MARTINEZ—The sprawling hillside compound where the wife of prominent criminal defense lawyer Daniel Horowitz was beaten to death over the weekend was remote and difficult to reach, but anyone determined to get inside would have had an easy time making it past a wrought-iron gate guarding the driveway.

There were so many people on the Lafayette property - building contractors, neighbors and others - that a note explained how to open the gate and proceed up the steep driveway. And the surrounding terrain was so wild that a person could easily enter on foot undetected.

“You could just walk right around the side of the gate, there are countless ways to get in here,” said Joseph Lynch who sold Horowitz and his wife, Pamela Vitale, an adjoining four-acre lot where he had a deal to live for 10 more years in a camper. “There are too many ways to come in undercover, without being in a vehicle or going on the road.”

Horowitz’s co-counsel and longtime friend Ivan Golde said Monday that police were closer to solving the case, but authorities warned it was premature to make such remarks and said no suspect was in custody.

“There is a potential suspect, but it’s not a former client,” Golde said outside a Martinez courtroom where he and Horowitz were defending Susan Polk in a high-profile murder case until a mistrial was declared over Vitale’s slaying.

An autopsy Monday revealed that Vitale was beaten to death, Contra Costa County sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Lee said.

Golde said Sunday that Horowitz was worried about his own safety and was armed with a gun and other weapons because of his line of work defending drug dealers, killers and other serious criminals. Golde said he was worried about his own safety as well, and that police had warned him to be careful. He wouldn’t say why.

Horowitz’s lawyer, Robert Massi, said Horowitz was not a suspect and that he has an alibi for the hours leading up to when he found his wife. Horowitz had breakfast Saturday with Massi and then spent the afternoon working with colleagues on the Polk case before returning home and finding his wife about 6 p.m.

“He’s trying to be as close to the vest as he can but obviously he is emotionally devastated by what he saw and what he observed,” Massi told NBC’s Today show. “It was almost so surreal to him, almost as if he was seeing something else besides his beautiful wife. “

Horowitz and Vitale were in the process of building a 7,000 square-foot hilltop home on the property, which is surrounded by pasture and a wooded canyon in the wealthy suburb of Lafayette, about 20 miles east of San Francisco.

“I’m never going back there again,” Horowitz told the San Francisco Chronicle in a teary interview published Monday on the newspaper’s Web site. “It’s the most beautiful place ... but all I see is her face.”

Neighbor Lynch, 54, told The Associated Press on Monday that he has known Horowitz for more than a decade, and that they had clashed at times. The latest incident involved Lynch’s attack dog, which he said lunged at Horowitz. Police were called and Lynch said he got rid of the dog.

The couple sought a restraining order in Contra Costa County Superior Court against Lynch in June, but it was not granted. In a court filing, Horowitz accused Lynch of “creating misery at Hunsaker Canyon Road,” and said he was “using methamphetamine and drinking heavily and during these periods he is delusional, threatening, violent and dangerous.”

“He has become almost evil,” Horowitz wrote.

Lynch said he usually had an amicable relationship with the couple, he liked Vitale and said he was never served any court papers.

Lynch said he was on the property on the day Vitale’s body was found. He said he spent the day walking his German shepherd and was building a door for the dog when he heard sirens wailing and tires squealing. He said he then began getting calls from concerned neighbors.

Lee said Lynch and Horowitz had both been cooperative when questioned by authorities.

Horowitz, who is often seen on television commenting on high-profile crimes, was not in court Monday for the Polk case. He returned to his home in a convertible briefly Sunday, waving off cameras.

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Laurel F. Brady cited excessive news coverage of Vitale’s killing when she dismissed jurors and continued the Polk case until Dec. 2. Polk claims she stabbed her psychologist husband, Felix, in self-defense in the pool house of their Orinda home in 2002.

Polk, who will remain in custody, was crying in the courtroom when the mistrial was declared.

Vitale, 52, a former high-tech marketing executive, worked at her husband’s law practice, creating and managing databases.

Horowitz, 50, has handled a wide range of criminal cases - from white collar federal crimes to more than a dozen death penalty murder cases. He defended former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko in a multicount money-laundering and fraud trial. In May, a judge threw out half of the convictions against Lazarenko, who is under house arrest at an undisclosed location in the Bay Area.

Horowitz also was known to seek out reporters to offer his commentary on unrelated cases, becoming an on-air staple during the Scott Peterson case.

He was self-assured, quick on his feet and fast to turn apparently damning evidence in favor of a defendant.

The night before his wife’s body was found, he was discussing Polk’s case on CNN with former prosecutor Nancy Grace.

“I’m just going to miss her so much,” Horowitz told the Chronicle, speaking of his wife. “Just being in a room together with her was enough.”
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press