Posted on 07/17/2006 10:30:05 AM PDT by SmithL
LAFAYETTE - Pamela Vitale was planning the installation of cabinets and floors for her dream mansion in October.
"She had never had her own house," said her daughter, Marisa. "We always lived in apartments. She wanted it to be like an Italian villa."
Just down the street from the new home's site in the rural, wooded hills of Lafayette, a 16-year-old neighbor, Scott Dyleski, was stealing credit card information to purchase marijuana-growing equipment, his close friend has testified.
Prosecutors say Vitale, 52, crossed paths with the teenager Oct. 15 when he entered the modular home at the mansion's construction site where she and her husband, Daniel Horowitz, were living. Horowitz arrived in the early evening to find his wife's lifeless body, bludgeoned and stabbed, in a house torn apart by a violent fight.
Jury selection in Dyleski's trial is set to begin today in Superior Court in Martinez. Now 17, the teenager is charged as an adult with murder, residential robbery and the special circumstance of murder during a robbery, making him eligible for life in prison without parole.
Since his Oct. 19 arrest, he has made no statements to investigators. His only public responses have been to judges in Superior Court, where he has said he is not guilty of the crimes.
The investigation
Television news stations got word of the killing early that Saturday evening. Media from across the nation sent reporters to cover the mysterious death of the wife of Horowitz, known for giving legal commentary in high-profile cases, such as the Scott Peterson murder trial.
Three days passed after Vitale's death without any arrests, leaving TV news crews huddling in the rain in the Contra Costa County sheriff's parking lot, waiting for any kind of information.
Media scrutiny at first focused on a neighbor who lived on a trailer adjacent to the property. Horowitz had filed a restraining order against him, accusing him of having violent behavior.
Investigators, however, ruled him out as a suspect and, three days after Vitale's death, announced the arrest of Dyleski.
They had learned about him from a close friend, Robin Croen, whose testimony at a February preliminary hearing gave details of how investigators connected Vitale's death to the teenager.
In the months before Vitale's slaying, the two friends had started purchasing marijuana-growing equipment, according to Croen's testimony. They were using credit card numbers stolen from the trash cans of Dyleski's neighbors.
One of the companies denied a purchase. Croen testified that the day before Vitale's death, Dyleski told him that he would take care of the situation.
Within days after the killing, Dyleski told Croen they should confess to their credit card scheme. He also said he was worried that investigators might find his DNA on Vitale's body.
Dyleski told his friend that he had seen Vitale on a trail in the woods and that she grabbed his arm. It later turned out that the teenager expressed the same concern to his housemates.
Croen and his father, worried Croen could be in trouble, approached a local law firm of defense attorneys who were once seasoned county prosecutors. The attorneys notified investigators who used Croen's information to arrest Dyleski, his close friend.
After the arrest, investigators continued to uncover evidence against Dyleski. They found purchasing statements for the growing equipment with Vitale's address.
Dyleski had been in Juvenile Hall for three months when a new housemate moved into his former bedroom and found a list describing how to obtain personal identification numbers. It included, "Knock out/kidnap," "Keep captive to confirm PINS," "Dirty work," and "Cut up and bury."
Investigators testified at the preliminary hearing that they matched Vitale's and Dyleski's DNA with blood found on clothes, including a ski mask and gloves, stuffed in a van outside the property where Dyleski had been living.
The prosecution laid out much of the evidence against Dyleski at February's preliminary hearing.
A grand jury also heard evidence, including the testimony of Dyleski's girlfriend. She had declined to speak with investigators, but deputy district attorney Harold Jewett said in court documents that she told grand jurors about a "very, very dark aspect" of the couple's relationship. Jewett, citing a gag order in the case, declined to say whether she has been subpoenaed to testify at trial.
Defendant and victim
Dyleski's arrest astounded his friends. Many who knew him described the teenager as sensitive, creative in his artwork and writings.
"I am sorry if people think Scott did this, but it is just not like him," said Alexis Constantouros, a sophomore at Acalanes High School who was a classmate before Dyleski enrolled at Diablo Valley College.
Adults viewed him as mature.
"That young man seemed like the most balanced, patient young man," said Lisa Mayeda, a leader in Dyleski's Boy Scout troop.
However, acquaintances also said that the car crash death of his half-sister in 2002 devastated him. He started wearing dark clothing in the "Goth" style. He and his mother were living in a home they shared with other families -- more than 10 people in all -- in Hunsaker Canyon.
His housemates said he helped the children get dressed in the morning and played with them.
Vitale's death shocked her family and friends, who knew her as a world-traveler motivated in her work and dedicated to her family and friends.
As a single mother, she graduated from UCLA film school. She worked her way from an entry-level clerk at Hewlett-Packard in Los Angeles to the director of management information systems, her daughter said. She moved her family to the Bay Area in 1993 and worked for Pacific Telesis and later for high-tech company Informix as a business development director.
A short time later, a mutual friend introduced her to Horowitz. In 1994, the couple married.
In 2003, she left Informix and spent all of her time helping her husband's law practice and overseeing the construction of their new home, on property where they had lived in a modular home for more than a decade.
"Our hearts are torn out of our chests every time we come out here," said Phil Cardiasmenos, a construction coordinator who supervised the completion of her home.
In the summer of 2005, Cardiasmenos went to an East Bay hospital after falling ill from a brain infection. He lost his ability to speak and fell in and out of consciousness. Hospital officials placed the 58-year-old in the ward for Alzheimer's patients, waiting for him to die, Cardiasmenos said.
For three months, he said, Vitale visited him each day. After arguing with hospital management, she finally convinced them to release her friend to another hospital. Within two days he was diagnosed with encephalitis.
"I would have died at the end of September, except for Pamela," he said.
In early October, he left the hospital.
"Two weeks after that, Pamela was murdered," he said.
Fry the little s**T!
I wonder if prosecutors have thoroughly looked into the husband's finances,gambling,girlfriends,boyfriends,life insurance,etc.
Especially after Susan Polk claimed that Horowitz admitted to her, that he had a role in killing Vitale and framing Dyleski. I'm hoping Dyleski calls her as a character witness.
IMO,a frameup...or this kid having been recruited by the husband...is far from impossible.
And,for the record,one should add drinking/drug history to the list of things the prosecutor could have checked on the husband.
ping
I forgot about this one.
Polk is a nutcase and craves attention so much that she made that up to try to insert herself into Pamela's case. She took some remark Horowitz made and twisted into what she told others.
As much as Daniel disgusts me, I do not believe he had anything to do with Pamela's murder. It was Dyleski all the way, IMHO.
Yeah, she's the one, and she was convicted of 2nd degree murder of her husband, Felix. I've included keyword SusanPolk if you want more history. Her son was absolutely correct when he testified that she was "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs."
The spouse is ALWAYS the very first suspect in a murder case, especially when it involves celebrity. Horowitz has been under the microscope - especially after Polk made her charges. Prosecutors also seem extremely satisfied with their case against Dyleski. Other than Polk's claims, there has not been any evidence whatsoever that Dyleski was framed.
Sometimes, there are grand conspiracies, and sometimes, it's just simple:
Susan Polk murdered Felix Polk.
Scott Dyleski murdered Pamela Vitale.
Yes,that's certainly possible.And you're far closer to this case than am I...geographically,for sure.
But I do wonder if the cops/prosecutor has offered the kid or his lawyer any kind of deal.A deal like "hey,we know the kid did it but we don't think he acted alone.If the kid fully cooperates with us,we're prepared to be very flexible".
The kid's lawyer would know the meaning of such an offer.Once made,they just wait and see what,if any,reply they get.The kid might have a (truthful) tale to tell.
(07-17) 18:09 PDT Martinez, Calif. (AP) --
One hundred prospective jurors summoned to Contra Costa Superior Court on Monday were asked if they could devote five weeks to the trial of a teenager accused of killing the wife of television legal analyst Daniel Horowitz.
Jury selection got underway in Scott Dyleski's murder trial with Judge Barbara Zuniga questioning county residents to see if how many had valid reasons to be excused from service. Another 100 people were scheduled to appear on Tuesday for a similar "hardship" review, according to Bill Darden, the court's assistant executive officer.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers expect to start interviewing potential jurors on Wednesday as they work to pick a panel of 12 jurors and four alternates, Darden said. If they are unable to agree on enough from this week's pool, they will repeat the process next week, he said.
The trial is scheduled to begin on July 31.
Dyleski, 17, who is being tried as an adult, has pleaded not guilty to bludgeoning Pamela Vitale, 52, to death with a piece of crown molding in her home Oct. 15.
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