Police Arrest Neighbor Teen in Death of Lawyer's Wife
Kelli Phillips, Nathaniel Hoffman & Kiley Russel
Knight Ridder Newspapers
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Walnut Creek, California (US):
Investigators arrested a 16-year-old neighbor in the gruesome bludgeoning death of Pamela Vitale, who might have been killed to conceal a credit card scam the boy was allegedly running to finance a marijuana farm.
Vitale was killed Saturday in the modular home she shared with her husband, famed defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, in Lafayette, Calif.The boy, Scott Dyleski, was arrested Wednesday night at the home of a family friend in Walnut Creek."We're so pleased that he's been apprehended and taken off the street. Now we'll let the courts do the rest," said Ivan Golde, co-counsel with Horowitz in a current case.Contra Costa County prosecutors are leaning towards charging the 16-year-old as an adult, said Daniel Cabral, the deputy district attorney in charge of juvenile prosecutions."I think there was wonderful relief that (a suspect) ... was caught," said Bob Massi, a close friend to Vitale and Horowitz.Massi was among those who gathered in Lafayette's Oakmont Memorial Park for a private funeral for the former high-tech executive who was remembered as a deeply loving mother, wife and friend.
Vitale's adult son and daughter and Horowitz's parents were present, along with three representatives from cable networks, including TV commentator Nancy Grace, whom Horowitz has described as a close friend.
Amongst the wooded hillside plots, Vitale's loved ones did their best to come to grips with her violent death.Investigators believe Dyleski hit the 52-year-old woman dozens of times with a piece of crown molding and another object, a law enforcement source said.
She was also stabbed and slashed with a sharp object and the killer carved into her back a double crossed "T," which the source described as some kind of gothic symbol.
Detectives in the sheriff's high-tech fraud unit were already investigating Dyleski and a teenage friend, who has not been implicated in the killing, over a scheme that involved stealing credit card bills from mailboxes and using the numbers to buy merchandise online.
The two allegedly devised a plan to grow marijuana and were trying to procure high-powered lighting and other equipment.On Wednesday, someone tipped off police that Dyleski was allegedly involved in the Vitale slaying.
Oct. 20, 2005
Kelli Phillips, Nathaniel Hoffman & Kiley Russel
Knight Ridder Newspapers
____________________
Walnut Creek, California (US):
Investigators arrested a 16-year-old neighbor in the gruesome bludgeoning death of Pamela Vitale, who might have been killed to conceal a credit card scam the boy was allegedly running to finance a marijuana farm.
Vitale was killed Saturday in the modular home she shared with her husband, famed defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, in Lafayette, Calif.The boy, Scott Dyleski, was arrested Wednesday night at the home of a family friend in Walnut Creek."We're so pleased that he's been apprehended and taken off the street. Now we'll let the courts do the rest," said Ivan Golde, co-counsel with Horowitz in a current case.Contra Costa County prosecutors are leaning towards charging the 16-year-old as an adult, said Daniel Cabral, the deputy district attorney in charge of juvenile prosecutions."I think there was wonderful relief that (a suspect) ... was caught," said Bob Massi, a close friend to Vitale and Horowitz.Massi was among those who gathered in Lafayette's Oakmont Memorial Park for a private funeral for the former high-tech executive who was remembered as a deeply loving mother, wife and friend.
Vitale's adult son and daughter and Horowitz's parents were present, along with three representatives from cable networks, including TV commentator Nancy Grace, whom Horowitz has described as a close friend.
Amongst the wooded hillside plots, Vitale's loved ones did their best to come to grips with her violent death.Investigators believe Dyleski hit the 52-year-old woman dozens of times with a piece of crown molding and another object, a law enforcement source said.
She was also stabbed and slashed with a sharp object and the killer carved into her back a double crossed "T," which the source described as some kind of gothic symbol.
Detectives in the sheriff's high-tech fraud unit were already investigating Dyleski and a teenage friend, who has not been implicated in the killing, over a scheme that involved stealing credit card bills from mailboxes and using the numbers to buy merchandise online.
The two allegedly devised a plan to grow marijuana and were trying to procure high-powered lighting and other equipment.On Wednesday, someone tipped off police that Dyleski was allegedly involved in the Vitale slaying.
Oct. 20, 2005
