Posted on 10/27/2005 5:28:04 PM PDT by smartin
Oct. 27 - ABC7 has confirmed that the mother of the prime suspect in the murder of a prominent East Bay Attorney's wife, is also under arrest.
Scott Dyleski's mother, Esther Fielding, was arrested this afternoon as an accessory to murder after the fact. She is being held at county jail in Martinez on $500,000 dollars bail.
Stay with abc7news.com for more information on this developing story as it becomes available.
Scott Dyleski Appears In Court
The 16-year-old accused of killing the wife of a prominent defense attorney and television commentator went to his girlfriend's house to have sex in the hours after the murder, according to investigators.
Scott Dyleski appeared behind a protective glass barrier during a brief court hearing Thursday. He did not enter a plea.
Also Thursday, Contra Costa County Judge David B. Flinn issued a temporary gag order until a Nov. 10 hearing, after attorneys on both sides sought to keep the case out of the media spotlight.
Contra Costa County sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said he received more than 200 media calls about the case on one day last week.
Dyleski is charged with first-degree murder as an adult in the death of Pamela Vitale, the wife of Daniel Horowitz.
Horowitz was a popular legal pundit who received national attention for his commentary during the double-murder trial of Scott Peterson, convicted last November of murdering his pregnant wife.
In a move guaranteed to bring the case even more attention, Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred has been retained by an unidentified witness in the case.
On the night of Oct. 15, Dyleski was at a friend's house with his girlfriend, according to an affidavit filed Tuesday in support of a search warrant for the girlfriend's Walnut Creek house.
After about an hour, the couple left for the girlfriend's house "in order to have sex," the affidavit said. Before he left, Dyleski called his mother, who told him to spend the night in Walnut Creek. She said the road was blocked because of "police activity within the area," the affidavit said.
Dyleski was arrested Oct. 19, four days after the killing. Vitale's body was found in a mobile home on the Lafayette estate where she and husband were building their 7,000 square-foot dream home.
Horowitz, who was defending Susan Polk, a woman accused of killing her husband, came home around 6 p.m. on Oct. 15 to find his wife's body. He called 911 to report the murder, according to authorities. Vitale had been beaten and stabbed, investigators said.
Dyleski was arrested after police received a tip from a neighbor who said his credit card was stolen, which led detectives to Dyleski. The credit card was allegedly used to buy hydroponic growing equipment -- often used to cultivate marijuana -- that was scheduled for delivery to the Horowitz residence, according to police documents.
Investigators believe Dyleski went to the home looking for the equipment and got in a fight with Vitale, an investigative source who requested anonymity told the San Francisco Chronicle last week.
In the Tuesday affadavit, a Contra Costa County Sheriff's detective said he was looking for a murder weapon "that could cause blunt force trauma," blood samples, hair fibers, a stabbing instrument, among other evidence.
The affidavit said investigators seized a duffel bag from a vehicle at Dyleski's house that contained clothing items and a glove, both with traces of blood.
"It appears as though some clothing items are still missing, as well as the stabbing instrument believed to have been used in the commission of the crime," Detective Cary Goldberg wrote.
Meantime, Dyleski's lawyer, Thomas McKenna, asked the judge Thursday to remove him from the case. He said neither Dyleski nor the suspect's father wants him on the case. McKenna defended the driver of a car that killed Scott Dyleski's half-sister and another passenger in 2002.
"He understands I need to withdraw from the case," McKenna said of his client. The case was temporarily assigned to the public defender's office.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Just sick. But the California penal system will surely take care of this kid, right?
He can't get the death penalty. He is eligible for 26 years to life.
Could there be a love triangle since Horowitz knew the family quite well.
Exactly what you would do after commiting a murder . . . if you were a typical teenager growing up in Kalifornia.
Who has that "Not This Shit Again" picture. This business of witnesses seeking out attorneys (or probably more precisely attorneys seeking out witnesses) is an outrageous gumming up of the works of a very-gummed-up judicial system.
Don't think so. One poster, Rte66, has looked into the background of all involved and that is not what that poster has found.
See these posts:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1506631/posts
She now represents all the girlfriends of murderers if he is found to be the murderer.
There is a theory that there is relief after a person kills.
Well,thats the LAST time he will be having sex for awhile--
With a WOMAN,that is!
OOH, that is so . . . judgmental.
I think that Horowitz should do the honorable thing and take over as Dyleski's attorney. Since Horowitz made his fortune defending murderers, its only right that he defend the person accused of murdering his wife - and pro bono at that!
Big conflict of interest.
How so? 16 year old running free, into Goth, a Mother who appears to have abetted the crime and so many other clues in the article would logically lead one to that conclusion IMJO.
On top of that, the kid and his mother had been living in a lean-to on the property for several years before the owner of the property built a house and all the people who lived on the land moved into it. Mom did something called "remote DNA healing" for a living. I think "dysfunctional" is putting it mildly.
Yeah like that's gonna happen.
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