Cameras Allowed at Murder Trial

STAMFORD -- Over Sheila Davalloo's objections that she would suffer stage fright if they were there, a state Superior Court judge in Stamford ruled Wednesday that cameras can be present at trial when Davalloo defends herself against a murder charge next week.

Judge Richard Comerford told Davalloo -- who was previously sentenced in New York to 25 years in prison for attempting to kill her husband in 2003 -- she did not offer any compelling reasons for keeping cameras out of the courtroom during the upcoming trial, expected to last three weeks.

Davalloo is accused of stabbing and bludgeoning 32-year-old Anna Lisa Raymundo at the victim's Shippan condominium in November 2002 over a common love interest at Purdue Pharma, where the two worked.

Comerford scheduled the hearing regarding cameras after two local news outlets asked that they be allowed to record all or portions of the trial.

According to new court rules, as of Jan. 1, any criminal trial or hearing, except those involving sexual offenses or proceedings that according to state law must be closed to the public, can be photographed, videotaped or recorded. Prior to the beginning of the year, cameras were almost only allowed at arraignments for nonsexual crimes.

When asked if she objected, Davalloo, 42, formerly of Pleasantville, N.Y., but who is now being held on $1 million bond at the York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic, said that the cameras will give her "performance anxiety."

Davalloo also said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of having lived through the Iran-Iraq War and the cameras will make her very nervous throughout the trial, set to begin Tuesday.

Davalloo spent her childhood in the war zone in Iran before immigrating with her family to the United States. She received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Stony Brook University on Long Island, N.Y., and a master's in public health from New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y.

"I cannot speak in front of a camera. ... I really don't think I will be doing very well with a video camera pointed in my direction," she said to Comerford.

Foreseeing that revelations of a sexual nature will be coming out at trial, Davalloo said she would not want that information broadcast on television.

Authorities said Davalloo killed Raymundo because of a love triangle. A male co-worker dated both of them, and he eventually grew to be more serious with Raymundo. Prosecutors accuse Davalloo of killing Raymundo because she was obsessed with her co-worker and wanted to eliminate her rival.

Davalloo faces 25 to 60 years in prison if convicted of murder.

Prosecutors in Westchester County used a similar motive to convict Davalloo of trying to kill her husband, Paul Christos, several months after the Raymundo homicide. During a trial in 2004, she was found guilty of stabbing her husband twice during a game involving handcuffs and blindfolds, and once again outside a hospital. Davalloo was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Four years later, Stamford police charged Davalloo with the Raymundo murder, saying DNA and other evidence linked her to the crime scene. Prosecutors said Davalloo made the 911 call that alerted police officers to Raymundo's homicide.