MARTINEZ, Calif. — The children of former high-tech executive Pamela Vitale cried and held each other in the front row of the gallery Monday as prosecutors introduced photo after photo of a blood-drenched crime scene depicting their mother's bruised and battered body.

"The female subject had gashes on her head," testified Deputy Sheriff Enrique Henriquez, the first officer to respond to a frantic 911 call from Vitale's husband, prominent Bay Area defense attorney Daniel Horowitz.

"I could also see there was a great amount of blood on the carpet, the walls, the front door," Henriquez said.

Vitale was home alone, surfing the Web on a Saturday morning last October, when she was attacked by an intruder in a ski mask, black gloves and a trench coat, prosecutors say.

Vitale fought her attacker to the end, sustaining 26 head wounds, broken fingers and dislodged teeth.

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She suffered a gaping stab wound to her abdomen. On her back was a postmortem carving — a mark prosecutors believe was the signature symbol of 17-year-old murder defendant Scott Edgar Dyleski.

Dyleski, a former Boy Scout and awkward teen who wore Goth dress and dark eye make-up in his yearbook photo, was clean shaven in court Monday. He wore a blue dress shirt, dark tie and tan slacks. He showed emotion when the photos of Vitale's body were displayed.

During a break, Dyleski smiled and sipped water from a paper cup as he conversed with his defense attorney. His father, Ken Dyleski, has not been in the courtroom. His mother, Esther Fielding, is a witness and has not been present during proceedings.

Dyleski has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of his former neighbor.

His attorney claims he's a gentle and artistic teen who loves animals and earned his GED to start community college by 16.

Prosecutors say Dyleski is a calculated killer, who graduated from drawing bloody death scenes and penning dark verse to committing murder when he entered Vitale's home on Oct. 15, 2005.