Category: Crime

Media interest in Dyleski trial less than expected:

It has all the elements of a sensational trial: the body a popular middle-aged woman is found brutally beaten in her own home on a quiet suburban road.

Her husband, the nationally renowned criminal defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, finds the body while trying to prepare a case involving a woman now convicted of killing her husband not 20 miles from the Horowitz home.

Defendant Scott Dyleski, a teen-aged boy described as “Goth” and fascinated with the macabre, is also accused of carving an arcane symbol into Pamela Vitale’s dead body.

Sensational details promise a lively trial — but Day 1 failed to draw nearly the media and public attention once predicted.

“Some of the networks aren’t here because the news is substantially Middle East driven right now,” said Peter Shaplen, the network consultant helping the court manage press access.

Shaplen has helped other courts develop strategies for accommodating media scrums. Most notably, he kept the courts in Santa Maria and Santa Clara running smoothly during the Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson trials.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of local interest,” he said.

Still, even the amateur trial watchers didn’t show up in force Thursday.

“I think they’ve blown this whole thing out of proportion,” said Rosemary, who refused to give her last name because she took time off work to be at the trail and doesn’t want to get into trouble with her boss.

“It’s not like Peterson where there’s a mystery about the whole thing,” she said.

Occam’s Razor in action.

Prosecutor: Scott Dyleski’s vicious slaying of neighbor ‘wasn’t Goth … it was murder’:

MARTINEZ, Calif. — Gothic imagery, dark poetry and an obseassion with cult murders imbued the mind of a 17-year-old former Boy Scout who is accused of brutally killing 52-year-old Pamela Vitale, prosecutors said during opening statements Thursday in the teen’s first-degree murder trial.

“It wasn’t Goth, it wasn’t even death, it was murder,” prosecutor Harold Jewett said of the nature of writings and drawings that investigators found in a search of the boy’s bedroom.

Oh, hell. They are using the “Judas Priest” prosecution strategy.

The defendant, Scott Dyleski, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Vitale, a mother of two and former Bay Area high-tech executive who was married to prominent California defense attorney Daniel Horowitz.

Dyleski is also charged with the special circumstance of murder during a burglary.

Dyleski allegedly disguised himself in a black ski mask, gloves and trench coat before entering Vitale’s home and making a surprise attack on his neighbor, shortly after 10 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2005.

“Scott Dyleski is not a killer and he did not commit this crime,” said his attorney, public defender Ellen Leonida, who promised the jury that DNA evidence and an inconsistent timeline will show the boy had nothing to do with Vitale’s murder.

Dyleski had multiple scratches and marks on his body and face when he was examined by police. Dyleski says he received them during a nature walk.

Isn’t that convenient?

A member of Dyleski’s household will testify, according to Leonida, that the time was 9:26 a.m. — before Vitale’s death — when the teen returned from his walk.

Leonida tried to bring Dyleski’s gentle qualities to the forefront. She described him as a kind kid, a helpful babysitter, a former little leaguer and Frisbee team member. He may have enjoyed dark music and dress, Leonida told jurors, but he cared deeply for life, and was so harmless that he didn’t eat meat or wear leather.

In my opinion, from the descriptions, I’ve heard members of Dyleski’s “household” are not exactly what I would call trustworthy. And so what if Dyleski is a vegan/vegetarian. That does not exclude him from murder. Hell, most animal rights activists care more for animals than they do for people.

Prosecutor Jewett portrayed the teen as a ruthless killer who stunned and attacked Vitale, leaving her with “26 separate devastating wounds to the head,” dislodged teeth, broken fingers.

“She fought as valiantly as she could, but the attack continued,” Jewett said.

Internal bleeding in Vitale’s brain led to her immediate death, Jewett said, but even after she died from her head injuries, the attack continued.

Vitale was stabbed so viciously in her abdomen, Jewett said, that her intestines were exposed. And then the killer carved a symbol into her back.

“Mr. Dyleski was big into symbols. He signs his name and puts his symbol on his artwork,” Jewett said.

The prosecutor drew a symbol on a white piece of butcher paper that represented the signature Dyleski allegedly carved into Vitale’s back, an H-shaped symbol with an extended T-bar.

Jewett told the jury that he planned to call some 40 witnesses, including Dyleski’s best friend, who tipped off police to the pair’s marijuana-growing scheme that allegedly was the impetus for Dyleski’s run-in with Vitale; the defendant’s girlfriend, whom he allegedly asked to keep a red backpack filled with evidence; and his own mother, a reluctant witness who agreed to cooperate in exchange for escaping prosecution herself after she destroyed clothes, notes and other evidence.

Prosecutors also plan to offer the jury about 100 exhibits, including DNA evidence, bloody clothing, footprints, glove prints, fingerprints, and journal writings and drawings found in Dyleski’s room.

“Listen carefully, in particular to the DNA evidence,” Leonida told jurors, alleging that a third DNA profile was found at the crime scene.

“Scott Dyleski had no motive whatsoever to commit this crime,” Leonida said.

The evidence sounds pretty overwhelming to me. I just hope the prosecution doesn’t screw it up by overplaying the “goth” card.

Possible Dyleski jurors quizzed on Goth, magic:

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 legal analyst Daniel Horowitz.

Prosecutor Harold Jewett noted that Dyleski, 17, appeared “neat and tidy” while clad in a blue dress shirt and tie in the Martinez courtroom. Jewett suggested in his questioning to potential jurors that they would hear evidence that the defendant had embraced a different lifestyle before his arrest.

When a prospective juror told Jewett that he enjoyed role-playing in the form of dressing up like people did during the Renaissance, Jewett asked whether he did that because “you’re visiting the dark side.” The man said no.

Please tell me that they’re not going with a “satanic ritual” killing prosecution. Welcome to 1985.

Just stick with the facts and the evidence. That shit may fly in Arkansas, but not in California.