In May, Phillip Thomas II was sentenced to 15 years in prison with a further 15 years probation for the attempted kidnapping of Sonya Deville, real name Daria Berenato in 2020.
Thomas pleaded guilty to charges including attempted kidnapping, aggravated stalking, and armed burglary.
Prosecutors stated that after sending a number of threatening messages on social media, Thomas drove from South Carolina to Florida in search of the star. He carried with him a knife, duct tape, and zip ties, and arrived at Deville’s home with the intention of kidnapping her.
Surveillance footage from Deville’s home showed the star checking a sliding door after her alarm system was triggered. Footage also showed Thomas walking around Deville’s home looking for her, however, she had managed to leave the residence along with Mandy Rose.
Speaking in a new interview with Maria Menousos, Deville recounted the events of that evening and what came next.
“There’s just so many layers to it. First of course, it’s fight or flight, and you’re just in the situation, and you deal with the situation, and that night after the incident, I thought I was gonna go back to the house and sleep there because I was stubborn and I was in shock, and I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know left from right at that point.
Then, the sun goes down, and I’m uncontrollably shaking, and I’m in a hotel room under an alias name because I’m so paranoid that even though he’s arrested, he’s somehow gonna find me, and I have the dresser pushed up against the door. I made Mandy [Rose] slide the dresser in front of the door on the fifteenth floor of this high rise, and paranoia starts to set in.
It’s fight or flight, and then it’s shock, and I went into an autopilot of, ‘What needs to be done? What do we have to do?’ I don’t feel first. I do first, and then I feel later. You do what has to be done, and then you feel later, so I didn’t feel the full effect for what had happened for months. I was in full-blown fight-or-flight, I was living in fight-or-flight mode for months, maybe years.”
Sonya Deville Lived In A Safe House
After leaving the hotel, Deville revealed that she headed to a safe house for a month which was marshaled by armed guards. She added that this period was a very surreal experience, as despite going through an incredibly traumatic event, life goes on.
“I didn’t realize that until, no one knows this either, I went and lived in a safe house for a month because we didn’t know if he was gonna be able to get bail. It was a 24/7 armed security house. Guys with guns standing at each door, entrance of this home, in a secured location 24/7. It’s just weird. I would go work out at the local LA Fitness and he would come work out with me. That was a weird phase of my life. I didn’t know what was going on.
My mom flew down and stayed with me for as long as she could, but then she has to go back to work. My dad came down right away, of course, then he has to go back to work. It’s this really weird thing where something so messed up happens to you, but then life goes on.
So that was something that was hard for me to deal with at that time because I am such a ride-or-die and I feel my emotions very hard and true, so I’m like, wait a second, I almost had all this taken away from me, and then life just goes on,”
In recent months Sonya Deville has teamed with Chelsea Green on Raw. The pair were most recently in action on June 19th where they were defeated by Katana Chance and Kayden Carter.
H/t to Fightful