Posted on 10/21/2005 7:34:48 AM PDT by smartin
MARTINEZ, California (CNN) -- The teenage suspect in the beating death of a prominent lawyer's wife was described by classmates as a "gothic" loner who followed the occult and dressed in black from the polish on his fingernails to his trench coat.
The young man is being held as a juvenile in the slaying of Pamela Vitale, wife of lawyer and television pundit Daniel Horowitz. Police say he apparently acted alone.
Horowitz found Vitale's body when he returned to a trailer the couple shared while they built a dream estate on a hilltop in affluent Lafayette, east of Oakland.
Authorities said Vitale, 52, was bludgeoned by a strip of crown molding and fought with her killer. (See video about the arrest -- 4:35)
A gothic cross was carved into her back. That symbol may be a key link to the suspect.
"He was just really a gothic kid, and everyone knew who he was just because of his apparel. When you heard the name, you were just like, 'Oh, that kid,' " a classmate told CNN.
"He just definitely stood out in front of anybody in the school," the classmate added. "When he walked by, everybody talked about him -- like, he definitely didn't blend in."
Authorities would not identify the 16-year-old, and CNN is not naming him because of his age. But news outlets in the San Francisco Bay area widely publicized his name after his arrest late Wednesday.
Former classmates told The Associated Press that the teenager drew a pentagram on the ground at school, telling other students he was reading from the book of Satan.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Spousal abuse is a crime. I'm not saying void the crimes of spouses, no. I'm also not saying that everything will be perfect by forcing marriages to stay together. But a parent leaving because he or she has found passions in another bed will not be tolerated.
The kid has a lot of supporters, as does his family--kinda surprising. All are saying he isn't a druggie. The adrenaline needed to do what he did does suggest meth, but so many locals are saying no. (That does not refer to any drug test results, however.)
Police were back on the property tonight, "crawling all over it," according to Nancy Grace. No one seems to know exactly why. You know about the Toyota van that was searched and then impounded a day later? That was on the Dyleski/Fielding/Curiel property, but I don't know any more about it.
Something ironic I noted tonight. The CoCoCo sheriff's dept. released partial details of the two search warrants issued last Wed--other parts are sealed:
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"Deputies searched the home of Scott Dyleski, 16, on Oct. 19. Dyleski was charged as an adult with murder last week in connection with Vitale's death. Investigators seized two laptops, a computer central processing unit, bedding, knives and a duffel bag from Dyleski's house, just down the hill from Horowitz and Vitale's estate.
It was another neighbor who earlier reported to Lafayette police that his credit card had been stolen and used to buy hydroponic growing equipment - often used to cultivate marijuana - scheduled for shipping to Horowitz and Vitale's address, according to the affidavit. The supplier withheld the shipment, believing the purchase was fraudulent. The neighbor, Doug Schneider, contacted police because he believed the purchase may have been related to Vitale's murder, according to the affidavit, parts of which were sealed."
~~~~~~
Earlier, we had talked about how Dan and the neighbors filed harrassment suits on each other from time to time. On another Horowitz-Vitale thread, a poster noted that he had been the target of something like this before in post #274:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503329/posts?q=1&&page=274
Well, the neighbor named above, Schneider, was filed on by Horowitz, his sister and his first wife, in 1985--but Schneider filed a countersuit. Both were settled in an unspecified manner.
It's just ironic to me that Schneider was one of the two neighbors who pointed the finger at Scott Dyleski in the murder of DH's wife. Going from alleged harrassment to the utmost in neighborliness, helping to nab a killer, is not something you see often. He could have kept it to himself and not wanted to "get involved" like so many neighbors do nowadays.
The other neighbor who was cited in the warrant affidavit was one of the Curiels.
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"Massi said sources told him that the owner of the home on Hunsaker Canyon Road that Dyleski and his mother shared with two other families, including the homeowner's, had contacted police after he saw Dyleski with scratches on his face. Horowitz has said his wife "fought like hell" for her life.
Fred Curiel, who owns the home, did not return calls for comment Saturday."
~~~~~
Also, it was revealed tonight that Pamela had been stabbed in the stomach, in addition to the 39 blows to the head and the "Cross of Lorraine" goth symbol carved on her back. LE is said to still be "looking for the murder weapon."
I guess that means a knife, in addition to the crown molding used to batter her, which I thought they did have in evidence (with an indented imprint of Pamela's foot in it, as in having kicked it, using kick-boxing skills she was said to have). We first heard that a hammer had been used, so I don't know now if that was a rumor or yet another weapon.
Also, the stomach wound was 4 inches deep and there were numerous other wounds to her legs. Investigators also noted that the attacker wore gloves.
(Gloves to go check on his pot-light shipment? Whaaaaatt? There's still more to be revealed, obviously. The kid wore gloves in his "arty" yearbook feature photo, but they were the fingerless kind.)
A "large-size blood footprint" was found on the lid to a storage container in the home and collected by LE, too.
That's really interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
I think you are probably right. Good people can have a "bad seed" as you call it.
Hey, it's just a lifestyle choice, right? /sarcasm offThe killing was related to a credit card racket, not a musical genre.
I have a cousin who fits this description. "Anarchy" is thier buzzword.That sounds more punk than goth to me.
Do you think the CHILD was being disciplined AT ALL? Yes, his sister dying "put him over the edge", but Mom felt the need to let him "Have some space" and look where that got him.
I heard that DH objected to the coroner doing the autopsy and then someone else had to be found who was to his liking. That is weird if true.
If the kid did order pot growing equipment, why would he have shipped it off to DH address? I just ordered some items over the phone with my credit card and had no problem having them shipped to another address.
LOL, that's a pretty strong comment coming from California!
Yes, it is! :-)
And how does he show this resentment? By looking, acting and dressing differently from everybody else in his high school?
LOL, something tells me he didn't want "normalcy" at all. He seemed to revel in being abnormal, from what I can see. I think maybe it is the speaker--wasn't it Marcus who said it?--who wishes his own family were normal. After all, it is *his* family living there, too.
I'm guessing he used Pamela or Daniel's credit card number fraudulently and obviously didn't want to give himself away by using his own address for the shipment, so used theirs.
I just wonder what made the supplier question the order and refuse it. Maybe a glitch in the cc confirmation or something, but I wonder if he knew who Daniel was and didn't think he'd be ordering gro-lights.
Thought I'd add some more to this thread on Pamela Vitale's murder.
First off, Scott Dyleski, currently age 16, but who will turn 17 three days from now, was charged with 1st degree murder today in CoCoCoCo in Martinez. He was represented by a female public defender appointed by the court when his previous attorney, Thomas McKenna, resigned due to a conflict of interest.
Next court date is November 9, 1:30pm.
McKenna just quit a couple of days ago, when Scott's father, Ken Dyleski, asked that he be removed because he had represented the family the Dyleski's sued for the death of their daughter Denika in an Aug 2002 car accident. Denika's best friend, Jennifer Bagher, was the driver who was charged.
Scott was said to have hired McKenna "on his own" days before his arrest, allegedly because of the credit card scam problems for which he felt he needed a lawyer.
The 1st degree murder charge does not include special circumstances, but is considered premeditated and is "enhanced" because of the use of a bludgeon, a deadly weapon. Scott Dyleski is considered an adult for purposes of these charges.
More news: Gloria Allred is now representing Scott's girl friend (first we've heard that he had one), at whose house Scott spent several hours right after the murder. Her house has been searched, but she is not a suspect.
From kesq-tv: “…A Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department affidavit for a search warrant reveals that authorities believe Scott Dyleski went to a friend's house after the killing of Pamela Vitale.
The affidavit also says that friend told authorities Dyleski went to his girlfriend's house to have sex with her…”
I don't know if this "friend" on that Saturday was Mr. Hogg or not; maybe it was a school-age friend, if Scott told him about his sex plans. We know that's where Scott was on Wednesday, when he was arrested--at Marcus's house in Walnut Creek. It seems the search warrant in Walnut Creek might have been for the girl friend's house, and not Hogg's, as most of us thought it was.
A little more to add about Marcus that I found -- he is a Realtor in the area, which is probably why he didn't want his name bandied about in the press. He has a listing right now in Vallejo, among others, so that explains the "business trip" to Vallejo he said he took Scott on the night Scott was taken there to Hogg's home to be picked up by his father (but Scott was arrested, instead).
Marcus is married and has taken his wife's name, hyphenated before his last name. That's why I had trouble finding much about him. He is Miller-Hogg, actually. (But still the brother of Kimberly Hogg Curiel, owner of the straw-bale house with her husband Fred and his brother David.)
Also, a guest on Nancy Grace's program, a neighbor named Mitchell House, said that Pamela and Scott had met before. He was at the Nov 2002 public party for the "Amish-style barn-raising" for the hay-bale house of the Curiels. Pamela (and Dan) and Scott (and his mother) were all on-hand.
House referred to Elena Dziadevitch several times--she was a guest the previous night on NG's show. She had rented a room at the Curiels several years ago and observed Scott's change to his dark side. She and House have the same address now. He may be separated or divorced from the wife shown on his RE docs.
Also, the van found on the property where Scott and his mother lived was impounded last week and it was revealed day before yesterday that a bloody glove had been found in it. Clothes soaking in "red-tinted" water were also found in the home of a neighbor, Gerald Wheeler.
(He has been mentioned before as a neighbor and he gave DNA to cops, but I've not been able to find out much about him. He supposedly was another who had a run-in with Joe Lynch, but he is not among those who filed on Lynch, that I could find. He may be one of the people living on Dan's property--because that's where we first heard the Oxy-Clean soaking clothes were found, in an outbuilding in a sink.)
Yeah, just saw that, too.
She was arrested during the court proceedings today. The van they searched was registered to her.
Accessory to murder after the fact.
Bail is $5000.
CNN confirms this info.
Court for her tomorrow.
Ha ha--that's what I get for copying a Court TV forum post!
Bail is $500,000
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