MARTINEZ, Calif. — A jury found former Boy Scout Scott Dyleski guilty of the first-degree murder of his neighbor Pamela Vitale, the wife of prominent California defense attorney Daniel Horowitz.

The verdict means Dyleski, 17, will spend the rest of his life in prison.

As the first verdict was read, Dyleski shut his eyes and bowed his head, while his lawyer put her arm around him. (VIDEO)

"I think this kid just made a bad choice. It's just a real waste," said Peter DeCristofaro, the sole juror to discuss the verdict with the public afterward. "Pamela Vitale seemed like a really fun person. It's a shame I had to get to know her this way."

Jurors found the teen guilty of the special circumstance of murder committed during the commission of a burglary, which triggered a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole. He will be sentenced Sept. 26.

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"The way that she was killed will be haunting for a long time, for all of us," said the victim's sister, Tamara Hill. "We have a long road to travel. But this was the first real mountain, and we're very relieved."

Prosecutors say Dyleski snuck off to his 52-year-old neighbor's home in rural Lafayette, Calif., on a Saturday morning in October 2005.

Pamela Vitale was a mother of two kids, Mario and Marisa, and the wife of attorney Daniel Horowitz.

Vitale was sitting alone in her living room, Web surfing for news of her husband's recent court cases and researching her family's genealogy, according to a search of her laptop.

Prosecutors say Dyleski picked up a fist-sized rock, hid his face beneath a black balaclava and attacked the mother of two at about 10:12 a.m.

Jurors viewed crime-scene photos and listened to testimony from the pathologist who performed the autopsy, which revealed the pitched struggle that took place between the victim and her killer.

Vitale suffered 26 head wounds, broken fingers and dislodged teeth. Her body was bruised and battered. The torn sock on her right foot was pushed up above her ankle. She suffered a gaping stab wound to her abdomen, likely delivered as she lay dying on the floor.

Prosecutors say Dyleski took a sip from Vitale's water bottle and washed his knife in the bathtub, leaving behind bloody smears.

Daniel Horowitz was defending a woman, Susan Polk, in a high-profile murder case, when his wife, Pamela Vitale, was murdered.

During the three-week-long trial, jurors also heard emotional testimony from the victim's husband, Daniel Horowitz, who discovered his wife's lifeless body in a fetal position on the blood-soaked carpet of the entryway.

"The bottom line is he's obviously a very sick, miserable person, who took pleasure in murdering someone in a very painful way," Horowitz said Monday, adding that there was nothing "joyous" in the verdict.

"There's nothing for Pamela," he said.

Dyleski's mother, Esther Fielding, who was a reluctant witness for the prosecution, arrived after the verdict had been read and the jury was excused. Neither of the teen's parents commented.

Vitale's mother, however, had words of criticism and empathy for Fielding.

"Unfortunately, I think Scott was one of those children brought up by somebody who doesn't know how to bring up children," Carol Ludtke said. "I do have sympathy. Now her torture begins ... the end of her boy's real life has come, as it came to us when he murdered our Pamela."

Pamela Vitale's mother, Carol Ludtke, spoke to reporters after the verdict.

Powerful evidence linked Dyleski to the crime scene, including DNA evidence, a sinister to-do list found in his bedroom and a mark carved into the victim's body, a veritable calling card that resembled the boy's signature symbol on his personal artwork and poetry.

Investigators recovered the bloody balaclava, a black shirt and a black glove inside a duffel bag affixed with Dyleski's name tag, inside an abandoned van belonging to his mother, which was parked near a home they shared with two other families.

Forensic analysts found a partial DNA profile on Vitale's right foot that matched Dyleski, with a 1 in 43,000 probability of belonging to another Caucasian male. Vitale's DNA was found on the duffel bag, with a statistical probability that the profile could be shared with 1 in 13 quadrillion other female Caucasians. The sole of one of his shoes matched a bloody shoe print found at the crime scene.

A to-do list, said to be in Dyleski's handwriting, was found in the boy's dresser. It read: "Knock-out/kidnap; Question; Keep captive to confirm PINs; Dirty work; Dispose of evidence; Cut up and bury."

Investigators also found a bumper sticker in his room that read: "I'm For the Separation of Church and Hate." The H in "hate" had an extended cross-bar, just like the H-shaped symbol carved into Vitale's back.

Dyleski has maintained his innocence since his Oct. 19 arrest, and his attorney presented the case to jurors as a whodunit mystery.

"This is a kid who's never so much as been grounded for cutting class," public defender Ellen Leonida told jurors during her closing argument.

Dyleski was home when the crime occurred, according to the shaky testimony of his housemate Fred Curiel, who said the boy returned from a nature walk at 9:26 a.m.

Curiel's wife put the time closer to 10:45 a.m. and said she saw bleeding scratches on his face when he walked in.

Leonida told jurors that the real killer left behind a trail of DNA.

Forensic investigators found partial DNA profiles on the balaclava, glove and duffel bag that did not match Dyleski or Vitale.

"Somebody else put that bag up there," Leonida said. "Somebody whose DNA is on the handle."

But Leonida did not call any experts to back up the defense's theory, relying instead on a string of friends and teachers who testified that the boy was kind, gentle and peaceful.

His mother agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for escaping prosecution herself after she destroyed clothes, notes and other evidence.

Dyleski's best friend and his girlfriend were also reluctant prosecution witnesses. They downplayed their testimony about the teen's interest in serial killers, Goth music and marijuana.

The first tip leading police to the defendant was from Dyleski's best friend, Robin Croen. Croen told police the two were scheming to purchase marijuana-growing equipment online using the stolen credit cards of Dyleski's neighbors. They hoped to grow pot in Dyleski's closet.

Even though Vitale and Dyleski did not know one another, and there was no evidence he stole her credit-card information, his computer activity linked him to Vitale.

Vitale's daughter, Marisa, held an angel keychain with "Pamela" etched on the front.

Records indicate that Dyleski tried to purchase grow-lights online using Vitale's address and the stolen credit card of her next-door neighbor. When the company refused to ship the order, Croen testified that Dyleski told him he would "take care of it." Vitale was killed the next day.

Vitale's family members say they will visit their mother in October when they place a permanent marker at her Lafayette grave.

"Now we have the time to push all this horribleness aside," said the victim's daughter Marisa Vitale, 29, "and to bring back to the front all the things we love about our mother."

"We're just so relieved," her son Mario, 31, said. "We're looking forward to turning this new chapter in our lives."