Tag: charged as an adult

Dyleski gets life in prison without parole:

Scott Dyleski has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of Pam Vitale.

Some words from the sentencing judge…

“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 pleas for leniency by Dyleski’s lawyer obviously fell on deaf ears, and took the brutal way Pam Vitale was killed into consideration rather than Dyleski’s youth and “troubled upbringing”.

Personal responsibility wins a rare victory.

Defense asks for leniency for Dyleski:

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 can change,” Leonida wrote.

He showed no leniency on Pam Vitale, so the state of California should not show him any.

Dyleski weeps as jury finds him guilty:

MARTINEZ – Scott Dyleski put a hand over his eyes, leaned over and wept Monday afternoon as he heard a jury’s verdict finding him guilty of first-degree murder and a special circumstance that will send him to prison for the rest of his life.

The jury deliberated about 18 hours before deciding Dyleski, 17, murdered 52-year-old Pamela Vitale on Oct. 15, 2005.

With the conviction on the special-circumstance count of murder in the commission of a burglary, Dyleski will be sentenced to state prison without possibility of parole. He was 16 when he killed Vitale.

The prosecutor said at trial Dyleski killed Vitale in connection with a scheme to purchase marijuana-growing equipment with stolen credit cards.

Prosecutor Harold Jewett argued that Dyleski may have killed Vitale mistakenly believing that she was another neighbor. He was angry at the other neighbor for thwarting his plan to purchase the equipment and for running over his dog a month earlier.

However, jurors did not believe that theory, said 55-year-old Concord resident Peter DeCristofaro, the single juror willing to speak with reporters.

“That didn’t even come up,” he said. “We didn’t buy that.”

He said all but one juror was certain from the first day of deliberations about guilt, but it took three days to decide that it was premeditated murder.

“As far as guilt, we got that nailed down pretty quick,” he said.

Sentencing is set for Sept. 26.

Dyleski Jurors Begin New Week Of Deliberations:

The jury in the trial of Scott Dyleski has been deliberating, and on Friday had requested the following items…

E-mail correspondence between Dyleski and his friend who is accused of taking part in a marijuana growing scheme

The emergency contact list of the Hunsaker Canyon Road residents

Aerial photos of the Hunsaker Canyon neighborhood, where Vitale lived

Photo of mansion Daniel Horowitz and Vitale were building at the time of her death

Photos of the content of Dyleski’s red backpack. The items in the backpack were eventually turned over to police by Dyleksi’s mother.

Hernandez said the jury started deliberations ten minutes ahead of schedule on Friday. Hernandez said by midday, jurors requested even more items submitted into evidence. They included a photo of Scott Dyleski after his arrest, as well as photos from his room. They also asked to see the tape lift of shoe print and a photo of shoe print on a plastic lid.

As soon as I hear anything about a verdict, I will let you know.

Prosecutor: Dyleski misidentified Vitale:

Scott Dyleski killed Pamela Vitale mistakenly thinking she was another neighbor who had accidentally killed his dog and foiled his plan to buy marijuana-growing equipment, a prosecutor said Tuesday in closing arguments at Dyleski’s trial.

“It doesn’t make sense any other way,” Harold Jewett said.

In her closing, Dyleski’s defense attorney referred to her client a half dozen times as “a 17-year-old boy” and a kind teenager, and said somebody else killed Pamela Vitale.

Jewett portrayed Dyleski as dismal and depressed, blaming the defendant, but also his parents and teachers for allowing a killer to brew.

“You left me to die in the dark streets with nothing more than broken dreams. … You raised me to hate, and hate I will, because now I live, I live for the kill,” Jewett read from a school poem Dyleski wrote.

The prosecutor added that influential people in Dyleski’s life did not intervene.

“That’s really cool,” Jewett read from comments written by a teacher about the poem.

Deputy public defender Ellen Leonida reminded the jury how her client’s friends testified he was a non-violent vegan who cared about people.

I don’t know if it’s the way the media is reporting it, but this trial sounds like a complete clusterfuck.

I won’t be surprised, no matter what verdict is announced.

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.