Girlfriend says Dyleski discussed methods of murder

MARTINEZ - Scott Dyleski's former girlfriend testified Monday that she, Dyleski and two friends talked about methods of murder after they learned that someone had been killed in Dyleski's neighborhood on Oct. 15, 2005.

"We were talking about killing somebody," said 18-year-old Jena Reddy. "If you want to feel more pain, either bludgeon them or beat them."

Reddy finished her testimony for the prosecution in the trial of Dyleski, 17, charged with murder and burglary in the killing of Lafayette resident Pamela Vitale, who was bludgeoned to death in her home on Oct. 15, 2205.

Dyleski has pleaded not guilty and his attorney says he was at home at the time of the death.

Reddy, who testified last week that the couple inflicted pain on each other and hypothetically spoke about torturing people, answered questions so quietly that audience members had to lean forward to hear her testimony until the clerk increased the microphone level.

In the courtroom audience, Vitale's daughter placed her arm around the victim's sister, who wept at one point during the morning testimony.

During the conversation the night of Vitale's death, Dyleski said it would take either 36 or 39 bludgeoning "whacks" to kill a person, Reddy said.

Later, after his arrest, Reddy said she went to Bolinas where his mother, Esther Fielding was staying, to bring her some belongings that he had left at Reddy's home. Reddy said she did not know why Dyleski had been arrested, and that arrangements for her to deliver his belongings had been made by her parents and Fielding.

When Reddy saw Dyleski the night of the killing, his hands, arm and wrist were swollen and scratched, Reddy said. He told her a man had stopped his car near where he was walking and a woman in the passenger seat reached over and grabbed him while he talked to the driver.

In response to questions from deputy public defender Ellen Leonida, Reddy acknowledged that Dyleski spoke about serial killers, but not on a daily basis, nor did he say he wanted to be one.

She also said that the topic of removing people's organs came up between her and many of her friends, including Scott, only as a joke, she said.

Reddy said the couple had joked about eating children, but acknowledged that their conversations were ridiculous and she never intended to eat a baby. Reddy said she once was a counselor at a summer camp for children.

Dyleski and Reddy's sadomasochistic sexual relationship never went beyond scratching, biting and punching each other in the arm.

"Is there anything else you would do you considered sadomasochistic?" Leonida asked.

The couple sometimes talked about God, Satan, good and evil, Reddy said in response to deputy district attorney Harold Jewett's re-examination questions.

"He and I used to have conversations regarding God and the devil," Reddy said. "At the time, he believed that neither were necessarily good or evil."

Conversations she had with Dyleski about religion were typical of discussions she had with other friends, Reddy said in response to Leonida's cross-examination.

A former housemate of the home where Dyleski lived testified that the teenager arrived home shortly before 11 a.m. the morning of Vitale's death with deep, fresh gouge marks on his cheeks and nose.

"He said he walked into a bush," said Michael Sikkema, as Dyleski took notes on a yellow pad.

Another housemate testified he overheard Dyleski express his concern to Reddy that investigators may find his DNA on Vitale.

"I wanted to see if they were joking," said David Curiel, the brother of the homeowner, Fred Curiel. "I sat back down and tried to compose myself, because he wasn't joking."

Curiel recognized a black glove, long enough to cover a forearm, which investigators had found in an abandoned van outside his home. It contained DNA matching Vitale and Dyleski.

Curiel had moved into Dyleski's room after Dyleski's arrest, he said. He opened Dyleski's former dresser in late January and found papers that included names, birth dates and financial information.

An attached note included a list: knockout/kidnap, question, keep captive to confirm PINS, dirty work, dispose of evidence, cut up and bury.

I missed this posting last night - have been hoping to see what happened today, whether Esther remembered to come to court.

This "39 blows" has been aggravating to me, because I can't imagine that Jena heard that or knew that on Saturday evening - unless, of course, Scott really did say it - bursting inside to tell someone what he had done that morning, but not really wanting to, of course, knowing the consequences.

The newspeople reported "39 blows" on 10/20/05. I couldn't find or confirm any earlier articles that stated that. Scott had been arrested the night before, on the evening of 10/19. Unless I missed him "confessing," I'm really really curious to know where "39 blows" came from originally. Scott or LE?

The ME later released info that there had been 26 blows to Pamela's head. That is just to her head, and she was beaten many other places on her body, so perhaps there really were 39 blows total - but only Scott would know that.

If, indeed, he was counting the blows, 1 *wham*, 2 *wham*, 3 *bam* - that's bizarre enough in itself, but since he *is* bizarre, then I want to know what the "39" signified. When they re-asked Jena about her testimony of "36 or 39" blows and she said she didn't know for sure if he said "36," I took it to mean she *did* remember the specific number "39."

So, does that number have some kind of significance? Especially to Scott. If so, that's one more nail in the coffin, so to speak. It doesn't escape one's attention that when Jena said "36," one newspaper reported it as "three dozen."

The number "39" is a multiple of "13," what we know as an unlucky number - also the number of Judas Iscariot among Jesus's apostles, so it was "three 13's". I hope some other explanation of this comes out in the testimony.

But what's especially spooky is that he had repeated the Lizzie Borden rhyme that night. "Lizzie Borden took an ax -and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41."

OK - why "39" then? One less than Lizzie's "40" - why? Scott claimed to know how many blows it would take to kill someone and cause them to die agonizingly and painfully.

Did he think "39" blows wouldn't kill Pamela? He didn't "leave her for dead," he knew she was, when he stabbed her in the abdomen and carved on her back.

I'm just blown away (oops, didn't mean to pun) by this guy's cruelty and total inhumanity.

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