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(10-27) 17:09 MARTINEZ -- The investigation into the slaying of Pamela Vitale took a startling twist today when authorities arrested the mother of the 16-year-old boy charged in the killing and accused her of being an accessory to the crime. The arrest of 53-year-old Esther Marion Fielding came on the same day her son, Scott Edgar Dyleski, was arraigned on a single count of murder; she was booked into the Contra Costa County jail in Martinez and remained behind bars in lieu of $500,000 bail late this afternoon. It was not immediately clear what role Fielding is alleged to have...

ORINDA -- The 20-year-old son of Susan Polk, a woman who was facing trial for the killing of her husband until her attorney's wife was slain, has been accused of domestic violence. But the alleged victim - his girlfriend - explained to police that the recent slaying of Pamela Vitale has placed Eli Polk under "increased stress." Eli Polk was arraigned Tuesday in Walnut Creek on one count of misdemeanor battery and two counts of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime. Orinda police Sgt. Steve Andrews said the young man was arrested after a "scuffle" at about 9:30 p.m....

The killer of Pamela Vitale, the wife of prominent defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, not only bludgeoned her to death but left her with a 4-inch-deep stab wound to the stomach and multiple leg wounds, and wore gloves during the attack, investigators wrote in documents released Monday. When Horowitz arrived at his Lafayette home on Oct. 15, he found his wife, 52, lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor of the couple's mobile home. He called the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office at 5:53 p.m. and screamed to a dispatcher, "Help me, she's dead," according to a...

MARTINEZ – A teenager described by former classmates as a brooding nonconformist with an interest in the occult was charged as an adult in the murder of the wife of a prominent defense attorney. Scott Dyleski, 16, was being held in Contra Costa Juvenile Hall after his first court appearance Friday in the beating death of 52-year-old Pamela Vitale. He did not enter a plea or speak as the judge set bail at $1 million. Defense lawyer and TV legal pundit Daniel Horowitz found his wife's body Oct. 15 at the couple's hilltop estate, where they were building their dream...

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...

MARTINEZ-A teenager was arrested in the slaying of a prominent defense attorney's wife, and a newspaper reported Thursday that he allegedly clubbed her to death whtih a piece of crown molding while trying to find marijuana-growing equipment he bought with stolen credit card information.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- The tragic slaying of his wife has put high-profile legal analyst Daniel Horowitz in the spotlight usually reserved for his subjects. Horowitz rose to public prominence providing commentary last year during the trial of Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his pregnant wife. He hit headlines last week defending Susan Polk, accused of killing her therapist husband. But the lens turned after Horowitz returned to his rural hilltop estate in Lafayette on Saturday evening and reported finding the body of his wife, Pamela Vitale, dead from a blow to the head. "It is a horrible irony," said attorney...

Veteran courtroom observers couldn't help but notice the irony. There in Monday's newspaper was defense attorney Daniel Horowitz holding up a hand to fend off reporters and photographers. Of course, Horowitz had every reason to decline interviews. His wife, Pamela Vitale, was found dead Saturday afternoon in their Lafayette home. The last thing he wanted to do was speak to reporters camped out at the edge of his property. And yet, there is the inescapable feeling that, under different circumstances, it was exactly the kind of case Horowitz would have rushed to join. A regular pundit on CNN, MSNBC, Fox...

LAFAYETTE, Calif. — Despite fearing for their safety, prominent criminal defense lawyer Daniel Horowitz (search) and his wife allowed easy access to their sprawling hillside compound — a note posted on their gate even explained how to open it and proceed up the steep driveway. The number of people with access to the property — where contractors, neighbors and others came and went — could complicate the investigation into the killing of Pamela Vitale, whose body was found by Horowitz in their home's entryway over the weekend. An autopsy Monday revealed that she was beaten to death. "You could just...

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...

Just hours after police relinquished the Lafayette home where Pamela Vitale was slain, her husband, high-profile defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, led a national television news crew through the crime scene. With Vitale's slaying still unsolved -- and police chasing hundreds of tips -- legal analysts say the unfettered access Horowitz has granted the media could hurt the police investigation into his wife's slaying. "He may inadvertently be helping the real killer," said Anthony Ashe, a criminal defense specialist in Contra Costa. "The more information a potential suspect knows, the better they would be able to fabricate a more believable and...

Per Dan Abrams. Confirmed in ContraCosta Times

Authorities identified neither suspect nor motive Monday in the beating death of a celebrity defense attorney's wife, who was found slain in the couple's Lafayette home. The investigation into Pamela Vitale's killing is still "wide open" and detectives don't favor a theory, said Contra Costa Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. Daniel Horowitz, a legal analyst for national media outlets during major cases such as the O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson trials, found Vitale in the threshold of their modular home at 6 p.m. Saturday. Authorities explicitly stated during a brief news conference Monday afternoon that Horowitz was cooperative with...

MARTINEZ, Calif. (AP) - A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the murder case against a woman defended by prominent lawyer Daniel Horowitz, whose wife was slain over the weekend. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Laurel F. Brady cited excessive news coverage of the homicide of Pamela Vitale when she dismissed jurors in the case of Susan Polk, who is accused of stabbing her therapist husband. "Ladies and gentlemen, it would have been hard to miss, despite my admonitions," Brady told the jury. "I have reached the conclusion at this juncture that it is not possible to continue the...

LAFAYETTE, Calif. Oct 17, 2005 — A friend of defense attorney and TV legal pundit David Horowitz said Monday police are getting closer to a break in the slaying of Horowitz's wife. Investigators said the remarks were premature. Horowitz found Pamela Vitale dead Saturday night at the entrance of the mobile home they shared on property where they were building their dream estate, authorities said. The case is being investigated as a homicide. Attorney Ivan Golde, a longtime friend and co-counsel in a high-profile trial Horowitz is currently involved in, told KTVU-TV that police were closer to solving the case....

LAFAYETTE, Calif. - The wife of prominent defense attorney and TV legal analyst Daniel Horowitz was found slain in the couple's San Francisco area home, police said. Horowitz called 911 Saturday evening to report that the body of his wife, 52-year-old Pamela Vitale, was in the entryway of their home in an upscale neighborhood, police said. The woman's identity has not been confirmed by authorities, but "based on what we know, it's believed to be the wife of Daniel Horowitz," said Contra Costa Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. Authorities would not release details of how the victim died, but said it...

LAFAYETTE, Calif. - The wife of prominent defense attorney and TV legal analyst Daniel Horowitz was found slain in the couple's San Francisco area home, police said. Horowitz called 911 Saturday evening to report that the body of his wife, 52-year-old Pamela Vitale, was in the entryway of their home in an upscale neighborhood, police said. The woman's identity has not been confirmed by authorities, but "based on what we know, it's believed to be the wife of Daniel Horowitz," said Contra Costa Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. Authorities would not release details of how the victim died, but said it...

LAFAYETTE, Calif. - The wife of a prominent Bay Area attorney was found dead in the couple's home Saturday, police said. Daniel Horowitz called 911 shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday to report that the body of his wife, Pamela Vitale, was found in the entryway of their home, located in an upscale Contra Costa County neighborhood. The 52-year-old woman's identity has not been confirmed, but "based on what we know, it's believed to be the wife of Daniel Horowitz," said Contra Costa Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. Authorities would not release details of how the victim died, but said it was...