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?
