Dyleski Trial: Character Witnesses Questioned

Aug. 17 - BCN -- Deputy Public Defender Ellen Leonida called five witnesses to testify to accused murderer Scott Dyleski's kind and gentle character this morning in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez.

Joanna Tams, a geology teacher and Ultimate Frisbee coach at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, said Dyleski "was a really wonderful part of our Frisbee family."

Dyleski attended Acalanes for two years before getting his general equivalency diploma during the summer after his sophomore year so that he could attend Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill in the fall of 2005.

He was arrested for the brutal Oct. 15 murder of his neighbor Pamela Vitale in the early morning hours of Oct. 20, two months after starting college.

Until his arrest, Dyleski continued to attend Ultimate practice at Acalanes regularly despite having changed schools, Tams said.

She described Dyleski as a caring, well-loved, responsible, dedicated and encouraging member of the team. She also said he cared about animal rights and was environmentally aware.

"He wanted to live a life that didn't impact anyone," she said.

Vitale's husband, attorney and legal analyst Daniel Horowitz, found his wife's bludgeoned body in a pool of blood in the couple's rural Lafayette home. A neighbor testified that Horowitz's reaction could be heard about a half-mile down Hunsaker Canyon Road and he sounded like "a wounded animal."

According to the autopsy report, Vitale died from blunt force trauma that caused bleeding on every surface of her brain. She was struck in the head at least 26 times with a small, irregular object that could have been a rock, according to forensic pathologist Brian Peterson.

According to prosecutor Harold Jewett, Dyleski killed Vitale as part of a plot to buy marijuana-growing equipment using stolen credit card information.

Susan Lane, a graphic design teacher at Acalanes who had taught Dyleski, said that his artwork was not particularly disturbing. In fact, she said it was "very mainstream."

"It's not more disturbing than what Stephen King would do and he's an artist," Lane said.

She said that Dyleski was a quiet, thoughtful, polite artist and that none of the work he had done had caused her concern.

When Jewett asked her if a drawing of a person holding a severed head in one hand and a knife in the other would cause her concern, she said no and that she has seen drawings of bodies cut down the middle with their guts hanging out that didn't cause her concern.

She estimated that 20 percent of her students were involved in "goth" culture, as Dyleski allegedly was, and that many of them drew gruesome pictures similar to Dyleski's.

"If a student idolizes Britney Spears I would find it as offensive as a student idolizing Marilyn Manson," she said.

A psychology teacher from Diablo Valley College said Dyleski was a good student and always sat in the front row in class.

Rebecca Gray, a friend of Dyleski's from middle school, said he was always polite and kind and was like a big brother to her and her friends, who were two years younger than Dyleski.

Gray's mother also testified that Dyleski was polite and kind and would always ask her, "How are you doing, Ms. Gray?"

She said that she had heard Dyleski make jokes about torturing children as a way to discipline them, but that both her daughters also made similar jokes and she wasn't concerned that they would actually hurt anyone.

The sixth witness Leonida called was Contra Costa County sheriff's Detective Rachelle Fawell, who testified about an interview she conducted shortly after the murder with a key witness in establishing Dyleski's whereabouts on the morning of Oct. 15.

Leonida said in her opening statement that Dyleski couldn't have murdered Vitale because he was home at the time of the slaying.

That fall, Dyleski and his mother were living with two other families just a short walk down the hill on Hunsaker Canyon Road from where Vitale and Horowitz lived. Kimberly Curiel, who owned the house with her husband Frederick Curiel, told Fawell that she had seen Dyleski come home around 9:30 a.m. on the morning Vitale was murdered.

According to computer forensics experts, Vitale was alive at 10:12 a.m. when she conducted her final Internet search, at which time it is believed that the killer entered her home.

During her testimony in trial, Kimberly Curiel estimated that Dyleski came home closer to 10:45 a.m. that Saturday.

Frederick Curiel, who had originally told investigators he had seen Dyleski at 9:26 a.m., said during his trial testimony that he was no longer sure what time he had seen Dyleski that morning, and, after talking to his wife, believed that it was later than he had originally thought.

Leonida is expected to rest her case Monday and both attorneys are scheduled to deliver their closing arguments on Tuesday.

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