Posted on 10/20/2005 4:29:25 PM PDT by SmithL
Investigators have arrested a 16-year-old boy in the slaying of Pamela Vitale, a Contra Costa Sheriff's Office spokesman confirmed today.
The boy, Scott Dyleski, was arrested at the home of a family friend in Walnut Creek, where his mother dropped him off Wednesday evening.
"His mom dropped him off so his dad could come get him," said the friend who asked not to be named.
Investigators believe Dyleski struck Vitale dozens of times with a piece of crown molding and another object, a law enforcement source said. She was also stabbed and slashed with a sharp object and the killer carved into her back a double-crossed "T," which the source described as some kind of gothic symbol.
High tech fraud detectives were already investigating Dyleski and a teenage friend, who has not been implicated in the killing, in connection with a scheme that involved stealing credit card bills from mailboxes and using the numbers to buy merchandise on-line.
The two allegedly devised a plan to grow marijuana and were trying to procure lighting and other equipment.
On Wednesday, someone tipped off police that Dyleski was involved in the Vitale slaying. He was arrested at the family friend's home later that night.
One police theory is Dyleski had merchandise sent to the Horowitz property and that he went to the home Saturday to see if it had been delivered -- possibly running into Vitale, the source said.
As she lay dead in the entryway, Dyleski allegedly cleaned up, washing his hands in the bathroom sink and taking a shower at the home. He had a glass of water and left, leaving the murder weapon behind, the source said.
A law enforcement source said shortly after the slaying, detectives found clothing at a residence on Hunsaker Canyon Road that had recently been scrubbed with OxyClean, a household cleanser that breaks down organic stains such as blood.
Dyleski lives at a crowded, unkempt straw-bale house on Hunsaker Canyon with two other families.
The family friend who asked that his name be withheld said he knew that Dyleski had obtained some special lights but was not aware of any involvement in drugs.
Dyleski did not talk much Wednesday night. He did not appear to have any scratches or injuries, the man said. The man was shocked when detectives told him about the alleged connection to the Vitale killing.
On Wednesday, when the boy's mother dropped Dyleski at the Walnut Creek house, she left instructions that he was "on restriction" and could not use the phone or computer or be left alone.
The friend took Dyleski on a drive to Vallejo and back. A short while later sheriff's deputies swarmed the house and took Dyleski away in handcuffs.
The man met Dyleski about seven years ago through his sister and took him out to play golf and tried to be a mentor.
"To me he's a nonviolent person," the man said.
Vitale's husband, defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, said he's done a significant amount of free legal work for a family Dyleski lived with on Hunsaker Canyon.
Sheriff's detectives served search warrants at a home in Walnut Creek and another at a residence on Hunsaker Canyon Road in Lafayette late Wednesday, spokesman Jimmy Lee confirmed today at a press conference.
The boy was questioned and taken to Juvenile Hall.
"Although we have a suspect in custody, the investigation is on-going. We are still interviewing people and waiting for test results," Lee said.
Detectives have yet to determine a motive for the slaying, he said.
Lee refused to take questions from reporters or confirm the suspect's identity, although sources said the boy was recently a junior at Acalanes High School in Lafayette.
Early Thursday, the school was grappling with the notion one of its own might be responsible for such a violent crime. Students were in tears and a few of police officers were on campus to keep media representatives from swarming over the campus, said Lafayette Police Detectuve Craig Jiminez.
School officials refused to comment.
Horowitz, known nationally for his on-air legal commentary during such high profile cases as the O.J. Simpson and Scott Peterson murder trials, discovered his wife's badly beaten body Saturday evening at the couple's home on Hunsaker Canyon Road.
Detectives finished processing the modular home for clues early Wednesday morning and returned the Hunsaker Canyon Road property to Horowitz. Within several hours, he was leading CNN television personality Nancy Grace through the home.
CNN's camera zoomed in on the front door of the modular home, digitally blurring smears of blood as Grace talked about what she saw inside: Vitale's blood spattered 4-feet up the entryway wall and dark swirls of fingerprint powder dotted throughout the home, including the inside of the bathroom door.
Any evidence?...or just a hunch?
I certainly don't mean to brow-beat you. I understand where you're coming from. I'm always very concerned when young people get involved in drugs, but much much more concerned with youth who find themselves suddenly in the drug trade. For some, it's a concious decision, for others, a step into their worst nightmares. I've spent twenty years dealing with youth crime and in particular young people and the drug trade. I've gained enough of an understanding to even relax my views on pot ( I'm already ducking under my desk from the flames that are sure to come). However, pot is much like alcohol, most young (and not so young) people handle it well but some don't. It is far far easier to deal with than the crystal meth problem which is fast becoming the drug of choice amongst young people. If it hasn't hit your area, it likely soon will and I would urge you to educate yourself on it. It has the potential to bury crack-cocaine as the drug of choice simply on cost alone.
Agree with you there, however, if a post and beam structure (like the link posted earlier) is used, I think it would rival straight Adobe for structural soundness. Also, tests have proven that adobe covered straw is very fire resistant, this not from it's champions but the insurance companies, hey.. they oughta know.
Nothing wrong with FUNKY or HIPPY, can't always judge an owner by his house.
loofaboy, i guess you told me, loofaboy.
Excellent come-back
Uh, evidently this kid never heard the story about the "Three Little Pigs."
Uh, evidently you've never heard about how to save yourself 4 to 5 thousand bucks a year on home heating-cooling costs.
Not to worry, I didn't take it that way. I guess that I am surprised by the increased numbers of kids smoking pot. It's popular among the punk kids. Knowing many of these kids personally, I am concerned for them, but I do agree that for most it's a rebellion or experiment. That's what made the one guy's fall so shocking. But it's true of course, that many of these kids had other issues and it was a perfect storm of sorts.
It is far far easier to deal with than the crystal meth problem which is fast becoming the drug of choice amongst young people. If it hasn't hit your area, it likely soon will and I would urge you to educate yourself on it. It has the potential to bury crack-cocaine as the drug of choice simply on cost alone.
This is our concern, too. Seeing heroin in the area was bad enough. Rural areas like mine are fast becoming engulfed by the meth epidemic. And the crime that goes with it. That's what struck me about the Vitale suspect, the similarities.
That poor woman should have been armed, doors locked, don't answer the door to unknowns and freaky looking punks. (I'm not blaming the victim, I'm just using this to remind women (esp. when home alone) to take their personal security seriously) BTW, "Manson-ish" was my first thought when I heard the sketchy reports of the violence inflicted on the victim. Positively creepy.
Wow, I was told to report my own post as "abusive" when I posted that info earlier today on the big Vitale/Horowitz thread. I had already put it together before it was published.
Oh well. I also won't post about Scott's classmates saying he went goth 3 years ago after his sister was killed in a car accident.
And I won't post that her name was Denika, she was 18, and a student at Diablo Valley College, the one Scott quit Acalanes HS to attend currently.
I also won't post that she was killed in August, 2002, in Concord, CA, (close by Lafayette) when she and another friend were riding in a Honda Accord that a 2nd friend was driving. The passenger friend was also killed, Sebastian Nebel, 19.
Won't mention that the driver, Jennifer Bagher, 17 at the time of the accident, was in a coma for several weeks and wasn't released from the hospital until shortly before her arrest in early December, 2002, on two counts of felony manslaughter. By then she was 18.
Since I can't access the criminal files, I don't know what happened to Bagher after that. There is a lot in the civil court files about the accident, lawsuits by both families, but no mention of Horowitz, who was said to have helped Scott Dyleski's family in some legal matters previously. He must have meant the straw-bale family, the Fieldings--Scott's mother's family--since they are the ones who are DH's neighbors.
(Don't tell anybody I posted this.)
Wow! Great job, Rte66!
How do you search the court files?
I simply saw the address mentioned in one of the news reports and went and googled it. Yahoo also turns up a restaurant, Cafe Esperanza, at that address.
Don't not ever not unpost that again.
Straw-bale House people are EVIL!
The French suck ass. We should blitzkreig them back into submission.
And who the hell uses the moniker "Loofaboy"? Sounds a little gay, actually.
NTTAWWT.
Much too liberal. I prefer sprawling houses made out of redwood and decorated with dead spotted owls and baby seals. I also insist that my house emit vast quantities of toxic smokestack fumes, and disgorge tons of radioactive waste into a nearby pristine stream.
If you don't want that too, you are gay.
Stop being gay, Loofaboy. (Smacks you on nose with newspaper) Stop being gay. Be a good boy, Loofaboy. (Smacks you again with newspaper)
Yeah, the cafe is also something I abusively posted. The court docs for CoCoCo are at www.cc-courts.org and you have to do some maneuvering to figure it all out.
Let's see--they keep odd hours and I never figured out what they were--oh, I think they're daytime. LOL, they *admonish* you to try to use it when it's not so busy, but that's when it's shut down!
Once you get in, there are five locations, I think, but most of the cases take place in Martinez, so pick that one first, if you can get in at all. There are 2-3 gateways before you get there.
Don't bother to use the "master name" choice, that probably runs the same name through all five court locations. I have never once gotten it to work and it gives you evil little messages about how stupid you are.
Good luck!
I won't not.
Now, if you want an example of posting personal info, check out this FR Golden Oldie. It's about that restaurant manager who ratted out the Bush twins for underage drinking in Austin. It's been spinning around on FR's hard drive since 2001. Probably not seen by many folks, though, other than the GoogleBot and friends.
1. Why would she be answering the door in a T-shirt and her panties?
2. The kid was a feather weight.
3. You ever seen a piece of moulding that would not break if you busted it over someone? A post maybe, but not moulding.
4. The mark of a "cross" on her back is like a neon sign over anyone who could be considered a "goth" - saying here he is here he is.
5. How could DH be too broken up to answer the phones, yet give an on camera tour through the "house" - it was a scripted show by DH
6. Ask yourself this question - If the love of your life had just been brutally murdered would you surround yourself with TV cameras, spouting off theories to point the finger "out there", and do House Beautiful Tours or would you prefer to surround yourself with family and very close friends and sequester yourself for at least a day??
7. Would you rip off the police tape and open your gates for the press to "Come on In"?????????? Let them video the doorway of where it happened?? Who is the Goulish one here??
8. DH threw so much crap and confusion about where to look that the Dumbed down and star struck police would be forced to look anywhere but at DH - can you imagine the law suit DH and his Legal Buds would pursue against the Sherriff's office?
9. Notice no "High Profile" piece of C lawyer has stepped up to defend the kid - the entire Legal Community and the Media have circled the wagons to protect DH....The Media is completely complicit, unwilling to ask the questions they would in any other high profile case. The kid is on a one way street to hang.
10. Reminds me of what happened when the wagons were circled to protect the Judge's kid in Aruba.
AND (Drum Roll)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.