Sheila Davalloo
Encyclopedia
Sheila Davalloo is an Iranian
-American
woman who was convicted of attempted murder
for stabbing her husband, three times as he was blindfolded and handcuffed during a game in their Pleasantville
condominium
.
. In the mid-1970s, Sheila and her family came to the United States
as immigrants
settling in the town of Yorktown Heights, New York
a hamelet
located in Westchester County, New York
. She excelled in high school and went off to college at SUNY Stony Brook
on Long Island
located in Stony Brook, New York
. She earned a biochemistry degree after college. She married her first husband, a business man and a family friend named Farid Moussavi. She then went to a graduate program for her Master's Degree
at New York Medical College
in Valhalla, New York
in the Westchester Medical Center area. In class she met Paul Christos and the two began to date. Paul did not know that Sheila was married when they were in graduate school together. After Moussavi eventually found out she had an affair with Christos, he filed for a divorce. Sheila Davalloo and Paul Christos married in 2000 and moved into a condominium on 21 Foxwood Drive, Pleasantville, New York
. Sheila got a job as a research scientist at Purdue Pharma
in Stamford, Connecticut
where she met a fellow worker and soon to be lover Nelson Sessler. When Davalloo and Sessler began to have an affair, she would get her husband to leave their Foxwood Drive condominium by saying her schizophrenic brother Shahiem, who didn't know she lived with anyone, was staying over. Paul had never met Sheila's brother and he would take all his belongings with him and stay at his parents' house or a motel so Sheila could spend time with her sick brother. It was an odd request but Paul was happy to oblige. After he would leave, Sheila would hide all evidence that she had a husband and invited Sessler to stay over. She lied to Sessler, claiming she was divorced. Nelson was unaware of the fact she was married. In September 2002 Sheila tells a psychiatrist she is having trouble giving up "the fantasy of Nelson."
police, who also responded to the 911 call and took her to the Westchester Police Department. She was questioned by police all night and stated that her husband's injuries were not caused by her but were the result of a work-related accident when Paul was working in New York City
. When police examined Christos they found him bleeding from multiple stab wounds to the chest. He required extensive surgery because of his injuries, authorities said. Westchester
and Pleasantville
detectives were continuing to investigate the crime and planned to speak to Christos after he had recovered from his injuries. After looking at Sheila's cell phone records and her recent calls, police found out she didn't actually call 911, but she called somebody else on her phone under the contact name "Nelson" during the stabbing at 4:59 PM. The police discovered his last name was Sessler by contacting their employer and stating that they had spoken to a man named Nelson but had not gotten a last name. The next morning Sheila Davalloo was arrested for attempted murder, first-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon and placed into the Westchester County County Jail. On March 26, 2003 Nelson Sessler, Sheila Davalloo's lover was questioned by the Stamford police about the stabbing of her husband and was surprised to find out Sheila was married. When they told him what Sheila called him for, he said that she wanted him to come over her house for a date around 8:30 to 9:00 PM.
, the small courtroom was packed with people. Christos told a judge he had never seen Davalloo act violently before until she stabbed him in the heart 3 times. When Davalloo pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder charge, she was taken to court by a psychiatric nurse from the Westchester Medical Center. In their opening statement, the prosecution portrayed Sheila as a deceitful and manipulative woman. Sheila didn't want to shame her family because in her family divorce was a shameful thing, so to avoid a second divorce and more embarrassment she decided to kill her husband. According to the prosecution Sheila tried to kill her husband so that she could remain with her lover Nelson Sessler. To back up their theory prosecutors played the police interrogation tape on which Sheila lied to police on how Paul got his stab wounds. On February 18 the judge deliberated and he reached his verdict the next day. Before reading the verdict Judge Thomas Dickerson told Sheila that she tried to kill her husband, waited for him to die and had lied over and over, and accused her of being a dangerous threat to society. Davalloo was convicted of attempted murder and first-degree assault. The detectives were in court for the verdict, and Alison Carpentier said Davalloo was a dangerous woman who thought she could get away with what she did. "I found her to be deceptive from the beginning," Carpentier said, "I think she's very calculating." Davalloo's parents did not attend the trial. She maintained a close relationship with her in-laws, often sitting with them in the hallway during breaks in the trial. As court officers handcuffed her, she told Brundage to give her purse to her mother-in-law. Christos' mother began crying after the verdict was announced and declined to comment afterward. Davalloo had been free on $50,000 bail during her trial, but Judge Dickerson ordered Sheila to be held in the Westchester County jail until her sentencing on April 6. "Her goal was to deliver a corpse to the emergency room", said Judge Thomas Dickerson during her sentencing hearing. She faced a minimum five year sentence but at her sentencing hearing on April 20, 2004 Sheila Davalloo was sentenced to the maximum of 25-years in state prison without the possibility for parole which was the toughest sentence allowed by New York State law. Paul Christos had filed for divorce, but he still remained supportive of his wife after the stabbing. He said he wanted Davalloo to get treatment for her alleged mental illness and not go to prison. After that, he suggested she might deserve some prison time, but he remained uncertain what her true intentions were when she plunged the knife into him.
television series Snapped
, which focuses on female criminals and murderers.
where she was serving her 25-year sentence. In Bedford Hills, Davalloo was getting treatment for her bipolar disorder according to court records. Evidence against Davalloo includes a security video at Purdue Pharma which shows that Davalloo left the property shortly before 11 A.M. the day of the murder, DNA from bloodstains found on a bathroom faucet handle matched both Davalloo and Raymundo and the initial call to police, which prompted them to find Raymundo's body and was made from a pay phone a half-mile from the murder scene, is consistent with Davalloo's voice. She was arrainged on a murder charge in the state Superior Court in Stamford. Police have been gathering evidence against Davalloo, but because Davalloo was serving a 25-year sentence in Bedford Hills, they needed to have her extradited to Connecticut. State Department of Correctional Services officials said that Davalloo was sent to Connecticut under an interstate agreement detainer and that she had agreed to go. The judge set $1 million bail during her arraignment on a murder charge in the state Superior Court. On January 14, 2009 Sheila pleaded not guilty to the murder appearing alert and businesslike in a black suit and a hot pink turtleneck in court. Police said Davalloo was on a long lunch from work when she drove into Palmer Landing Community on Harbor Drive, parked her car and rang the doorbell to Raymundo's apartment. Sessler had left Raymundo's apartment about four hours earlier. Davalloo stabbed Raymundo about 20 times and slammed her head with a blunt object. They found broken glass, blood spatters and other evidence in the foyer, and strands of hair on Raymundo's hands.
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
woman who was convicted of attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...
for stabbing her husband, three times as he was blindfolded and handcuffed during a game in their Pleasantville
Pleasantville, New York
Pleasantville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Mount Pleasant. Pleasantville is home to a campus of Pace University and to the Jacob Burns Film Center...
condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
.
Early life, education and marriage
Sheila Davalloo was born on May 11, 1969 in IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. In the mid-1970s, Sheila and her family came to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as immigrants
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
settling in the town of Yorktown Heights, New York
Yorktown Heights, New York
Yorktown Heights is a census-designated place in the town of Yorktown in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 1,781 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Yorktown Heights is located at ....
a hamelet
Hamelet
Hamelet is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Population:-External links:*...
located in Westchester County, New York
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
. She excelled in high school and went off to college at SUNY Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
located in Stony Brook, New York
Stony Brook, New York
Stony Brook is a hamlet located in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, which is on the North Shore of Long Island...
. She earned a biochemistry degree after college. She married her first husband, a business man and a family friend named Farid Moussavi. She then went to a graduate program for her Master's Degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
at New York Medical College
New York Medical College
New York Medical College, aka New York Med or NYMC, is a private graduate health sciences university based in Westchester County, New York, a suburb of New York City and a part of the New York Metropolitan Area...
in Valhalla, New York
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place that is located within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, in Westchester County. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
in the Westchester Medical Center area. In class she met Paul Christos and the two began to date. Paul did not know that Sheila was married when they were in graduate school together. After Moussavi eventually found out she had an affair with Christos, he filed for a divorce. Sheila Davalloo and Paul Christos married in 2000 and moved into a condominium on 21 Foxwood Drive, Pleasantville, New York
Pleasantville, New York
Pleasantville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Mount Pleasant. Pleasantville is home to a campus of Pace University and to the Jacob Burns Film Center...
. Sheila got a job as a research scientist at Purdue Pharma
Purdue Pharma
Purdue Pharma L.P., is a privately held pharmaceutical company founded by physicians and now located in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. In its early years, Purdue was known for its antiseptic product, Betadine Solution, and its Senokot laxatives...
in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
where she met a fellow worker and soon to be lover Nelson Sessler. When Davalloo and Sessler began to have an affair, she would get her husband to leave their Foxwood Drive condominium by saying her schizophrenic brother Shahiem, who didn't know she lived with anyone, was staying over. Paul had never met Sheila's brother and he would take all his belongings with him and stay at his parents' house or a motel so Sheila could spend time with her sick brother. It was an odd request but Paul was happy to oblige. After he would leave, Sheila would hide all evidence that she had a husband and invited Sessler to stay over. She lied to Sessler, claiming she was divorced. Nelson was unaware of the fact she was married. In September 2002 Sheila tells a psychiatrist she is having trouble giving up "the fantasy of Nelson."
The stabbing
On Sunday March 23, 2003 on a quiet afternoon Sheila Davalloo suggested that she and Paul play a harmless little game that she learned at work, and she handcuffed and blindfolded her husband under the pretext of playing a "game". Sheila stabbed her husband with a 4-inch paring knife from the kitchen in the chest twice claiming it was an accident and lost the key to the handcuffs. She then refused to call 911 despite his pleading. Davalloo then grabbed her cell phone and dialled 911 and told Christos that she couldn't get through because the line was busy. Sheila tried to get a nearby doctor to the house but she said they were closed. Sheila found the handcuff key and took Christos to the Westchester Medical Center only after he begged her. Sheila released Paul from the handcuffs and blindfold and put him in the back seat of her car and drove him to the Westchester County Medical Center. Instead of parking in the emergency room lot, she drove to a secluded remote area of the medical center parking lot and stabbed him a third time, piercing his heart. At 5:30 P.M., an onlooker saw the confrontation between Christos and Davalloo near the medical center's Behavioral Health Center and called 911. Employees of the Medical Center saw Paul struggling for help and immediately called 911. Christos was taken into the Emergency Room where he underwent immediate open heart surgery. Davalloo fled and then came back and tried to get Paul back in her car but the employees wouldn't allow it. She was finally caught by the Mount PleasantMount Pleasant, New York
Mount Pleasant is a town in Westchester County, New York, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 43,724.-Geography:...
police, who also responded to the 911 call and took her to the Westchester Police Department. She was questioned by police all night and stated that her husband's injuries were not caused by her but were the result of a work-related accident when Paul was working in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. When police examined Christos they found him bleeding from multiple stab wounds to the chest. He required extensive surgery because of his injuries, authorities said. Westchester
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
and Pleasantville
Pleasantville, New York
Pleasantville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Mount Pleasant. Pleasantville is home to a campus of Pace University and to the Jacob Burns Film Center...
detectives were continuing to investigate the crime and planned to speak to Christos after he had recovered from his injuries. After looking at Sheila's cell phone records and her recent calls, police found out she didn't actually call 911, but she called somebody else on her phone under the contact name "Nelson" during the stabbing at 4:59 PM. The police discovered his last name was Sessler by contacting their employer and stating that they had spoken to a man named Nelson but had not gotten a last name. The next morning Sheila Davalloo was arrested for attempted murder, first-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon and placed into the Westchester County County Jail. On March 26, 2003 Nelson Sessler, Sheila Davalloo's lover was questioned by the Stamford police about the stabbing of her husband and was surprised to find out Sheila was married. When they told him what Sheila called him for, he said that she wanted him to come over her house for a date around 8:30 to 9:00 PM.
The murder of Anna Lisa Raymundo
Sheila Davalloo is also a suspect for the murder of Anna Lisa Raymundo. Davalloo was dating Nelson Sessler at the same time Raymundo dated him, when all three worked at Purdue. Sessler ended his relationship with Davalloo when he became engaged with Raymundo. Two months after the killing, Davalloo resumed her relationship with Sessler. On November 8, 2002 at 12:19 P.M., police received an anonymous phone call from a woman at a pay phone at the nearby Duchess restaurant on Shippan Avenue. The caller said her neighbour was being attacked by a male, according to a search warrant obtained by police. Police went to the condo, found Raymundo's door unlocked, pushed it open and saw her body lying in the foyer. Signs of a violent struggle included glass fragments, debris and blood spatters. According to sources, Raymundo was beaten and had suffered a head injury and was stabbed nearly 20 times. She had hair in her hand. A woman was spotted outside her condominium that afternoon. In May 2003, police said the investigation was focusing on a woman who worked with Raymundo at Purdue and, since then, evidence has mounted against Davalloo. In January 2003 Sheila goes to Nelson Sessler's apartment and tells him she's sorry to hear what happened and later they resume their relationship.Trial and Conviction
On February 4, 2004 Sheila Davalloo stood trial for the attempted murder of her husband Paul at the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains, New YorkWhite Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
, the small courtroom was packed with people. Christos told a judge he had never seen Davalloo act violently before until she stabbed him in the heart 3 times. When Davalloo pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder charge, she was taken to court by a psychiatric nurse from the Westchester Medical Center. In their opening statement, the prosecution portrayed Sheila as a deceitful and manipulative woman. Sheila didn't want to shame her family because in her family divorce was a shameful thing, so to avoid a second divorce and more embarrassment she decided to kill her husband. According to the prosecution Sheila tried to kill her husband so that she could remain with her lover Nelson Sessler. To back up their theory prosecutors played the police interrogation tape on which Sheila lied to police on how Paul got his stab wounds. On February 18 the judge deliberated and he reached his verdict the next day. Before reading the verdict Judge Thomas Dickerson told Sheila that she tried to kill her husband, waited for him to die and had lied over and over, and accused her of being a dangerous threat to society. Davalloo was convicted of attempted murder and first-degree assault. The detectives were in court for the verdict, and Alison Carpentier said Davalloo was a dangerous woman who thought she could get away with what she did. "I found her to be deceptive from the beginning," Carpentier said, "I think she's very calculating." Davalloo's parents did not attend the trial. She maintained a close relationship with her in-laws, often sitting with them in the hallway during breaks in the trial. As court officers handcuffed her, she told Brundage to give her purse to her mother-in-law. Christos' mother began crying after the verdict was announced and declined to comment afterward. Davalloo had been free on $50,000 bail during her trial, but Judge Dickerson ordered Sheila to be held in the Westchester County jail until her sentencing on April 6. "Her goal was to deliver a corpse to the emergency room", said Judge Thomas Dickerson during her sentencing hearing. She faced a minimum five year sentence but at her sentencing hearing on April 20, 2004 Sheila Davalloo was sentenced to the maximum of 25-years in state prison without the possibility for parole which was the toughest sentence allowed by New York State law. Paul Christos had filed for divorce, but he still remained supportive of his wife after the stabbing. He said he wanted Davalloo to get treatment for her alleged mental illness and not go to prison. After that, he suggested she might deserve some prison time, but he remained uncertain what her true intentions were when she plunged the knife into him.
TV shows
In 2006 Davalloo's life was profiled on the OxygenOxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
television series Snapped
Snapped
Snapped is an American true crime television series that airs on the Oxygen Network. Snapped debuted on August 6, 2004 and is produced in conjunction with Jupiter Entertainment.-Synopsis:...
, which focuses on female criminals and murderers.
Recent events
Nearly five years to the day after Raymundo's murder in Stamford, authorities obtained a warrant on November 6, 2007 to arrest Sheila Davalloo. On December 29, 2008 Stamford police picked up Davalloo at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for WomenBedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women is a prison for women in Bedford Hills in the Town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, USA. Bedford Hills, the only New York State Department of Correctional Services women's maximum security prison, is the largest women's prison in New York State...
where she was serving her 25-year sentence. In Bedford Hills, Davalloo was getting treatment for her bipolar disorder according to court records. Evidence against Davalloo includes a security video at Purdue Pharma which shows that Davalloo left the property shortly before 11 A.M. the day of the murder, DNA from bloodstains found on a bathroom faucet handle matched both Davalloo and Raymundo and the initial call to police, which prompted them to find Raymundo's body and was made from a pay phone a half-mile from the murder scene, is consistent with Davalloo's voice. She was arrainged on a murder charge in the state Superior Court in Stamford. Police have been gathering evidence against Davalloo, but because Davalloo was serving a 25-year sentence in Bedford Hills, they needed to have her extradited to Connecticut. State Department of Correctional Services officials said that Davalloo was sent to Connecticut under an interstate agreement detainer and that she had agreed to go. The judge set $1 million bail during her arraignment on a murder charge in the state Superior Court. On January 14, 2009 Sheila pleaded not guilty to the murder appearing alert and businesslike in a black suit and a hot pink turtleneck in court. Police said Davalloo was on a long lunch from work when she drove into Palmer Landing Community on Harbor Drive, parked her car and rang the doorbell to Raymundo's apartment. Sessler had left Raymundo's apartment about four hours earlier. Davalloo stabbed Raymundo about 20 times and slammed her head with a blunt object. They found broken glass, blood spatters and other evidence in the foyer, and strands of hair on Raymundo's hands.