Dyleski Petitions Court for New Look at His Case; Says Investigators Should Look at Daniel Horowitz

Scott Dyleski, the Lafayette teenager convicted of murdering the wife of East Bay defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, is asking the Contra Costa County Superior Court to reopen his case.

Lawyers for Dyleski filed a habeas corpus petition on May 23, suggesting that his defense attorney in his 2006 trial failed to investigate the possibility that someone else — perhaps Horowitz — was behind the murder of Pamela Vitale.

Dyleski, now 22, was 16 when a jury said he bludgeoned and stabbed Vitale to death on Oct. 15, 2005. Vitale, 52, was found in a trailer near the home she and Horowitz were building in rural Hunsaker Canyon. Investigators discovered that a  double-crossed "T" or "H" had been etched into her back with a knife. Vitale also was stabbed in the stomach and had been struck repeatedly in the head, possibly with a rock, authorities said.

According to prosecutor Harold Jewett, Dyleski had stolen credit-card information belonging to his neighbors to buy marijuana-growing lights online. One of the neighbors, Karen Schneider, uncovered the fraud in September 2005 and alerted authorities.

Dyleski, a former Boy Scout, was two weeks short of his 17th birthday at the time of the murder and 17 when he was convicted. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. His attorney said he was home at the time of the killing.

The habeas corpus petition comes after Dyleski lost his appeals before a state appellate court, the California Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court. It asks for a hearing and an order for a new trial.

Horowitz rejected the allegations of possible circumstantial evidence against him Tuesday.

"They're just making things up right and left. It makes me angry," he told Bay City News.

Horowitz said his whereabouts on the morning Vitale was killed — at business meetings and a gym — have been "thoroughly checked."  Horowitz discovered Vitale's body on returning home that evening.

He said that while the allegations are distressing, the painful part of the case remains the murder.

"Pamela was murdered. That's what's painful. She was killed," he said.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett, who prosecuted the case, said, "They're grasping at straws here."

Jewett said the evidence of Dyleski's guilt, including a bloody shoeprint and Vitale's blood on shoes and clothes linked to him, was "irrefutable."

"I don't know how much clearer it could be," he said.

The two lawyers who filed the petition on Dyleski's behalf, Kate Hallinan and Sara Zalkin, of San Francisco, were hired by Dyleski's mother, Esther Fielding, in
late February to pursue appeals through the habeas corpus process
after Dyleski's direct appeals failed.

Hallinan said Tuesday that while the petition is based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the attorneys believe that Dyleski is innocent.

"We truly believe there was an incredible travesty of justice," she said.

In a habeas corpus proceeding, a court receiving a petition can hold a hearing or dismiss the case without a hearing. If a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge dismisses Dyleski's petition, his lawyers can appeal and file a similar petition in the federal court system.

Dyleski's trial attorney, former Contra Costa County Deputy Public Defender Ellen Leonida, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. She now is an assistant federal public defender in Oakland.

Bay City News Service reports and Patch staff contributed to this report.