Prominent defense attorney's wife found slain

[cincinnati chili]

LAFAYETTE, California (AP) -- The wife of prominent defense attorney and TV legal analyst Daniel Horowitz was found slain in the couple's San Francisco area home, police said.

Horowitz called 911 Saturday evening to report that the body of his wife, 52-year-old Pamela Vitale, was in the entryway of their home in an upscale neighborhood, police said.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/16/att....ap/index.html

[savafan]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,172905,00.html

MARTINEZ, Calif. — Police have arrested a 16-year-old male suspect in the slaying of Pamela Vitale (search), the wife of famed criminal defense attorney Daniel Horowitz (search), a family friend told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Attorney Bob Massi (search) said he was with family members of Pamela Vitale (search) when they were notified that an arrest was made in her killing.

A 16-year-old boy who lived near Vitale and Horowitz's hilltop estate was taken into custody, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and The Contra Costa Times, who cited law enforcement sources on their Web sites.

The Chronicle reported that a source said police believe the teenager killed Vitale by striking her with a piece of crown molding 39 times in the head — and then carved some kind of gothic signature into her back.

The suspect had scratches on his legs and face consistent with a violent altercation when cops arrested him at a relative's house, the Chronicle reported.

The paper, citing anonymous sources, said the motive appeared related to a credit-card theft scheme.

Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jimmy Lee would not confirm an arrest had been made, but a news conference was scheduled for 11 a.m.

FOX News' Andrew Hard and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[cincinnati chili]

The suspect's photo is below. Good luck finding a jury of this guy's peers.

[westofyou]

Swank neighborhoods surround the area, it's just on the other side of the tunnel from Berkeley. I used to deliver car parts in Lafayette while I was in college.

Plenty of folks with messed up kids, just down the road was the cheerleader incident in the 80's.

[Caveat Emperor]

Not to diminish the seriousness of any murder...but, is it just me, or does the news media have an enfatuation with providing stories of affluant white women being murdered/kidnapped?

No sooner has the story about that girl in Aruba faded from the nation's conciousness entirely, this story starts getting national press. How many people are murdered in this country on a daily basis, and this is the one the pick out?

[Unassisted]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Not to diminish the seriousness of any murder...but, is it just me, or does the news media have an enfatuation with providing stories of affluant white women being murdered/kidnapped?

Affluent women make many purchasing decisions for their households and are a highly desired demographic for advertisers. My guess is that research shows that women are likely to tune in for stories about women who meet grisly fates, the lurid stories associated with those fates and the subsequent justice for their killers. Otherwise, the news channels are investing a lot of resources in these stories for no reason in particular.

[cincinnati chili]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Not to diminish the seriousness of any murder...but, is it just me, or does the news media have an enfatuation with providing stories of affluant white women being murdered/kidnapped?

No sooner has the story about that girl in Aruba faded from the nation's conciousness entirely, this story starts getting national press. How many people are murdered in this country on a daily basis, and this is the one the pick out?

I think you're right, and I've brought it up on this forum before. But I think this is a little bit more of a broadly interesting story, given the fact that her husband defends murderers for a living. All sorts of nasty suspect possibilities came up because of that (former client, family member of a former client's victim, someone involved with his current trial, HIM). Assuming this kid did it, this will end up being more of a random occurrence