Posted on 07/14/2006 8:14:24 AM PDT by SmithL
Scott Dyleski's murder trial should be moved out of Contra Costa County because of a "media feeding frenzy" that has contaminated the jury pool, his attorney said in court documents made available Thursday.
Deputy Public Defender Ellen Leonida cited newspaper articles and television reports that referred to the "alleged 'Goth' lifestyle of Scott Dyleski" and the possibility of "occult connections to the crime," specifically the description by some media that a "Gothic symbol" was carved onto the back of slaying victim Pamela Vitale.
Vitale's husband, Daniel Horowitz, has been described as "well-known" and "prominent," drawing even more attention and further jeopardizing Dyleski's right to a fair trial, Leonida argued.
"The publicity surrounding this case has been substantial, inflammatory and continuous since the time of the crime," Leonida wrote. "It has significantly and substantially impacted the impartiality of the jury venire," she said, referring to the jury pool.
But in court papers filed in response, prosecutor Harold Jewett accused Leonida of "grossly exaggerating and mischaracterizing" the extent of pretrial publicity by padding her 64-page change-of-venue motion with duplicated headlines from sister newspapers.
Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga has not yet ruled on the motion to move the trial. Jury selection is to begin Monday.
Dyleski, 17, has pleaded not guilty to charges of special-circumstances murder and burglary in the Oct. 15 slaying of Vitale, who was his neighbor and the wife of Horowitz, a lawyer and legal analyst. Horowitz found his wife dead inside a mobile home not far from where they were building a home in Lafayette.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Scott Dyleski is accused of murdering Pamela Vitale.
Pamela and her husband, Daniel Horowitz, were living in a trailer on the site where their mansion was being built.
At that time, Horowitz was defending Susan Polk, who was on trial for murdering her husband, Felix Polk.
Polk later fired Horowitz, claiming that he confessed to her that he had a role in killing Vitale and framing Dyleski.
Good plot for a who-done-it novel !!! :-)
MARTINEZ - A Superior Court judge today denied a request to move the murder trial of Scott Dyleski out of Contra Costa County.
Judge Barbara Zuniga said she reviewed more than 200 newspaper accounts of the case and found that the reports reflected "actual proceedings in court" but did not contain material prejudicial to the defendant.
Dyleski, 17, is charged as an adult with murder and residential burglary in the October 2005 slaying of Pamela Vitale, a 48-year-old Lafayette woman who lived near him.
Zuniga heard arguments Thursday on the defense change of venue motion. A CSU Chico professor testified that an "exceeding" high number of county residents were familiar with the Dyleski case and that more than 60 percent had decided that he was guilty.
The judge said Friday that she placed "little weight" on Ross' study.
Jury selection the Dyleski trial is set to begin Monday.
Now, why can't this judge in CoCoCo get together with that judge in FL who can't find a jury for Jessica Lunsford's murder case against John Couey?
This is the difference in places where they have more high-profile murder cases, I guess.
I want justice for Pamela Vitale because she seemed like a nice lady and was a totally innocent victim. It was difficult to put aside my abhorrence for her husband, but I did feel a twinge of pity for him when he showed his raw emotions to the world via the medium he had tried so hard to curry favor with.
This is a case I wanted to follow because I couldn't comprehend the inner workings of the defendant's mind - what triggered this killing. So many people were saying what a nice kid he was, in spite of the appearances of things - his looks, his lifestyle.
However, after the prelim, I totally lost interest, because the questions I had were pretty much answered, except the "why." The "how" was always nebulous, just because of the people who said they saw him in the referenced timeframe - and we didn't really know the exact timeframe when this started.
The mystery has kind of gone out of it for me, so now I'll keep up with any major highlights, as time permits. Thanks for posting about it.
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