Roughly three years ago, WWE star Sonya Deville, real name Daria Berenato, incurred what had to be one of the scariest nights of her life. Fan-turned-stalker Phillip Thomas had been obsessively sending Deville threatening messages via texts and social media, and his behavior had escalated to doing the same to her friends and family. At the time, Deville had made the decision to simply ignore the messages but in August 2020, Thomas broke into her home in the middle of the night.
In security footage that has been released following the incident, Deville can be seen checking her sliding glass door to the outside following her home alarm being triggered. It was then that Deville saw Thomas and quickly fled her home to call 911. During the trial, it was revealed that then-fellow WWE star Mandy Rose was also in the home at the time and fled the scene with Deville. When police arrived, they found Thomas with mace, plastic zip-ties, a knife, and duct tape.
In an update from Fox 13, Thomas pled guilty to multiple charges yesterday, including attempted kidnapping, aggravated stalking, and armed burglary. Subsequently, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison to be followed by fifteen years of probation.
Deville took to social media after the incident to inform fans about how she would be engaging the public going forward.
“I’m going to say this once and try to be clear,” she began. “I love my fans very much and appreciate U despite what has happened I do not categorize U all as raging psycho paths. But harassing myself or people I have been W ETC is never acceptable. I share my life with y’all to an extent because it is part of what I do and what I signed up for.
“That being said I will not hesitate to report and or take legal action against anyone that has sent threatening messages and or anything inappropriate to me or someone in my life. Like I mentioned I am not messing around at all and it is a zero tolerance policy at this point due to the referenced incident, thank you.”
Deville left WWE television for roughly six months following the home invasion and returned on the January 1 episode of Smackdown to kick off 2021. Currently, she is in a tag team with Chelsea Green. The duo notably competed in the WWE WrestleMania 39 Women’s Showcase match but ultimately lost to Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler. Deville and Green will likely keep working together as both were drafted to Raw this past week.
Stay with Haus of Wrestling for all the latest on Sonya Deville