Police Link West Hills Teen’s Killing to Brother’s Drug Debt

SANTA BARBARA —  A 15-year-old West Hills boy was shot execution style as he lay bound and gagged in a shallow grave near here because his older brother allegedly had not paid a $36,000 debt to a drug dealer, authorities said Thursday.

Santa Barbara County sheriff’s investigators arrested four people Wednesday and are seeking a fifth in the slaying of Nicholas Markowitz, who was shot nine times in the head and torso last week in the mountains north of Santa Barbara.

Four of the five suspects--ages 17 to 21--had played together in Westhills Baseball, a youth league, years ago, and they allegedly kidnapped Markowitz from their old neighborhood Aug. 6 to pressure the boy’s older half-brother, Benjamin, 22, to pay money he allegedly owed for marijuana.

The boy was killed, authorities said, after the older brother--who did not know his sibling was a hostage--went into hiding because of repeated death threats and did not return phone calls.

The younger Markowitz’s assailants concluded they would face long prison sentences for kidnapping if the younger brother survived, officials said.

“This is one of those [things] that you just shake your head at,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Thomas told reporters. “The fact that these young people were involved in this kind of violence always amazes me. . . . They were all boyhood friends who used to play ball [together].”

Investigators suggested that the boy’s death might have been avoided if five teenagers who saw him over two days while he was held hostage at a Santa Barbara home had called police.

“A parade of juveniles . . . saw the captive child,” Det. Fred Olguin said. “I believe they never thought it would end like this.”

Detectives broke the case after one of the teenagers, a girl, saw news reports of the death and called an attorney, who notified police.

Arrested and jailed without bail pending arraignment on kidnapping, murder and conspiracy charges were 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. A fifth suspect, Jesse James Hollywood, 20, of West Hills is at large.

Barron Rugge, the father of one of the suspects, told The Times that the Markowitz boy stayed in Rugge’s Santa Barbara home for two days and nights before his death, and said he appeared to be there willingly and in need of a place to stay.

“I thought Nick was up here visiting,” said Rugge, 49, who manages a biological science greenhouse at UC Santa Barbara. “When I saw him, I saw him to just say ‘hi, and yeah, you can stay here if you want.’ ”

The next day, Barron Rugge saw the boy again, just hanging out with his son, Jesse, watching television. “There was no threat. If the kid felt he was in danger he would have said so.”

But it became clear after Jesse Rugge’s arrest, Barron Rugge said, that his son had witnessed a murder. “It is a nightmare,” the father said. “Hoyt did it, from what Jesse said. He was flipping out and said [to Hoyt], ‘What are you doing?’ And [Hoyt] just plugged him. It was Hoyt, and Hollywood put him up to it.”

Authorities said they, too, think Hoyt fired the fatal shots in rapid succession from a 9 mm semiautomatic Tech-9 handgun. They said that only Hoyt, Rugge and the juvenile suspect took Markowitz to the mountain campsite where he was killed, and that Hoyt and the juvenile dug the grave. But they said all five suspects were involved in the crime.

Authorities said Benjamin Markowitz told them that Hollywood was the dealer he owed for drugs. The older Markowitz is cooperating with authorities, they said, and is not in custody.

Authorities also said Skidmore was with Rugge and Hollywood when they rented a van and went hunting for the older Markowitz--who was in hiding because of death threats--on the afternoon of Aug. 6.

In midafternoon, they saw the younger brother not far from his home, authorities said. So they took him to the Rugge house and kept him calm by giving him marijuana and Valium, Thomas said. Juveniles who saw Nicholas said he took the drugs willingly, according to the sheriff.

It’s not clear whether the boy was ever bound or physically held at the home. During the days he walked freely around the house, but was never alone, investigators said.

“[Rugge’s] parents were in and out of the home during that time,” Thomas said. “They just didn’t pay any attention to the kid or the other kids.”

By the morning of Aug. 8, Markowitz’s parents had reported their son missing to Los Angeles police. He had disappeared for one night before, but not for two, authorities said.

The same day, Rugge and the juvenile suspect took the boy to the Lemon Tree Hotel on State Street in Santa Barbara, where Hoyt joined them. Hoyt and the juvenile suspect drove alone to the Lizard’s Mouth campground 12 miles north of Santa Barbara to dig the grave, Thomas said.

They returned to the hotel to pick up Rugge and the boy, who, the sheriff said, was gagged with duct tape and had his hands bound behind him at the campground. Then they laid the boy in his grave, shot him and buried the handgun and shell casings with him, the sheriff said.

Hoyt later told others that killing wasn’t so hard, Thomas said. “Rugge got physically ill after the shooting,” the sheriff said. “Hoyt thought it wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be.” The juvenile, meanwhile, waited in the car, and heard the gunshots, according to the sheriff.

Neither Skidmore nor Hollywood was there, authorities said.

Hikers, noticing a stench, found the body three days later. And this Tuesday, a teenager’s attorney tipped off the sheriff, leading to the four arrests Wednesday.

Meanwhile, relatives of the suspects said they don’t know what to make of the situation.

Florinda Skidmore, who neighbors said lived near the dead boy in West Hills until five years ago, said she could hardly speak she was so upset.

“We are in shock, just in shock,” she said. “It’s all very, very upsetting. We love our son. I’m still in a daze.”

Barron Rugge said he had spoken to his son three times since he was arrested Wednesday morning.

“I’m a little emotionally crushed,” he said. “He’s been a great kid. He just got messed up with the wrong people. . . .”

Jesse Rugge had dropped out of San Marcos High School and lived part time with his mother in West Hills, Barron Rugge said. The youth had been living with his father and stepmother, Melissa, an office worker, for the last six months.

The Rugges’ neighbors vouched for them, much as the Skidmores’ neighbors in Simi Valley had described them as a good family Wednesday after William Skidmore’s arrest.

There are always teenagers around the house, but they are clean-cut and don’t even play their music loud, neighbors said.

Donny Cram, who lives next-door, said Jesse Rugge never did anything wrong that he knew of.

“He looked like a normal kid,” Cram said. “He had a shaved head, which could be a skater look, but not a gangbanger look.”

Melissa Rugge is active in her church, and her husband is noted for his way with plants. Neighbor Sally Franz said she went to Calvary Chapel events with Melissa Rugge, and that she had played guitar and sung Christian songs on Franz’s weekend radio program.

“They’re both really hard-working. They get up early. They work late. They’re good people. It’s sad to hear of their problem,” Franz said.

In West Hills, the mother of the slain boy was trying to makes sense of the loss of one son and the drug troubles of her stepson that were the apparent catalyst for Nick’s death.

Susan Markowitz said there were no signs of trouble with either.

She said she had no idea Ben was involved with drugs, but did not dispute police reports about his involvement in drug trafficking.

“I trust that the investigators know what they are talking about,” Susan Markowitz said.

Nor did she know the young men suspected of killing Nick. “I haven’t a clue who they are.”

She said she felt for the parents of the young suspects.

“I wouldn’t want to be the parents of the person that took my baby’s life,” Susan Markowitz said. “I would not be able to live with myself. My situation is better than theirs.”

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Times staff writers Anna Gorman, Zanto Peabody, Sue Fox, Lee Condon and Times Community News reporters Catherine Blake and Katie Cooper contributed to this report.

* PLAYGROUND MATES

Suspects played in the same baseball league. B11