MARTINEZ, Calif. — Greed, hate, personal tragedy and mistaken identity played compelling roles in 17-year-old Scott Dyleski's brutal slaying of former high-tech executive Pamela Vitale, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday during closing arguments in the teen's first-degree murder trial.

"An insidious, lazy and criminal greed," prosecutor Harold Jewett said of the boy's alleged decision to disguise himself in a black balaclava on Oct. 15, 2005, and kill Vitale at her home out of frustration with a foiled identity-theft scheme.

"Scott Dyleski is not a killer," defense attorney Ellen Leonida countered during her closing argument. Friends and teachers who know the boy, Leonida said, have testified that he is a kind, thoughtful teenager who was "peaceful."

"It's human to want closure, to want vengeance, to want to know what happened," Leonida said. "But justice is not convicting this boy of this crime."

Dyleski, a former Boy Scout, was arrested Oct. 19, after his best friend tipped police off to the pair's credit-card theft plan. The prosecutor suggested for the first time Tuesday that Dyleski may have mistaken Vitale for her neighbor, Karen Schneider.

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Dyleski admits he stole his neighbors' credit card numbers to purchase marijuana-growing equipment online. But he denies that the plan escalated to murder.

Records indicate that Dyleski used Schneider's stolen credit card number to try to purchase grow lights online. He listed his home address as the "ship to" location, and 1901 Hunsaker Canyon Road as the "bill to" address. That address was not Schneider's address, but  Vitale's.

When the lighting company refused to ship the order, Dyleski said he would "take care of it," according to his best friend, Robin Croen. The next day, Vitale was murdered.

"There's only one rational explanation," Jewett said. "And that is that Scott Dyleski thought Karen Schneider lived at 1901 Hunsaker Canyon Road."

Dyleski showed no emotion as the prosecutor theorized at length Tuesday about the teen's flawed character, the personal tragedies that might lead him to commit such a heinous act, and a chilling reconstruction of how he allegedly bludgeoned her to death with a rock.

Dyleski has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

"This is a kid who's never so much as been grounded for cutting class," defense attorney Leonida said, stressing that Dyleski had no motive to commit murder.