Did movie 'Alpha Dog' influence witnesses?

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 1 (UPI) -- An attorney for a former California drug dealer on trial in the killing of a teenager says the movie "Alpha Dog" influenced some witness testimony.

Jesse James Hollywood is accused of ordering the kidnap-slaying of Nicholas Markowitz,15, because the boy's older half-brother owed Hollywood $1,200 for drugs.

Defense attorney Alex Kessel claimed prosecution witnesses had been influenced by inaccurate depictions in "Alpha Dog," the 2007 film based on Hollywood's case, and by sensational media accounts, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

Kessel called the prosecution's evidence "manufactured" and said some of the witnesses had given different testimony in earlier hearings, the Times said.

He also told the jury in closing arguments that began Tuesday his client, who testified he made $10,000 a month as a marijuana dealer, had no reason to kill because of a $1,200 debt. Arguments were to continue Wednesday.

Four men have been convicted in the killing of Markowitz, who was abducted on a street near his home in 2000 and held in Santa Barbara for three days before being shot to death and buried at a hiking area.

Hollywood, 29, fled after the killing and was arrested in Brazil five years later. He faces a possible death sentence.