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SAN FRANCISCO -- A state appeals court on Monday upheld the murder conviction of Susan Polk, 53, who stabbed her psychotherapist husband in Orinda during an acrimonious divorce in 2002 and then acted as her own lawyer at a raucous trial. A Contra Costa County judge sentenced Polk to 16 years to life in prison in 2007 after a jury convicted her of second-degree murder in the death of Felix Polk, 71, who was stabbed in a cottage on their Orinda property. The two had met 30 years earlier, when she went to him for therapy as a high school...

A federal judge has dismissed the bulk of a civil rights lawsuit that accused Contra Costa sheriff's deputies of traumatizing the housemates of Scott Dyleski as they searched for Dyleski after the killing of Pamela Vitale, the wife of lawyer and television commentator Daniel Horowitz. Deputies had the right to enter the home on Hunsaker Canyon Road without warrants, as they believed Dyleski might be destroying evidence, U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote in a ruling Monday. Kim and Fred Curiel and their three children, along with Mike Sikkema and his wife, Hazel McClure, and their two children, said deputies...

Dyleski imitated his idol, Jack the Ripper, judge says - Comparing him to Jack the Ripper, a Contra Costa County judge sentenced teenager Scott Dyleski to life in prison without parole Tuesday for killing his Lafayette neighbor Pamela Vitale last year by bludgeoning her to death. Dyleski, 17, was convicted in August of murdering Vitale, the wife of prominent East Bay attorney Daniel Horowitz, on Oct. 15, 2005. Vitale was found with a double-crossed "T" etched into her back with a knife and another stab wound to her stomach that exposed her intestines. On Tuesday, the former Boy Scout did...

MARTINEZ - Scott Dyleski will serve life in state prison without parole for killing Pamela Vitale, a Lafayette woman who was his neighbor and the wife of a prominent defense attorney. "The one time I saw you show any emotion is during autopsy photos," Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga told the Dyleski as she sentenced the teenager. "I saw you, sir, lean forward and your mouth fell open. And that's the position you remained in. You were absolutely fascinated by your handwork. You don't deserve to live among decent people." The judge pronounced the sentence after hearing more...

LAFAYETTE: In letter to judge, lawyer pleads for possibility of eventual parole for teen who killed neighbor - Citing his unstable childhood, the attorney for convicted murderer Scott Dyleski has asked a judge to consider handing down the lightest possible sentence for killing his neighbor, Pamela Vitale.Dyleski deserves a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, which would give him the opportunity for parole, deputy public defender Ellen Leonida wrote in her sentencing memo to Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga. "All he is asking for is an opportunity to demonstrate -- many, many years from now -- that he...

The teenager never got in trouble at school. He stood a head shorter than his attorney and probably weighed less than most courtroom observers at his trial. Now he has a conviction that carries a sentence of life in prison with no parole, and state prison officials must figure out the most suitable place to lock up the 17-year-old murderer Scott Dyleski. Dyleski is an example of 1,500 to 2,000 young male inmates sentenced to state prison each year. Their age, size and criminal history require consideration before state corrections officials decide whether to house them in prison or send...

MARTINEZ -- Scott Dyleski's attorney rested her case today after presenting less than a day of testimony. Closing arguments in the case are set to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Dyleski, 17, faces life in prison is convicted of murder and burglary charges in the slaying of Pamela Vitale, his neighbor in a hillside Lafayette neighborhood. Prosecutors says she was killed as part of a plan to use her and other neighbors' credit cards to buy marijuana-growing equipment. One of two final witnesses, Kameryn Summers, testified under questioning by deputy public defender Ellen Leonida that Dyleski was a caring person....

MARTINEZ - Scott Dyleski was engaged in school, polite in class and his artwork that included gloomy portrayals of emaciated figures, sometimes bleeding, was normal, his former teacher testified Thursday in the teenager's murder trial. "(The artwork is) very much mainstream," said Acalanes High School graphic design teacher Susan Lane. "I'm very accustomed to seeing this kind of artwork." Lane was one of six witnesses who breezed through the courtroom in two hours on the first day Dyleski's defense attorney presented his case. Jurors sat back with pens and papers in hand, but took few notes as teachers, a coach...

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...

MARTINEZ - Jurors in Scott Dyleski's murder trial for the first time Monday saw a photograph depicting a symbol that had been cut into the back of Pamela Vitale. Prosecutor Harold Jewett projected an autopsy picture of Vitale's back showing a T with a line intersecting the middle that had been cut into Vitale's skin -- a design similar to one Dyleski's family and friends testified that he used along with his name to sign his artwork. Dyleski, 17, is charged with murder and burglary in the Oct. 15, 2005, killing of Lafayette resident Pamela Vitale. Prosecutors say he killed...

MARTINEZ - The only person to provide an alibi for Scott Dyleski testified Wednesday he is no longer certain he saw the teenager at all on the morning Pamela Vitale was killed. "My testimony wasn't entirely truthful," Fred Curiel said about his earlier testimony at a February preliminary hearing. Curiel and his wife own the home where Dyleski was living at the time of the Vitale slaying. Prosecutors say the 17-year-old Dyleski killed Vitale on Oct. 15, 2005, as part of a scheme to use credit card information and purchase marijuana growing equipment. He has pleaded not guilty to 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...

MARTINEZ -- Accused killer Scott Dyleski engaged in sado masochism, talked about beating and breaking the necks of children and was curious about how the human body would function without certain organs, his girlfriend testified Thursday. A visibly uncomfortable Jena Reddy, 18, told jurors in Contra Costa Superior Court that Dyleski didn't admit to killing his Lafayette neighbor Pamela Vitale in October but didn't deny it either. After Vitale was killed, Dyleski had scratches on his face and his right hand and arm were swollen, she said. She added, however, that she was the source of scratches on his back...

MARTINEZ -- Scott Dyleski and a teenage friend exchanged e-mails about how to avoid detection while using other people's credit cards to order marijuana-growing equipment online, a computer expert testified today in the youth's murder trial. "Do not order all at once. Use separate cards for each purchase. The larger the order, prob(ably) the more likely it is to be noticed," Robin Croen, 17, e-mailed Dyleski in September, a month before the defendant allegedly killed his Lafayette neighbor Pamela Vitale, according to the testimony of Phil Venable, a Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy acting as a district attorney's inspector. "We...

MARTINEZ - Daniel Horowitz was just inside his front door when, as he dropped his bags of groceries in shock, he saw his wife lying dead in the home they shared on a Lafayette hillside. "It was like a crime scene photograph," Horowitz testified Tuesday, shaking his head. "I knew it wasn't." The veteran defense attorney took the stand to testify for the prosecution in trial of Scott Dyleski, the teenager accused of killing his wife, Pamela Vitale. He described in vivid detail the blood he saw smudged on the door when he came home the evening of Oct. 15...

MARTINEZ - Pamela Vitale's husband Daniel Horowitz is expected to testify today in Superior Court in Martinez in the trial of the teenager accused of killing his wife. Monday marks the first day the jury will hear evidence in the murder case of 17-year-old Scott Dyleski charged with murder and burglary in the October 2005 killing. His attorney has said that he was at home at the time of Vitale's death.

As the high-profile murder trial of Scott Dyleski begins with opening statements today in a Martinez courtroom, a number of personalities will take center stage as the jury considers whether the teenager killed his Lafayette neighbor, Pamela Vitale. The trial will pit veteran Contra Costa County prosecutor Harold "Hal" Jewett, known as a formidable adversary in court, against Ellen Leonida, a lesser-known public defender with experience helping the homeless and refugees seeking asylum. Managing it all will be Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga, a former deputy probation officer and prosecutor with more than 20 years on the bench. After a...

MARTINEZ - Attorneys in the trial of a teenager accused of killing of a woman as part of scheme to use stolen credit cards for purchasing marijuana growing equipment will give opening statements today in Superior Court in Martinez. Scott Dyleski, 17, is charged with murder and burglary as an adult in the Oct. 15, 2005 killing of Lafayette resident Pamela Vitale. He has pleaded not guilty.Court administrators will to assign 14 seats through a lottery to be held at 8:15 a.m. on the east side of the A.F. Bray Building, 1020 Ward St., Martinez.

MARTINEZ - A Superior Court judge swore in a six-man, six woman jury for the Scott Dyleski trial this afternoon. Opening statements will begin Thursday. Attorneys and Judge Barbara Zuniga are continuing with the selection of four alternates. Because jury selection was completed more quickly than anticipated, opening statements have been moved up to Thursday morning instead of next Monday, said Bill Darden, assistant executive officer of Superior Court. Prosecutors have charged Dyleski, 17, with murder and burglary with special circumstances in the Oct. 15, 2005, slaying of high-tech executive Pamela Vitale. If convicted of all counts, he will serve...

LAFAYETTE - Pamela Vitale was planning the installation of cabinets and floors for her dream mansion in October. "She had never had her own house," said her daughter, Marisa. "We always lived in apartments. She wanted it to be like an Italian villa."Just down the street from the new home's site in the rural, wooded hills of Lafayette, a 16-year-old neighbor, Scott Dyleski, was stealing credit card information to purchase marijuana-growing equipment, his close friend has testified.Prosecutors say Vitale, 52, crossed paths with the teenager Oct. 15 when he entered the modular home at the mansion's construction site where she...