Snapped: Women Who Murder - Sheila Davalloo (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 6, 2020

Part 1 of Sheila Davalloo, the only convicted murderer featured on Snapped twice! Davalloo tells her story in an exclusive prison interview. We look back at the crimes that put her behind bars, reveal more details from her past, and examine a possible connection to a cold case.Season 26, Episode 15Originally aired: December 1, 2019See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll be there, but we'll be there, we'll be there. Snapped has covered hundreds of femme fatales, but only one woman stands apart from the rest. Sheila Davalu.

She's the only killer who's been featured twice. First in 2006, for the attempted murder of her husband, Paul Christos. What grabbed everyone's attention right away was certainly the blindfolds, the handcuffs, this sex plague on haywire. You start screaming, you're going to kill me, you're trying to kill me. You believe we're a moment in time, we're back.

And Sheila Davalu was profiled again in 2012 for the murder of a romantic rival. The walkway from the front door was a bloody mess. I think the guy attacked my mother. She was stabbed numerous times. Had she not went to stab her husband, she would have totally gotten away with this. She was a narcissist, and she's a terrible liar.

That is a very cold, calculating, devious woman. She thinks she's going to get away with it every single time. Sheila Davalu is currently serving a 75-year prison sentence at New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. Despite being convicted of two vicious crimes, Sheila has maintained her innocence. For the first time on Snap, Sheila sits down to tell her story in her own words, as we look

back at the cases that put her behind bars. I feel like I had plenty of opportunity to kill him if I wanted to. I think there's a lot of misconceptions out there, and I would like my side of the story to be told. But there's more to Sheila's past than just her two previous convictions. Now, new information regarding a cold case has convinced detectives Sheila may be connected to a third crime as well.

We're looking at Sheila for another murder. The many similarities between the cases were striking. It was something that had to be followed up on. I told them straight up that I would be the perfect suspect for that case. I'm going to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

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little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a Um. Okay. Oh, my. Oh, my. Hello. My name is Sheila Davalu. Um, I am convicted of two crimes. I'm here right now to talk about it and to put some, um, you know, perspective into things that I think there's a lot of misconceptions out there

and I would like my side of the story to be told. To better understand her story, Sheila takes us back to the very beginning when she was born in 1969. I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, but I was around two. My family and I went back to our country of origin, which is Hi-Ran. At the age of 10, I experienced the revolution there, and then a 10-year period of war.

When Sheila was 17, her family fled the spreading violence of the Middle East and returned to the safer shores of the US, eventually settling in the cozy New York suburb of Yorktown Heights. Her parents were respectable people. They worked in medicine, public health. Sheila followed in her parents footsteps,

education-wise, the woman is super intelligent. She wanted to be a scientist and work in pharmaceuticals. In 1994, while in grad school at New York Medical College, Sheila takes notice of a handsome fellow student named Paul Christos. I was drawn to Paul mostly because of his intelligence. I found him very attractive. We hit it off.

We had a lot in common. They strike up a relationship and Paul has finally met somebody who he can relate to. But Sheila is hiding something big from Paul, a huge secret. Sheila's married. She has a husband living in New York City. Although Sheila claims she has a perfectly good explanation for everything in her life, many experts consider her a master manipulator. One driving force for Sheila Dobbler is self-interest. So when she sees something she wants, she will

do anything to get it, and that means hiding secrets. In the fall of 1995, after dating Paul for more than a year, the truth about Sheila is finally exposed. The husband calls, Paul answers, they have a chat, and they decide to meet for coffee in the city. It's not confrontational or anything. It's like, I'm married to her. Experts aren't the only ones who think Sheila twists the truth. Those closest to her explain her chaotic personality. The person he describes is really total chaos,

total drama, all the time. Now, if you ask Sheila about it, she tells the story of, well, this was an arranged marriage. You know, my parents wanted me to marry an Iranian guy because we're Iranian, and that's what they wanted, and that's what I did. And I didn't tell Paul because we're separated, and I'm going to divorce the guy anyway.

My first marriage was at the age of 19. I mean, it wasn't as happy and healthy. I was not doing very well. I wanted more, and I wanted to pursue my education. So it was not the best of the situation. I interviewed Paul extensively, and he describes, you know, it's time she comes back and she's very sincere. She's very charming. She does get a divorce and she goes back to Paul and tells him and Paul accepts that.

Despite the fact that their relationship began with Sheila lying from the beginning, she and Paul stayed together. Paul and I dated for almost eight years before we decided to get married. And I would say we had a good relationship those eight years, and nothing sticks out as problematic. In season four, snapped detailed the progression of their relationship. She married Paul right after graduation

and took a high-paying job at nearby Purdue Pharma, one of the most prestigious drug companies in the country. Paul began teaching classes in New York and the couple settled into a condo in the posh suburb of Pleasantville. She had a good job, good marriage, lived in a nice place in Westchester County. She seemed to be a woman who had an awful lot going for her.

But the couple's success came at a price. Long hours and distant commutes left little time for them to be together. About a year into their marriage, their relationship changes. and commutes left a little time for them to be together. About a year into their marriage, their relationship changes. Once we got married and lived together, things got a little more difficult.

I was working a lot around the clock. He was very busy, PhD program, and teaching were just like coexisting, like roommates at one point. Their marriage starts to drift apart and the way Paul explained it to me was, I wasn't paying much attention really because I was so dedicated to getting that doctorate and you know, Sheila would be off with her friends from Purdue, Pharma. So, they weren't communicating. They weren't having sex.

Then, in the fall of 2001, something happens that adds even more stress to their relationship. Sheila told Paul she had some news. Her schizophrenic brother, Shaheen, was coming for a visit. Paul had never met her brother. They had a relationship for years,

got married, had a wedding, and Paul had still never met her brother. He had always been under the standing that the brother was very emotional and that he had outbursts and would be upset if he found out that she had gotten married. She told Paul that the schizophrenic brother was going to come visit her

and that Paul needed to clear out his belongings. It was an odd request, but Paul obliged. He would leave, and he would take his belongings. With him more, she would hide his belongings. And he would go to his friend's house or his brother or his parents' house, you know. And let Sheila have time with her brother. Soon, her brother's visits grew more and more frequent.

By the spring of 2003, Paul had reached his wit's end. Paul is very upset about where things stood in the marriage. He goes to Shila. I'm not doing this anymore. This is crazy. For Paul, what he doesn't know is that things in his house, it's about to get much, much worse. Coming up, Sheila's obsession with a coworker

ignites a plot to eliminate anyone who stands in her way. He didn't know it, but he was dying. It was a bliss attack. It was violent. It was personal. And Sheila finally breaks her silence about her convictions. I still don't believe the DNA that they have in that case.

Why did this one evidence lead the crime lab? And later, a cold case brings detectives back to Sheila for yet another murder. We know what happens to Sheila Davilus, co-workers, if she chooses. I was visited right here in this room by detectives from yet another precinct. It's March 23rd, 2003 in Pleasantville, New York. For most of the residents, it's just another Sunday afternoon. But not for Sheila Davilou and her husband, Paul Christos. The couple are three years into their marriage and struggling to connect.

My marriage was really falling apart. I was focused on my job, and he was rightfully focused on his career. We really weren't spending time together anymore, and it just sort of happened that we kind of drifted apart. Making matters worse, Sheila's husband, Paul, is fed up by being forced to leave his home every time her brother comes to visit. Looking for ways to rekindle the spark in their relationship,

Sheila comes up with an idea. Sheila told him that she wanted to play a game with him in which she would be handcuffed and blindfolded, and they would touch each other with objects, and they would have to guess what those objects were, and they would take turns being the person touching with the objects and actually being handcuffed and blindfolded.

This is not the first time that we had done this. He has handcuffs, and he has some paraphernalia like that. And it was a, without getting into detail, it was a sort of mutually agreed upon game that we played. The game was mostly for Paul's benefit. It was for his gratification. I can't say that I get any pleasure out of it or anything like that. I don't.

We were trying to work on our relationship. It was a bizarre proposal to say the least, but Paul was up for anything that might help his troubled marriage. The couple stole away to the spare bedroom. Sheila went first. She was handcuffed to the chair with the blindfold. And Paul, the remote control for television, on her face, had to guess what it was.

And then it's Paul's turn. Sheila blindfolds Paul. He's handcuffed to a chair in the room. She touched him with an item or two, and then all of a sudden he felt this sharp thrust in his chest. Paul cried out in pain. He, as Sheila say, was an accident. And like a second later, he feels another pain to his chest.

And Sheila tells him, I believe you'd be leading. When Sheila removed the blindfold, Paul saw blood spreading all over his shirt. He told Sheila to un-cuff him, but Sheila couldn't find the key. I had to break the whole chair apart and slide his hands out of it. Eventually, when he moved, I found the key, and I took the cups off of him.

But that was after I broke the chair. Experts believe this proves the depths of Sheila's deceptive manipulation. Here's this supportive, sweet man who constantly does the things that she asks, putting himself in a position of extreme trust, blindfold, and handcuffed bound to a chair, and she's gonna take a man to that.

That is a very cold, calculating, devious woman. Paul didn't know it at the time, but he'd been stabbed. Sheila continues to claim it was an accident. At the time, I was very confused and I was in shock. My intent was never to cause his demise. He screamed for her to call 911. Sheila grabbed her cell phone, but half an hour later, help still hadn't arrived.

The ambulance never shows. So Paul starts to question her, please call back, tell them, you know, I need somebody here, and she makes excuses that they're on other calls, and they can't get here so quick. But be patient, they say to wait. Losing blood and growing weaker by the second, Paul begged Sheila to take him to the emergency room,

but Sheila had an idea. She told Paul she would go get a doctor from a nearby walk-in clinic. She's in and out of the door within five minutes, and she comes back and tells him that they were close and they couldn't help them. And he insists on going to the hospital at this point. She threw Paul in the back seat of their car

and sped off towards Westchester Medical Center. But just before they arrived at the hospital, Sheila took an abrupt detour. She drives past the emergency room and she goes to a remote area of the parking lot. The strange detour is a detail that will eventually be used against Sheila in court. If she was trying to help Paul, why would she park so far away?

I think I've been criticized a lot for not driving him directly to the ER. I drove him directly there, but I didn't know exactly what building. I didn't, I wasn't paying attention, so I drove him back there, but I didn't know exactly what building, I didn't, I wasn't paying attention, so I drove him to a different building. I think it was the psych unit, which I had been to before because my brother was hospitalized there. Her behavior is not odd if you think about her

as just a self-centered person who wanted to kill her husband. It is very odd if she were genuinely a loving wife who was hoping that she got to the ER in time. But nothing about her behavior suggested that she cared that Paul survived. She less dangerous behavior doesn't stop after they arrive at the hospital. She pocks the car.

She steps out of the car, and she leans into the back seat as if to help him out. Paul noticed a flash of metal in Sheila's hand. Suddenly, she plunged a knife deep into his chest. That's when you realize that she was trying to kill him. He starts screaming, you're going to kill me, you're trying to kill me. Paul lunged from the car and struggled to fight back. He grabs the knife away from her, and he's able to throw it

amid some bricks that are piled up so that the knife is then unreachable. Seeing the scuffle, a group of bystanders rushed to Paul's aid. But before they could get there, Sheila hopped back in the car and tore out of the parking lot. I think at some point she realized he wasn't dying, and she better at least make it look like she's trying to help him. So she decided to take him to the ER,

thinking and hoping he'll die in the car. He didn't. So she passed by the ER and took him to another place. He still isn't dead. So she stabbed by the ER and took him to another place. He still isn't dead. So she stabbed him again. And I, at that point, clearly, she's not thinking long-term consequences because that will never, in a million years,

look like an accident. That knife blade had just nicked his heart. And he's got some internal bleeding going on. He didn't know it, but he was dying. As Paul laid bleeding on the pavement, Sheila's tail lights faded into the distance, but she wouldn't get far. Someone had called 911, and police were on their way.

Soon, all of Sheila Davalu's secrets would be on the table, and police would discover why she was so desperate to get rid of her husband. You know, I lied to the police. I lied to the detective as to what happened. And I think I was just my shame embarrassment. I just didn't want to discuss it.

Tell me about the coin book. There's a bunch of it. I'll bet one. Do you know how to get rid of it? I don't know. I just want it. I don't know. I mean, you think I did it?

Well, I think something went wrong, yeah. It was very bizarre. It's nothing. It's nothing I've ever done before. 36-year-old Paul Christos had been left for the hospital. He was in the hospital. He was in the hospital. He was in the hospital. He was in the hospital. He was in the hospital. He was in the hospital. He was in the hospital.

On March 23, 2003, a horrifying scene is unfolding outside a hospital in Westchester, New York. It was very bizarre. It's nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing I've ever done before. 36-year-old Paul Christos had been left for dead in a remote parking lot just a block from the Westchester Medical Center.

After his wife, Sheila, had stabbed him and fled the scene. Some bystanders had come to his aid, and an ambulance was on its way to rush him to the emergency room. They see that he has life-threatening injuries. One of the knife wounds is actually nick the heart. But just before paramedics showed up, Sheila pulled back into the parking lot.

Panicked, she tried to force Paul back into her car, but the others wouldn't allow it. Finally, the ambulance arrived, with the police just seconds behind it. Finally, the ambulance arrived with the police just seconds behind it. As an officer rode with Paul in the ambulance, another drove Sheila down to police headquarters for questioning.

Paul had been fighting for his life, so he had a heightened state and was alert enough to tell the police that his wife had tried to kill him. She had stabbed him. They struggled for the knife. He got the knife away, and he threw it into a certain area. As doctors work to save Paul's life, police question his wife, Sheila.

In the interrogation room, detectives told Sheila that Paul might not make it. But instead of concern, Sheila's reaction was one of indifference. Instead of asking about how her husband is doing, um, start asking about other things, such as, can someone go by my house to take care of my dogs? And this is when, you know, her husband

is possibly dying in open heart surgery. So obviously, that gave us clues that something bizarre was happening here. When detectives asked Sheila how her husband had been stabbed, she said that Paul had come home from work with the mysterious wounds. I didn't notice in the first I was playing this dog, I don't know what it was doing. And then he came and he said, you heard, and you laid out a floor. And he was like, can you look at it?

You see it? It's bleeding. And I get nauseous. And I look at what I couldn't look at. It's like, as a divorcee, you want to be in the look at it to make sure it's okay. And I looked at it, and I said, it's not bleeding. She had a story prepared.

And this is probably a story she had prepared well in advance. And police let her know. Well, Paul actually told us a different story. She's told that Paul is alive, and that not only is he alive, but he's saying that she stabbed him. I already had a statement from your husband saying you said not only wants to fight for you.

Tell me about the wine bowl. I was saying you stay and not only once but twice by you. Tell me about the one goal. Not twice by you. Realizing she was caught in another lie, Sheila struggled to come up with a new story. She said, no, I didn't stay out my husband. You know, we were playing this game and he moved into the knife. She creates this implausible scenario

where she nicks him by accident once. He lunges and shock back into the knife, and then just the resulting tussling results in a third stab wound. Shela told detectives that she rushed Paul to the hospital after her 911 call was left unanswered. But the cops knew this was also false. The 911 operator had never received that call.

She left finally opens up about how she lied to investigators. There are a lot of contradictions, and I can't really account for it. I just know that I don't even remember the interrogation. I know I was interrogated for a long time. I don't remember it. I just gave them some kind of explanation which was a lie. I just know that my intention was never to actually kill him. I, you know, to put it in context,

this was a very small knife. Paul is rather a big man. We had plenty of knives in the house that were much, much larger. This is the smallest, it's a paring knife. It's a size of one of my fingers, you know? So, um, it's... I, you know, I feel like I had plenty of opportunity

to kill him if I wanted to. Sheila doesn't deny stabbing him. So why does she call out the size of the knife? When Sheila says, I use a small knife. So clearly, it was not my intent to kill. This is all self-serving. And this whole narrative she has around this is so blatantly untrue.

Sheila used a small knife because she wanted to stage it as an accident. A large knife would have just been outright murder. So I'm not here to judge you, okay? I'm not at all. I just want to. No, I mean, you think I did it. Well, I think something went wrong. Yeah, the thing went terribly wrong. But I didn't, I'm not saying you did it with the best of her, I'm something went wrong. Yeah, the thing was terribly wrong, but I didn't, unless I didn't get it with the dad to hurt him, I'm not saying that. I just got a count for you to give him

your story that we're playing games and everything's fine. And then you get hurt, that what you're going to stand and act in the nap, and then he's my fault. And he said, you know, something went wrong. And you know, but I'm trying to get in the second step. Which I know it in the cards the team time the first one did. I know he didn't do it himself, because it wasn't possible. It wasn't possible.

It didn't do it himself. For more than two hours, Detective Alison Carpentier questioned Sheila, but gets nowhere. Thankfully, Paul survives. But Detective Carpentier keeps Sheila in custody on assault charges while she continues to investigate. Great detectives rely on one thing. They're good.

And Detective Carpentier is really in a class all by herself when it comes to detectives because she listens to her instinct here. She knows there's more going on. She knows there's got to be a motive behind why she tried to kill her husband. So Allison doesn't leave it alone with just interview and Sheila. She starts digging. And the detective soon discovers a suspicious call made from Sheila's phone. One call in particular placed at the time of the incident caught investigators' eyes,

and it wasn't to 911. It was to a Stanford Connecticut number labeled Nelson on Sheila's caller ID. And we see a number that comes up Nelson that she had made that call in between the stabs, stabbing her husband. Armed with a name and a hunch, they tried some old-session detective work. So we call her work and we say, we just spoke to somebody named Nelson.

We didn't get his last name, could you tell us his last name? And that's how we learned for Nelson Cessla's last name by kind of just fooling his employment that we were another company looking for information. Detectives were very interested in speaking with Nelson Sessler. At the interview, investigators asked Sessler about his relationship with Sheila Davilo.

He told them that he and Sheila had been dating on and off for over a year. But when detectives revealed that Sheila had been charged with stabbing her husband, Nelson Sessler was baffled. The hardest true crime story to report on is your own. I'm Tiffany Reese, host of the podcast, something was wrong. For 15 seasons, I've always aimed to validate and amplify the voices of those who have survived abuse and crime.

But for season 16, I'm opening up for the first time about my own experiences as an abuse survivor and a murder co-victim. With the help of trusted friends, we'll unpack my journey to becoming a victim advocate by examining my past. From the emotional and physical abuse I endured at the hands of my parents, and the bullying I received from my classmates, to the murder of my brother, and the securities fraud my father was convicted of, I'm covering it all and even learning more about myself through this process. This is obviously a very personal journey for me,

but I believe that this will play a part in my healing, about myself through this process. This is obviously a very personal journey for me, but I believe that this will play a part in my healing, helping me to process the trauma that I endured. Follow something was wrong wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. It's 2003 in Westchester, New York. Following Sheila Davilou's arrest for the stabbing of her husband, Paul Christos, detectives catch her in another lie.

She was having an affair with a man named Nelson Cessler. She was married to Paul Christos, and now she starts dating a guy at her work. Not telling him, she has a husband in New York. In her interview, Sheila breaks her silence about her relationship with Nelson. I joined Purdue Pharma in the year 2000, and I think shortly, like six months after I joined, Nelson joined that company. And we had a lot of projects in common that we worked together.

We were on the same research team. Nelson is very funny and very outgoing. And we hit it off. It seems like I was spending more time with Nelson than my own husband. Nelson's very persuasive. When he wanted to get together with me, he would be actively pursuing me.

I've never experienced anything like that before. And that was a head-y feeling and very thrilling for me, who, you know, I'm not a type of person who gets pursued. You know, it just doesn't usually happen like that. So it was an exhilarating feeling. Nelson told the detectives that eventually he began spending the night at Sheila's condo, but he claimed there were no signs of a husband anywhere in sight. He stated how could somebody be married

and not have anything to show that a man lived in that apartment, no clothes, no photos. To get Paul out of their home and spend time alone with Nelson, Sheila made up the story about her schizophrenic brother coming to visit. It was Nelson all along. When Nelson came over for the weekends, there was no sign that she was married to Paul Christos, because Paul and Sheila would scrub the house before the weekend started, Paul believing that it was for her brother to come over.

It was all a lie, but it worked for her. It's all about her. There's a pattern with Sheila where she will say or do whatever it takes to serve her own needs. But now, after 15 years behind bars, Sheila admits the truth about her roots. It was deceitful. It was in furtherance of the affair.

It was just a huge mistake. You know, Paul is genuine. He's a real person. He's sincere. He does not lie. There is at least one truth in Sheila's web of lies. She does actually have a brother who suffers from mental illness. My brother is schizophrenic and didn't know anything

about either of my husbands. So it was convenient to use my brother and say, well, he's coming over. And when in reality Nelson was. As detectives learn more about Nelson's sesalors affair with Sheila, they arrive at a startling revelation. Paul may not have been the only casualty in this case.

Nelson told detectives that he decided to break things off with Sheila to date another co-worker named Annalisa Romando. She was an educated young lady, and she had worked in the pharmaceutical industry. Who knew that a pharmaceutical company could be such a hotbed of emotion and passion? According to Nelson, Sheila didn't take the break-up well. Soon, he and Annalisa were engaged, but on November 8, 2002, Annalisa was mysteriously stabbed to death inside her Stanford apartment.

Rwanda was lying just inside the threshold of an apartment, a very brutal, large crime scene. There's very little evidence in her case, except for a bloody crime scene and a strange 9-1-1 call. Yet after detectives learn about the murder of Nelson's girlfriend, Sheila quickly becomes a suspect. Although investigators don't have enough evidence to arrest her, they do learn that Sheila and Nelson rekindled their romance after Annalisa was killed, which would explain the call Sheila made to Nelson right after Paul was stabbed a few months later.

According to Nelson, the call was to ask him to come over later that night. She stabbed him twice. She pretends to call 911 and then she walks outside and calls Nelson, says, and asks him to come over later on that evening about 8.39 o'clock for date. However, she looked claims that's not the way it happened. Nelson had called me and said that he was coming over.

And I had called him and said, absolutely not, because he would have just showed up, and I didn't even have time to ask Paul to leave, because I was in that predicament, and I was driving him to the hospital, and I was calling Nelson off. Yet many questions, Sheila's version of the story. When Sheila says, I'm in a predicament,

a predicament is, it's happened to me, and I'm trying to deal with it. You did it. This is not a predicament. She's using a word to wrap it up in a sterile package so that it doesn't at all feel as if she's done anything wrong. Investigators believe that Paul's stabbing was premeditated and Sheila tried to kill him so she could be with Nelson.

She's now charged with attempted murder, but Sheila continued to insist that she was innocent. I could have taken up plea of five years. I opted not to do that because I disagreed with the charge of attempt murder. There was no malicious intent or premeditation or whatever they call it. I still love Paul. At trial, Sheila makes her first attempt at defending herself, and her story changes yet again. It was a bizarre set of situation that happened on that day.

I felt a lot of pain, intention, and I grabbed the knife and I stabbed him. On February 4, 2004, nearly a year after her arrest, Sheila Davalu stands trial for stabbing her bound and blindfolded husband during a kinky bedroom game. Charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and attempted murder. The 33-year-old research scientist faced 25 years in prison if convicted. The tiny courtroom was packed. What grabbed everyone's attention right away was certainly the blindfolds, the handcuffs. You know, this sex plague on haywire.

The irony of the name and something like this happening in a small village named, called Pleasantville. Armed with a slew of evidence, prosecutors began their opening argument by painting Sheila as a deceitful and manipulative woman. She had been divorced before, and she felt that in her family, divorce was a shameful thing, and that if she was divorced

the second time, it would be too much of an embarrassment for her family. To avoid that embarrassment, she tried to kill her husband. But Sheila's defense countered that Paul's stabbing had been an accident. They claimed that at the time Sheila had been emotionally troubled and was not aware of what she was doing. It was a psychiatric defense.

She couldn't appreciate the consequences of what she had done because she was battling depression. It was her mental illness, which drove her to do what she did. With years between her and the trial, Sheila now tries to rationalize her actions on the day of Paul's attack. It was a bizarre set of situation that happened on that day. I felt a lot of pain, intention, and I grabbed the knife and I stabbed him.

It was very bizarre. It's nothing I've ever done before. I guess I don't really honestly even remember doing it. And I was very confused and I was in shock. I just remember being frantic. A lot of professionals say that people who commit violence on somebody else they usually generally don't remember it. I just had this dissociative moment

that I didn't connect what was going on for a second. I was very, very confused. It's only now, years later, that Sheila claims she's able to understand the extent of her illness. I've been in therapy for 16 years. I know for a fact now in retrospect that I suffer from PTSD, from the years that I grew up in Warzone,

it was an exaggerated reaction to what I felt at that moment. A very crazy, exaggerated, bizarre reaction to that moment's pain that I felt. Although Sheila now claims that she had a bad reaction, it's still unclear what she's reacting to, or if this is all part of Sheila's history of manipulating the truth. She would try to mitigate what she did. Nothing about that was true because she didn't state that on the very first night of her interrogation. She didn't say, I have no idea what happened.

It's all a blank. I don't know what went on. She had a story crafted and it didn't work. So here comes another story. Let's see if this one flies. Prosecutors insisted that Sheila knew exactly what she was doing. As evidence, they presented Sheila's phone records showing she never called for help. This is just, you know, proof. Her whole intention was killing her husband. And here she's not calling on one. She's pretending to call on one.

She's really calling Nelson. But to this day, Sheila claims there was nothing nefarious about her deception. I get a lot of criticism about not having called 911. I don't think I, I think I was just trying to hope that, I don't know, it all goes well, that I didn't need to call 911, that he was okay, that we didn't have to get any authorities involved or any hospital involved. But in fact, she did pretend to call for emergency services.

She acted as it and then told Paul, at least according to one of her stories, oh, they can't come right now because they're responding to other cases. They'll come when they can because she's buying time. She wants him to bleed out. She can't stab him again because that won't run with the narrative that this is a game.

And that's exactly what prosecutors argued during her trial. Her not calling the police and allowing him to bleed, that only succeeds if he dies. It seemed like everything was going the prosecution's way, but then they called Paul Christos to the stand. There's typically tremendous antagonism between the accused and the victim.

Not in this case. Paul, at trial, Paul goes to bat for Sheila. Paul said on trial that, you know. He still showed that he loved his wife, and he really didn't want her to go to prison. He wanted her to get help. He was still loving and caring towards Sheila. Even though Sheila tried to kill him.

Paul supported me, and his parents supported me. It's... It's all inspiring. I'm indebted to that. I think part of it is because he knows me and he knows he better than anybody has ever known me. And he knows I hope he knows that my intent was not to hurt him. When Sheila cries, she will cries for Sheila, not for Paul.

She didn't tend to kill him. She's crying because she got caught. Following closing arguments on February 18th, presiding judge Thomas Dickerson recessed court to contemplate his verdict. The next day, he announced he had reached a decision. The judge applauded Paul's compassion, but basically said, I don't buy it. The judge looked at Sheila and said, but basically said, I don't buy it.

The judge looked at Sheila and said, you tried to murder your husband, you waited for him to die, you pretended to call for help, and then you stabbed him again once you brought him to the hospital. The judge said to Sheila, you have lied over and over and over, you are a dangerous threat to society. Judge Dickerson pronounced Sheila guilty of attempted murder.

After Sheila nearly killed Paul, he and his family surprisingly speak out at her sentencing. They said wonderful letters about me to the judge. Paul advocated for me to get less time. He did not want me to come to prison. And he was a victim. However, the judge is not impressed. He sentenced her to 25 years in prison

without the possibility of parole. The toughest sentence allowed by law. Justice was absolutely done in this case. This was a woman who was a danger to her husband and other people in the community. She calculated and stabbed her husband three times in the heart, almost killing him. And she's not someone you should be walking around

in society free to do something like this again. I'm definitely guilty of a crime. I, you know, I've no doubt about that. But I got the maximum 25-year sentence for somebody who's thanked God, not even dead. People get 15 years sometimes for their first murder. You know, it's not a laughing matter, but 25 years is a long time for a person

who by the grace of God, he's alive and well, and didn't want me to get any time. Although Sheila is incarcerated for attempted murder in 2004, her story is far from over. Despite her conviction, detective still consider her the prime suspect in the murder of Annalisa Romando and continue to work her case while Sheila serves her time behind bars.

In hopes of uncovering clues, they turn to the 911 call made on the day Annalisa died. I think the guy attacks my motor. He thinks someone attacks your neighbor. A female calls 911 to say she heard a commotion and she gives a condominium number and a condominium complex. And she kind of fumbles the address and then she hangs up. One thing Law Enforcement told me when I interviewed them extensively was they listened to that 911 call over and over because they began to think this might be key to the case.

That person that made that call could be our killer. Coming up, the investigation into Annalisa's murder intensifies. So they have the killer's blood, the killer's DNA, that's huge. And then, new information surfaces that Sheila may be involved in another murder dating back to 2001 before Annalisa's murder and Sheila's attack on her husband.

When she saw us and she believed it was law enforcement suits basically sitting there, she went to turn background. It said, now I don't want to do this. you