Author: Trench Reynolds

SCOTT DYLESKI’S ATTORNEY RESTS HER CASE:

So let me get this straight. Dyleski’s public defender, Ellen Leonida, rested her case after only hearing testimony from character witnesses?

During her opening statement, Leonida argued that Dyleski couldn’t have killed Vitale because a witness saw him at home at the time of the murder. Dyleski lived a short walk down the hill on Hunsaker Canyon Road from where Vitale and Horowitz lived. That witness testified earlier in the trial that he was no longer sure what time he saw Dyleski that morning.

Although the prosecution presented extensive DNA evidence connecting Dyleski to the crime, Leonida did not call any of her own expert witnesses to rebut the DNA evidence.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in Judge Barbara Zuniga’s courtroom in Martinez.

Not much of a lawyer, or did she know she didn’t have much to work with?

Friends, teachers say teen murder suspect was polite, nonviolent:

This past Thursday, character witnesses testified on behalf of Scott Dyleski…

On Thursday, teachers and friends of Scott Dyleski took the stand for the defense to say the teenager they knew was polite, sociable and nonviolent.

Dyleski – who is being tried as an adult in the bludgeoning death of Vitale, wife of prominent defense attorney Daniel Horowitz – was a dedicated Ultimate Frisbee player who encouraged incoming teammates, handled conflict wisely and kept cool under pressure, according to Jo Tams, who coached his Acalanes High School team.
Tams said she was so impressed with the “mature thinker” that she named him one of three team captains during the 2004-05 season.

“He filled that role admirably,” she told jurors.

Susan Lane, Dyleski’s graphic-design teacher, testified that he excelled in her class and produced “exceptional art.” She said she was not concerned at all that he focused on dark themes like Satan, noting that 20 percent of her students embraced the Goth culture and created similar images.

That’s all well and good, but how many of history’s most notorious killers were polite, intelligent, and sociable. Ted Bundy? Jeffrey Dahmer? John Wayne Gacy? Eric Harris? And wasn’t Gacy an “exceptional artist”?

Just because a killer was polite and sociable doesn’t make them any less of a killer.

Murder victim’s DNA found on suspect’s alleged belongings:

DNA evidence was presented in the trial of Scott Dyleski yesterday, which the prosecution says links him to the crime scene of Pam Vitale’s murder.

Contra Costa County Sheriff’s senior criminalist David Stockwell told jurors Tuesday that DNA on a face mask, a glove and shoes that Dyleski’s mother had testified belonged to the teenager matched Pamela Vitale’s profile to a certainty of one out of 13 quadrillion Caucasian females.

For the math impaired, that’s this many. 13,000,000,000,000,000. So there is a 1 in 13,000,000,000,000,000 chance that the DNA found on Dyleski’s clothes was not Pam Vitale’s

A possible match to Dyleski’s DNA also was found at the crime scene in traces of blood on the bottom of Vitale’s right foot, Stockwell said, although one out of 43,000 Caucasian males could have the same DNA profile.

Which would mean if it wasn’t Dyleski then someone who has a 1 in 43,000 chance of having the same DNA profile of Dyleski did it. Possible, but not probable.

Dyleski’s DNA, however, was not found under Vitale’s fingernails, and none of her DNA was found on a knife that his mother, Esther Fielding, turned over to authorities, Stockwell testified.

Not surprising since he was wearing a face mask. However, he still could have had scratches on his face.

On cross-examination by deputy public defender Ellen Leonida, Stockwell said one of the DNA samples from the inside of the glove does not match the defendant.

But is that enough to cause reasonable doubt? I don’t think so.

Jurors see crime scene photos:

MARTINEZ – Jurors in Scott Dyleski’s murder trial for the first time Monday morning saw a photograph depicting a symbol that was cut into the back of Pamela Vitale when she was attacked and killed.

Later they saw examples of Dyleski’s drawings that included depictions of gaunt, dismembered people, all containing a similar symbol attached to his signature.

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 her skin — a design similar to one Dyleski’s family and friends had testified that he used along with his name to sign his artwork.

Jurors on Monday saw Dyleski’s symbol next to his signature in an exhibit projected on the courtroom wall of more than 30 pieces of his artwork that investigators confiscated from his bedroom.

Slender, almost emaciated figures dominate the drawings, which used pencil, charcoal and watercolor. Shadows appear like black smears from wet mascara.

One sketch shows a man holding a bearded, decapitated head in one hand and a knife in the other. Another shows a person clutching his or her bloody abdomen.

Dyleski used mostly black and white, often adding red to depict drips of blood.

His writings included lyrics from the industrial band Velvet Acid Christ and a picture depicting 1950s serial killer Ed Gein.

Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Detective Joseph Moore, who found the sketches, read aloud the writings next to each one.

“Before Manson, before Bundy, there was Gein,” Moore said, reading the writing next to a black-and-white face.

In this case, the face appeared to be printed on paper from wood etching.

The symbol with each sketch is a T with a circle at the top, sometimes with a star inside, and smaller protruding lines that create a sort of human stick figure.

The T in the signature symbol is similar to that found on Vitale’s back.

Is Dyleski arrogant or just stupid?