Martinez, Calif. – A 16-year-old has been arrested in the slaying of the wife of criminal defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, authorities said today.
The name of the suspect was not released. Investigators were trying to determine the motive for the slaying, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
The teenager lived near the huge hilltop estate being constructed by Horowitz and his wife, Pamela Vitale, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Contra Costa Times reported on their Web sites, citing law enforcement sources.
Horowitz returned home in the wealthy San Francisco suburb of Lafayette on Saturday evening and found his wife’s bloodied body in the trailer home they were living in while a 7,000-square-foot home was being built on the property. Authorities said Vitale, 52, was beaten to death.
Investigators believe the killing was related to a scheme that involved using stolen credit card numbers to fund a marijuana growing operation, an unidentified law enforcement source told the Chronicle.
The source said the boy had ordered equipment for the pot-growing operation and mistakenly thought the supplies were delivered to Horowitz and Vitale’s home.
The source said the suspect went there Saturday to look for the equipment and got in a fight with Vitale, striking her dozens of times in the head with a piece of crown molding that was left behind at the crime scene.
The boy apparently had scratches on his arms and legs from the fight, the source said.
“She fought back very hard. That was very obvious from the scene,” Horowitz said Wednesday, adding that she had a severe head wound.
Horowitz rose to national prominence as a cable news commentator during the Scott Peterson murder trial and has done legal analysis for CNN and MSNBC.
Authorities questioned dozens of people in the case, including Horowitz, relatives of some of his clients, and a man who lived on the couple’s property.
