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Sheila Davalloo Maintains Innocence In Romantic Rival’s Slaying: ‘I’m Going To Uncover The Truth’
In an exclusive prison interview, Sheila Davalloo claims she was not the one who stabbed her former co-worker and romantic rival to death.
For more than a decade, former research scientist Sheila Davalloo has been serving a 25-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of her ex-husband, Paul Christos.
While Davalloo has come to accept the fact that she stabbed Christos, she continues to deny her involvement in another crime of which she was convicted — the murder of her former co-worker and romantic rival, Anna Lisa Raymundo.
In an exclusive prison interview with “Snapped Behind Bars: Sheila Davalloo,” the convicted killer tried to cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence that helped secure a subsequent 50-year prison sentence against her.
At the time of her murder, Raymundo was engaged to Nelson Sessler, another employee at Purdue Pharma who had previously dated Davalloo. Sessler had ended his affair with Davalloo to pursue a more serious relationship with Raymundo in late 2002, and he began spending most nights at Raymundo’s Stamford, Connecticut, apartment.
It was there where Raymundo was found stabbed to death on Nov. 8, 2002.
Prosecutors argued that Davalloo murdered Raymundo to reunite with Sessler, and that her romantic infatuation also motivated her to try to kill her husband.
Three major pieces of evidence led the jury to find Davalloo guilty of first-degree murder — her fraudulent 911 call, a drop of her blood at the crime scene and her lack of an alibi.
After murdering Raymundo, Davalloo called 911 from a pay phone in hopes of throwing investigators off her trail.
“I think a guy is attacking my neighbor,” Davalloo told the dispatcher, adding that she did not know her neighbor's name and that the supposed assault was taking place in apartment 105.
At trial, a voice analyst expert testified it was Davalloo’s voice on the 911 call, a fact that Davalloo continues to dispute.
“It’s very weak evidence, in my opinion,” Davalloo told “Snapped Behind Bars.” “Whoever knows me, including my husband at the time and friends, they have said that it does not sound like me.”
When it comes to the drop of blood found on a sink handle at Raymundo’s apartment — which came back as a match to Davalloo — she says the DNA hit is a result of cross-contamination, and that she was never at the crime scene.
A check of Purdue Pharma’s security system records, however, showed that on the day of Raymundo’s murder, Davalloo left work at 10:53 a.m. and returned at 1:53 p.m., lining up with the time of the slaying.
Davalloo argues she often took extended lunch breaks, and that she was in New York, not Connecticut, for the entire three hours. Her cell phone tower records “should” back up her alibi, Davalloo told “Snapped Behind Bars.”
Currently, Davalloo is appealing her murder conviction and trying to clear her name before she begins serving her next sentence.
“I might not find out exactly who did it, but I will be exonerated … I feel like it’s very easy to get convicted … with very little evidence,” Davalloo said.
Her appeal hinges on the claim that the blood evidence tying her to the crime scene is the result of a botched investigation, and that she was not at Raymundo’s apartment.
“I feel like only those who feel a sense of injustice in a certain part of their crime would speak up. That is my number one reason for doing this,” she said. “I want the truth in Connecticut, and I’m going to uncover the truth.”
To hear more exclusive prison interviews and learn more about how investigators cracked the two cases, watch “Snapped Behind Bars: Sheila Davalloo” on Oxygen.
