last year, Hollywood was charged with resisting arrest, according to detectives from the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department. Skidmore, who was known to police as “Capone,” was convicted three times in recent years, twice for being under the influence of a controlled substance and once for resisting arrest, authorities said.

Rugge was convicted of a 1996 felony, carrying a concealed knife on school grounds. Earlier this year, he was convicted of driving under the influence, officials said.

Hoyt--whom detectives believe pulled the trigger--has no criminal record, authorities said.

News of the arrests stunned West Hills parents who had known the young men as children in the affluent PONY baseball league, where highly involved parents donate countless volunteer hours.

George Cliffords, who coached all the boys, said parents have been trying to reconcile memories of the smiling ballplayers who once shared dugouts with their sons with their alleged roles in a horrific slaying.

“It’s on everybody’s lips, but no one can say what happened after they were about 12 or 13 years old,” Cliffords said. “If you’re going to ask me, did I see something that indicated things would go this way, I have to say no.”

Frank Leonor, a league official, said, “I remember Skidmore the most. He was the nicest one of the whole group. I would say Hollywood was really extroverted. He was a leader. Skidmore would be more of a follower.

“I’m getting sick,” he added. “These boys are the same age as mine. I’m looking at this situation and counting my blessings again.”

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DETAILS REVEALED

Santa Barbara County sheriff described events leading to teen’s slaying. B1