Accomplice on the Stand

Cool, calm and collected, Graham Pressley-one of three conspirators thus far convicted in the murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz-sat on the stand for three days as he fielded questions first from prosecutor Josh Lynn and then defense counsel Alex Kessel, who is representing Jesse James Hollywood, alleged to have kidnapped and then ordered the murder of Markowitz in August 2000. Hollywood is potentially facing the death penalty if found guilty of Markowitz’s kidnapping and murder.

Pressley, the most significant witness to date, recounted the events leading up to and following the murder of Markowitz almost a decade ago. He was clearly a different Pressley than the 17-year-old boy who appeared in an interview videotaped in 2000 and played in court Friday and Monday, in which he could often be seen rubbing his face and scratching his scalp. “If I’ve got one hand going, it’s nervous,” recalled a wide-eyed, soft-spoken Pressley upon viewing the tape of his younger self. “If I got both going, it’s really nervous.”

He recounted being intoxicated and terrified when Ryan Hoyt, who was later convicted for shooting Markowitz to death, made Pressley direct him to Lizard’s Mouth, a hiking area in the foothills above Santa Barbara, and forced Pressley to dig a shallow grave there. At that point, Pressley said, he thought the grave he was digging was his own because of what he knew about the alleged kidnapping. (The defense is attempting to show it wasn’t a kidnapping, and that Markowitz was free to leave at any time.) Yet Pressley didn’t think about trying to fight Hoyt or even running away, he said.