Pamela Vitale
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| Pamela Vitale | |
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| Born | January 11, 1953 Wichita Falls, Texas |
| Died | October 15, 2005 Lafayette, California |
Pamela Jeanne Vitale (January 11, 1953 – October 15, 2005), was a mother of two and wife of noted California defense attorney Daniel Horowitz.
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[edit] Background
Pamela was born on January 11, 1953 in Wichita Falls, Texas. As a seven-year-old, Pam was selected through statewide piano competitions to play in a concert at Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota. She did this for three years, competing with musicians much older than she. When Pam was nine years old, she was presented in her own solo concert in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
After high school, Pam attended Minnesota State University, Mankato. After two years, Pam left college and was hired as a stewardess by Pan American Airlines. She was stationed in London, England, flying world-wide. While in London, Pam met Mario Vitale. They were married in a civil ceremony in Hawaii, and later in a religious ceremony in Los Angeles, California. They had two children together, Marisa and Mario Jr. After the divorce, Pamela decided to make a new life for herself and her children so she loaded up her old Fiat and drove to California in 1978. [1]
[edit] Daniel Horowitz
According Daniel Horowitz, he and Pamela met 12 years ago when Vitale moved to the Bay Area after working in Hollywood as an independent movie producer and attending film school at the University of California Los Angeles. He had written a screenplay about one of his cases and was shopping it around. Mutual friends brought the two together. According to Horowitz, "she was interested in reading my script," he remembered. "But once I met her I fell completely in love and no longer cared about the script."
Vitale was a single mom raising a 16-year-old daughter and an 19-year-old son. Vitale moved to the Bay Area with her daughter, Marisa, and took a job working for Pacific Bell. She eventually became an executive at Informix. When the company was sold, Vitale took her severance pay and began working in her husband's law firm maintaining databases.
Vitale married Horowitz on November 6, 1994 [2]
[edit] Murder
Vitale was found dead by her husband on October 15, 2005 at the Lafayette mobile home where the couple was living while their large house was being built nearby. Medical examiners have concluded that Vitale died from blunt trauma to the head, but she also sustained wounds including a stab wound to the abdomen, and an alleged gothic carving in her back.
Vitale's funeral was held on October 19, 2005 at Oakmont Memorial Park in Lafayette. She is survived by her husband and her two children, Marisa and Mario Jr.
On October 20, 2005 police arrested a 16-year-old from Lafayette, California, Scott Dyleski, in connection with the crime. Dyleski was tried as an adult and has been convicted of special-circumstances murder and burglary. He was later convicted of first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole.
Horowitz and Vitale had been building a 7,000-square-foot Italian-style mansion for the past two years in Lafayette, in Contra Costa County, California. [3]
