Posted on 08/16/2006 10:05:24 AM PDT by SmithL
MARTINEZ - Pamela Vitale's blood was found on a face mask, a glove and a bag holding the items which investigators found in an abandoned van outside Scott Dyleski's home, a DNA expert testified Tuesday.
None of Dyleski's DNA was found under Vitale's fingernails and none of Vitale's DNA was found on Dyleski's knife, said Contra Costa County Crime Lab DNA analyst David Stockwell. Dyleski's mother had turned over the knife to police.
Stockwell testified in the trial of Dyleski, 17, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and burglary in Vitale's Oct. 15, 2005, killing. Prosecutors say he killed her as part of a scheme to steal financial information and purchase marijuana-growing equipment.
A detective also testified that he timed the walk from Vitale's home to the van to take 10 minutes. Under the prosecution's theory, that would leave Dyleski less than 35 minutes to kill and return home by 10:45 a.m. when a housemate saw him.
Stockwell analyzed samples of blood from a bag of clothes Dyleski's mother, Esther Fielding, had testified belonged to her son. He estimated that DNA on the glove, for instance, matched Vitale's profile and that only one out of 13 quadrillion Caucasian females would have the same profile.
Dyleski's bag and shoes also had Vitale's blood reflecting similar statistics, Stockwell testified.
The single link to Dyleski's DNA at the crime scene came from blood found on the bottom of Vitale's foot.
Stockwell said he found traces of blood on the bottom of her foot that provided a possible match to Dyleski, but one out of 43,000 Caucasian males could have the same DNA profile.
Since Stockwell analyzed a mixture of female and male DNA from the blood on her foot, he said he used a testing method that extracts the male DNA but provides less precision in estimates.
Prosecutor Harold Jewett said in his opening statement that Vitale kicked Dyleski in the mouth while defending herself.
What appeared to be blood was found on Dyleski's folding knife. Stockwell said he was able to determine that blood was not Vitale's but unable to say whether it was Dyleski's.
On cross-examination, Stockwell testified that one of the samples from the inside of the glove containing smaller traces of DNA does not match the defendant.
"The . . . profile does not match Mr. Dyleski, true," he said in response to deputy public defender Ellen Leonida's question.
Contra Costa County Sheriff's Detective Jason Barnes testified earlier that it took him about 10 minutes to walk from Vitale's house to the van outside Dyleski's home.
Jewett said in his opening statement that Dyleski attacked Vitale at 10:12 a.m. because she did a final Internet search at that time. Kim Curiel, a housemate, testified he walked in the door at 10:45 that morning.
Barnes' estimate gives Dyleski less than 35 minutes to kill Vitale, get to the van, change his clothes and get back home.
Leonida has said Dyleski was home earlier, at 9:26 a.m.. She relied on Curiel's husband, Fred, who previously testified to seeing Dyleski at that time, but who at trial said he was no longer certain.
Contra Costa County Sheriff's Detective Joseph Moore testified earlier that much of the teenager's artwork depicting dark, emaciated figures with gloomy themes were school assignments.
Jewett has presented Dyleski's drawings, sketches and poetry to try to show the jury that the teenager possessed morbid thoughts relating to killing and torture.
On Monday, Moore had provided a narration to the jury as Jewett projected an exhibit of about 30 pieces of artwork along with some writing which Moore found in Dyleski's bedroom.
Moore said under Leonida's cross-examination Tuesday that at least 10 of Dyleski's drawings, sketches and writings came from class work, accompanied with teachers' praise and grades.
"Looks like a teacher's comment?" asked Leonida, referring to a remark written on a page.
"Correct," Moore said.
Dyleski sat at the defendant's desk, with his hands in his lap, watching the witness, as he heard his poetry read aloud in response to Jewett re-direct examination.
Sentences in his poems described images, but each poem in its entirety offered an abstract, if any, meaning. Sentences varied from potentially incriminating to obscure.
"Liberating infant boys with a baseball bat," Moore read from a poem entitled "Malice."
"Thoughtful kisses breed hallucinogenic flowers," he read several lines later.
Jewett told Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga he expects to the forensic pathologist who conducted Vitale's autopsy to testify Wednesday and then rest his case. Leonida said she plans to start her defense case Thursday.
Ping
What relationship does Dyleski have to Vitale? I've forgotten...
I think he's a neighbor.
Scott D meet Scott P......
Um Buh Bye.
He killed her. Before that, he was a distant neighbor, down the canyon road from Pamela's and Daniel's house.
It's possible she attended the community "barn-raising" of the straw-bale house that the Curiels built, where Scott and his mother, Esther Fielding, lived with the Curiel family, but no one knows for sure.
They weren't family or neighborhood friends, but Daniel had done some free legal work for Kim Curiel, his friends said at the time of Dyleski's arrest.
When Dyleski and his friend Robin were planning their organic marijuana-growing enterprise, Scott stole credit card statements, numbers, passwords, and so forth, from his canyon neighbors' mailboxes (or elsewhere), to charge the supplies they needed.
One of the cc numbers he stole was Karen Schneider's, who lived at another Hunsaker Canyon address. When Scott ordered some gro-lights, he gave Schneider's cc number, but Pamela's physical address as the billing address, then his own home address for the shipping address.
Since the two addresses didn't match, he was caught by the supplier, who wouldn't ship until she tried to straighten it out by calling the cc number holder, Karen Schneider.
How old is the vermin Dyleski?
Thanks for the ping. I meant to come back and comment the other day, but I looked high and low for some kind of artist's representation of the "signature" cross or double-crossed "t" or sideways "H" or whatever and never found one.
It's hard to comment when I can't see what the jury saw. If it were on video, I can't view that on my puter's non-working player.
As far as the knife, readers of the article might misconstrue the flat statement that Pamela's DNA wasn't found on it. The chain of custody was broken on that knife, if it was the one used to cut Pamela.
Scott somehow transferred the knife to his mother, either by leaving it with his other things in the backpack he gave to Jena, who drove to Bolinas and gave it to Esther when she was staying at her sister Marjorie's house, or by leaving it with other things that Esther got her hands on.
However it left Scott's possession and came into Esther's, there was plenty of time to clean it - as the persons who had it were busy destroying other types of evidence, such as burning papers.
I'm not too worried about the piece of crucial DNA, because of the breakdown of the chain of custody - and because I'm still hoping that the notches in the blade of the hawkbill or just it's unique shape itself, will be a giveaway when Pamela's injuries are described in full - assuming this hasn't been touched on, already.
Hope I won't be disappointed in that.
He's 17 now - was 16 at the time of the murder. Turned 17 in jail - birthday is the day before Halloween. Appropos, ne c'est pas?
Vraiment!
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