MARTINEZ, Calif. — Scott Dyleski was a 16-year-old college student, animal rights' activist and budding artist when he woke up one morning last fall and apparently decided to bludgeon his 52-year-old neighbor to death.

The horrific crime left his friends and neighbors baffled. They would soon learn that the teen took evident pleasure in the act. He carved a symbol into his victim's back as she lay dying and then joked with friends that night about killer Lizzie Borden as they pondered how many whacks it would take to kill a human being.

"I can understand why people are struggling to understand what it was that caused you to do it ... People do not want to understand and to accept that someone who looks like you, who is the young man living next door, could be so evil," a judge said Monday before sentencing the teen to life in prison without parole for the Oct. 15, 2005, slaying of former high-tech executive and mother of two, Pamela Vitale.

People who knew Dyleski — his girlfriend, housemates and local parents — testified at the teen's murder trial that, while the 110-pound 5-foot-6 teen may have been an outsider at school, "he handled it well." He was kind, intelligent and funny, they said.

Dyleski was a Boy Scout who was several merit badges short of Eagle Scout. He was on the Ultimate Frisbee team. He had a close circle of friends and adults to lean on, as he lived with his mother and two other families in a peaceful, commune-style home in rural, woodsy Lafayette. His parents said he was excited about starting college classes and had hopes about his future.

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So how did the vibrant teen become a ruthless killer?

At the advice of his attorney, Dyleski has refused to admit guilt or make statements about the murder. But recently released court documents may shed light on the secret tragedies — alleged drug abuse, alleged physical abuse, and poverty — that riddled the teen's formative years, and which his parents still claim to be unaware of.

Living in a lean-to

According to a Sept. 21 sentencing memo prepared by Dyleski's public defender, Scott's parents, Esther Fielding and Ken Dyleski, separated when he was 2, and Scott and his mother moved frequently, living hand-to-mouth throughout Northern California.

When he was 6, his mother remarried, then divorced again. Shortly after Dyleski's arrest, he told a juvenile counselor that he was abused by his stepfather when he was 6 to 9, according to a presentencing probation report released Monday.

Ken Dyleski and Fielding say they were unaware of any abuse their son endured, according to the report.

By sixth grade, Dyleski and his mother were in Lafayette, living in sleeping bags on the property of his mother's friends, Fred and Kim Curiel.  Fred Curiel later built the boy and his mother a lean-to shack, constructed of straw and mud.

"For years, Scott lived without electricity, plumbing, heat or running water. He was able to shower only once a week, at the homes of his mother's friends," attorney Ellen Leonida wrote in her sentencing memo.

"The fact that Esther Fielding describes the years they spent in a lean-to as 'fun' and 'like camping' is a telling example of the profound narcissism that defines the adults in Scott's life," Leonida wrote. "Equally disturbing is the fact that Ken Dyleski never offered his home to Scott — not when his son was living outside, not when his son was living in a lean-to, not even during the time that his son's makeshift shack had become infested with vermin."

On Dec. 17, 1994, a referral was made to Children and Family Services for general neglect and on April 3, 1995, for emotional abuse, according to the probation report prepared by Deputy Probation Officer Eddy Tanaka.

"Neither referral was investigated and the case was closed," the report states. No further details were provided, except to note that Ken Dyleski said during a Sept 18, 2006, phone interview that he had contacted Children's Protective Services in the past because he was concerned about his son's living conditions.

"Mr. Dyleski maintained that he kept in close and regular contact with his son and not only took him out to dine, but also accompanied him to Boy Scout outings," Tanaka wrote in his report.

Esther Fielding also told Tanaka that Dyleski "always provided financial support for his child and was actively involved in his life."

But Ken Dyleski's second wife, Lyn Johnson, paints a different picture.

Johnson, who identified herself as Lyn Dyleski at the sentencing hearing, described her ex-husband as self-centered and unaffectionate toward his son. Johnson and Dyleski were divorced in June 2006, according to the probation report.

In 2002, Scott's half-sister died in a bizarre auto crash.

"She was the passenger in a car in which the driver was attempting to commit suicide," Leonida wrote. "Both Scott's sister and another passenger, neither of whom were aware of the suicide plan, were killed."

Witnesses at trial said Dyleski began wearing black continuously after his sister's funeral. He also had a deep interest in Goth music, black eye make-up, dark artwork and serial killers. With his girlfriend, he bantered philosophically about pain and torture and his disbelief in heaven or hell.

Fielding told Tanaka that her son spent six months in therapy after his sister's death, but when his grades improved treatment was terminated.

Heroin at a young age

By 2002, Fred Curiel had finished construction of his dream home, made of ecological materials, and Scott, his mother, Curiel and his wife and two kids, and another family all moved inside. Scott finally had his own bedroom.

In that room, investigators would later find his artwork in homage to Jack the Ripper and symbols that resembled the one carved into Vitale's back.

By 10th grade, Scott had quit high school, obtained his GED, and later enrolled in anthropology and psychology classes at Diablo Valley College.

He worked as a baker in a bagel shop co-run by his mother, sometimes waking up as early as 4 a.m. and staying until it closed, according to the report.