An attorney representing a 20-year-old Aliquippa man who was part of a previous investigation into Rachael DelTondo said his client has nothing to do with the death of the former teacher.
An attorney representing a 20-year-old Aliquippa man who was part of a previous investigation into Rachael DelTondo said his client has nothing to do with the death of the former teacher.
Attorney Michael Santicola said his client, Sheldon Jeter Jr., is cooperating with a police investigation into DelTondo’s death. The 33-year-old Aliquippa woman was shot and killed Sunday night outside of her mother’s Buchanan Street home.
Neighbors reported hearing between 10 and 12 shots fired around 10:45 p.m on Mother’s Day. DelTondo was pronounced dead at the scene.
Santicola said Jeter and DelTondo were close friends who regularly exchanged text messages and phone calls. While a search warrant was filed for Jeter’s phone and other belongings, Santicola said he would have submitted any of his personal effects to police willingly.
Jeter was reportedly around several people around the time of DelTondo’s death. According to Santicola, he spent time with his mother and was with family and friends throughout the evening.
“It’s all going to be pretty clear,” Santicola said. “He has nothing to hide.”
A cell phone was taken by police to be analyzed, according to Santicola, who believes data located on the phone will answer questions for police.
“We believe the cell phone records will exonerate him,” he said.
Santicola does not believe Jeter is a suspect in the case and said his client cared about DelTondo.
When asked why Jeter sought counsel, Santicola said he has been representing him “for quite a while.”
The attorney-client relationship began late last year when Jeter was implicated a 2016 police incident report that was leaked to the media.
The report, which was sent by an anonymous email, detailed an incident where officers found DelTondo and a juvenile, who claimed to be a former student, parked in a car at about 2 a.m. in an empty lot.
Santicola identified Jeter as the then-juvenile.
According to the incident report, police were on regular patrol at about 1:50 a.m. Feb. 6, 2016 when an officer noticed a car parked near the old Aliquippa Hospital property. Police said officers approached the vehicle and noticed “the windows were steamed over and the engine was not running.”
The officer identified Deltondo and asked why she and Jeter were parked there, police said. According to the report, Deltondo told officers “she was just talking with the male,” who was her previous student, and “they were friends.”
Police said Deltondo told them “she didn’t want her fiancé to know that she was here parked because he would get mad.” She maintained she was only with Jeter because “he was upset and needed someone to talk to,” police said.
According to the report, officers drove the teen home and told Deltondo that there were “better places to just talk with a former student.”
The incident, ultimately, led to Deltondo’s suspension from her position as a teacher with the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter school. Officials at PA Cyber said records indicate Jeter was never a registered student at the school.
DelTondo was never charged in the case, but the leaking of the report did prompt a state police investigation into the Aliquippa Police Department, according to Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier.
The December 2017 investigation led to a temporary hold on the department’s access to some statewide databases of information, he said. The issue was resolved in February and the department’s access to data was restored, Lozier said.
According to Santicola, Jeter’s involvement in the case led him to seek legal representation.
“I can’t talk about this,” Lozier said Thursday regarding any search warrants filed in the case. “It’s an ongoing criminal investigation.”
When asked if he could say if there are any potential suspects in the case, Lozier said “I can’t. I cannot discuss anything about the case.”
Santicola said Jeter was aware of death threats made to DelTondo in the weeks before the shooting. He implied the threats had to do with her potential involvement in grand jury investigation into the City of Aliquippa.
Lozier previously acknowledged the speculation that DelTondo’s death could be related to a warrant served by the state police in March on the Aliquippa Municipal Building.
“I cannot comment on a grand jury investigation,” he said.
No official investigator has made any suggestion that DelTondo’s death is related to the investigation.
The attorney of DelTondo’s former fiancé, Frank Catroppa, told the Times Wednesday that he, too, was not involved in the crime.
Attorney Stephen Colafella said Catroppa, 36, was at his Robinson Township home at the time of the shooting. Video surveillance from his complex corroborates the alibi, he said.
“It was inconceivable to him that something like that could be done to a person like her,” Colafella said.