Free Republic

The prosecutor in the Scott Dyleski murder trial asked prospective jurors Friday whether they were familiar with or knew anyone who embraced the Goth culture or the Wicca religious movement, and whether they had read books about psychopaths, serial killers and Jack the Ripper. The discussion in Contra Costa Superior Court touched on good and bad witches, black and white magic and "the dark side," in what could be key elements in the upcoming trial of Dyleski, who has pleaded not guilty to special-circumstances murder and burglary in the Oct. 15 slaying of Pamela Vitale, the wife of lawyer and...

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...

Scott Dyleski's murder trial should be moved out of Contra Costa County because of a "media feeding frenzy" that has contaminated the jury pool, his attorney said in court documents made available Thursday. Deputy Public Defender Ellen Leonida cited newspaper articles and television reports that referred to the "alleged 'Goth' lifestyle of Scott Dyleski" and the possibility of "occult connections to the crime," specifically the description by some media that a "Gothic symbol" was carved onto the back of slaying victim Pamela Vitale. Vitale's husband, Daniel Horowitz, has been described as "well-known" and "prominent," drawing even more attention and further...

LAFAYETTE - The attorney representing murder suspect Scott Dyleski has asked a judge to consider whether evidence obtained by tracking dogs can be used at trial. The dogs were not reliable, deputy public defender Ellen Leonida argues in a motion submitted last week to a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge. Dyleski, 17, is charged with murder and burglary in the Oct. 15, 2005 killing of high-tech executive Pamela Vitale. Leonida raises instances she argues show that the dogs became interested in material unrelated to the case. On the day after the killing, a tracking dog focused on a bucket...

MARTINEZ, Calif. (Court TV) - In her second contentious day of cross-examination, murder defendant Susan Polk accused the prosecutor of using "doctored" autopsy photos of her husband's stab wounds and accused a former attorney of "setting up" a teenager in a murder case. "I wonder if that photo has been manipulated by a computer program," Polk said when Assistant District Attorney Paul Sequeira showed jurors graphic pictures of the gashes to the inside of Felix Polk's hands. "I've cut my fingers a number of times in the kitchen, and it just doesn't look like that," Polk said. "Right," Sequeira said....

(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...