MARTINEZ, Calif. — The teenager accused of brutally murdering his neighbor, Pamela Vitale, showed no emotion Thursday as his mother testified against him in a preliminary hearing and offered a shaky recollection of the son's behavior, and her own actions, immediately after Vitale's death.

Scott Dyleski, 17, sat quietly at the defense table, writing on his notepad and never looking at his mother, Esther Fielding, even when she sobbed twice after saying the name "Pamela."

Dyleski was arrested on Oct. 19, 2005, four days after prominent criminal defense attorney Daniel Horowitz came home to find Vitale, his wife of 11 years, beaten and stabbed in what authorities say appeared to be a violent struggle.

Fielding was arrested nine days after her son for allegedly hiding and destroying evidence, including a journal and notes from his backpack that she threw into a fire.

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Charges were dropped when she agreed to testify against him, but as a witness for the prosecution Thursday, Fielding spoke in a timid voice, wavered in her memory and appeared to contradict statements she previously made to police.

She also described a strange story her son relayed to her before his arrest.

According to Fielding, Dyleski said he was walking home on the morning of Vitale's murder, when a woman pulled her car over, reached out the passenger-side window, and grabbed his arm.

"He said she was pretty panicked, and said something about, 'I can't believe this is happening,'" Fielding testified. "He couldn't remember what else she said, but she took off."

Fielding said that Dyleski did not know Vitale, but was worried she was the woman in the car who allegedly clutched his arm so hard that his DNA would have been under her fingernails, and he would be fingered as her killer.

"I said, 'Well, this sounds like an odd story.' And he said, 'But it happened,'" Fielding testified. "I was thinking that if this did happen, probably nobody would ever believe it."

Prosecutors allege that the boy's alibi was an attempt to evade arrest. They have presented evidence over the last three days, including credit-card fraud that linked the boy to Vitale's address, an ominous "to do" list that was found in his room, bloody clothing found in his duffel bag, and symbolic imagery in his room that resembled the symbol Vitale's killer carved into her back — all of which they hope will convince a judge that there is sufficient evidence to bring Dyleski to trial.

Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett grew increasingly irate with Fielding on Thursday, at one point attempting to have her declared a hostile witness. The judge denied his request.

Vitale's children and sister snuck suspicious glances to one another in the gallery as Fielding appeared to struggle through several hours of questioning.

Fielding said she first became concerned about her son a day after the murder when a neighbor, Karen Schneider, confronted her with documents that ultimately led to her believe that Dyleski was involved in a credit-card scam.

Her son, she admitted, had attempted to purchase special lights to grow marijuana, using Schneider's credit card and the credit card of another neighbor, John Halpin. The items, ordered online, were never shipped.

Vitale's credit card did not appear to be compromised, but in at least instance, Vitale's address, which was similar to Halpin's, was listed as a "bill to" address.

"I thought it looked like an unfortunate coincidence," Fielding said.

Her testimony Thursday suggested that she believed that her son's greatest crime was not murder, but identity fraud.

Scheme gone wrong?

Prosecutors have tried to link Dyleski to Vitale through the failed credit-card scheme, and a detective testified Thursday about phone calls that may help support their theory.

Detective Cary Goldberg said he interviewed a customer service representative at the lighting company, and learned that a male caller, whom prosecutors believe to be Dyleski, called the company about the unshipped lighting equipment. He instructed them to send his order next-day air to 1901 Hunsaker Canyon Road, which was Vitale's address.

The representative told the detective that she refused Dyleski's request, telling him the items would not be shipped because the credit card was denied.

The next day, Vitale was murdered.

On Thursday, Fielding said for the first time that Vitale's credit-card information was listed along with Halpin's and Schneider's on the scraps of paper from her son's belongings that she burned in a fire after his arrest.

"Have you told anybody, before this very second, that Pamela's name was in there?" Jewett asked.

"I may be wrong about that. I'm sorry," Fielding said. "On second thought, I think I'm wrong about that. I don't think I saw Pamela's number."

Fielding explained that she suffered from memory lapses due to a thyroid condition.

Prosecutors allege that Dyleski killed Vitale on a Saturday morning, stuffed his raincoat and bloody clothes in a duffel bag, and then hid them in an abandoned van, which was scheduled to be towed away. The van was on the property he lived on with his mother and 10 other people.

Fielding said she noticed the bag in the van on Monday and examined the raincoat, but left it behind. She was cagey about her son's explanation for the raincoat.

"I'm under oath and I can't remember his exact words and I don't want to lie," Fielding testified. "I think he said something like, 'old clothes.'"

Jewett read back her police statement to her, in which she said Dyleski told her, "It was old anyway, and I just left it there."

She refused to confirm that Dyleski admitted he placed the bag of clothes in the van, clothes that later became key evidence against him.

Dyleski's public defender pointed out that the bag, although affixed with the boy's name tag, could have been borrowed by any of the other members of the household.

Hearings will conclude Friday, at which time the judge is expected to rule on whether Dyleski should be brought to trial.

His father, Ken Dyleski, told Courttv.com that the events of the past three months have been "heart-wrenching."

Dyleski said he and Fielding split when Scott was about 3 years old, but he was still close to his son, they vacationed in Canada the last week of August, and he saw Scott every Thursday up until the teen's arrest.

"He was tired and complained about not getting enough sleep, because he was working and going to school," Dyleski told Courttv.com. "But he told me he was finally happy getting to go to college. He was making plans for the future. He was not showing any dark, brooding behavior."

Fielding testified that her son studied online to receive his GED at age 16 and had been taking history, abnormal psychology and anthropology classes at Diablo Valley College.

Ken Dyleski said that he remained supportive of his son, and was keeping an "open mind" about the evidence.

"This has taken all of us by surprise and shock. It's completely uncharacteristic of Scott," Dyleski said.

Attorney Ivan Golde, Horowitz's colleague and an acquaintance of Vitale, has watched the proceedings, but did not attend on Thursday.

"This kid has hurt so many people, including his own family," Golde told Courttv.com in an e-mail. "What is in his mind? Where do these kids go so wrong?"