Dyleski guilty of first degree murder

By Caitilin McAdoo, Bay City News Service

August 28, 2006

Scott Dyleski was found guilty of murder in the first degree and a special circumstance burglary charge this afternoon of the brutal murder of his Lafayette neighbor, 52-year-old Pamela Vitale, on Oct. 15.

Dyleski was also found guilty of the use of a bludgeon. Because of the special circumstance, he could spend the rest of this life in prison.

The jury in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez began deliberating at 11 a.m. Wednesday after a four-week trial. Dyleski, who was 16 at the time of the murder but who was tried as an adult, bowed his head as the verdict was read, while his attorney, Ellen Leonida, rubbed his back.

Vitale was a beloved member of the Lafayette community and the wife of prominent attorney and legal analyst Daniel Horowitz until she was bludgeoned to death in her home on a Saturday morning. The couple had been living in a double-wide trailer at 1901 Hunsaker Canyon Road while building their dream house, an Italian-style mansion, on the same property.

A symbol etched into Vitale's back haunted newspapers across the Bay Area as details began to emerge about the allegedly kind and gentle boy who had been arrested for the crime. According to witnesses, Dyleski began to change after his half-sister was killed in a car accident in August 2002.

Dyleski did not take the stand in his own defense.

According to prosecutor Harold Jewett, Dyleski might have intended to kill a different neighbor and went to Vitale's house expecting to meet a woman by the name of Karen Schneider, who had run over Dyleski's dog and attempted to foil his plan to buy marijuana-growing equipment using stolen credit card information.

Dyleski will be sentenced Sept. 26 at 9 a.m. in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez.

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