Law&Crime Sidebar - Ex-Student Turned Lover Named as Murder Suspect in Teacher’s Brutal Killing

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

Authorities named a prime suspect in the brutal murder of a Pennsylvania high school teacher in 2018. Investigators believe Rachael DelTondo’s former student and lover Sheldon Jeter Jr. gunned down the 33-year-old in her mother’s driveway after she returned home from getting ice cream. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks down the disturbing case with Jeter’s lawyer, Michael Santicola.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at https://bit.ly/3rkw6gnLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A prime suspect has been publicly identified in the Unsolved Murder of Teacher Rachel Del Tondo. We do a recap of all we know so far in the case. Then we bring on the attorney for the prime suspect for reaction and what we can expect happening now. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Let's go to Aliquipa, Pennsylvania, where the local district attorney announced the prime suspect in the 2018 murder of former teacher Rachel Del Tondo.

Here's everything we know so far about the case. So Rachel Del Tondo was 33 years old, and back on Mother's Day, 2018, she had gone out for ice cream with friends, she was dropped off at her parents' home where she had been living at around 10.45 p.m. and then she was gunned down in the driveway shortly after that. Shot multiple times at close range. There were no eyewitnesses. This became another cold case because at the time she was killed, there were already eight unsolved murders in Aliquippa. There was reporting that maybe she was killed by corrupt police officers

because she was allegedly helping state police in their investigation into corruption in the local police department. She was allegedly receiving death threats. Her mother had said that Rachel was deathly afraid of police and said that they're following me. But this past week, Beaver County District Attorney David Lazier announced that the prime suspect in Rachel's death is 24-year-old Sheldon Jeter Jr. But he hasn't been charged at the time of this broadcast. So who is Sheldon Jeter Jr.?

Jeter is 17 years old in high school, star football player, and he reconnects with Del Tondo, and she is accused of having sexual relations with him. Well, Rachel was allegedly caught by police with Jeter late at night, parked in an abandoned lot, and she allegedly told them not to tell her fiancé Frank Cotropa. Now, Frank would come to actually find out that she was with Sheldon Jeter that night. He was given a copy of the police report. Now, Rachel's mom denies that her daughter engaged in any kind of inappropriate relationship. with Sheldon Jeter Jr.

Rachel allegedly told her friend that she never did anything with Jeter. And that police report that I mentioned on the incident, it really had no solid evidence that she was doing anything sexual with Jeter. That report was also apparently written sometime after the fact.

But Jeter's attorney confirms that the relationship did happen and that that car incident wasn't the first time, that this was ongoing for a while. He said that Del Tando was cheating on Cotropa with Jeter. Well, Frank Cotropa was questioned,

he was looked into in connection with Rachel's death. He was cleared. But back to that police report again, someone anonymously leaked that report. They leaked it to the school where Rachel had been teaching. They leaked it to the school board, the mayor, news outlets. Cotropa denies being the one who leaked it, although there were reports that when he found out what happened, he was very distraught.

But he does say that he showed that report to a lot of people. As for Del Tondo, she was suspended from her job. job at the school when that report came out. According to her parents, she was so affected by what happened, the public release of this report, that she was committed to a psych ward for three days. By the way, her mom says that Jeter became obsessed with Del Tondo, that he came to their house one night, drunk, she had to, you know, scare him off. But going back to Rachel, she cut ties with Cotropa and Jeter for a period of time.

In fact, in 2018, she actually starts spending time with Jeter's half-brother. 31-year-old Ray Sean Bolton, according to Del Tando's mother, that enraged Sheldon Jeter. But fast forward back to the night that Rachel Del Tando was killed. So she was getting ice cream with her friend, Lauren Watkins, when they actually passed Sheldon Jeter in a car filled with people. He saw this. He writes Lauren on Facebook asking if he had just seen them and then asking what they were doing.

Lauren Watkins apparently didn't respond. Now, the evidence suggests that Sheldon Jeter may have. have been tracking Rachel that night, tracking her location, texting his brother Tyree, who was with Lauren and Rachel at the ice cream shop. Now, of course, the eerie thing is is Rachel was gunned down just minutes after being dropped home by Lauren. Police looked into Sheldon Jeter. They collected his clothes that he was wearing. They look into his calls and texts. They say that he showed no emotion when he was told that Rachel had been killed. Rachel's mother told 48 hours that That night, I knew it was him, meaning Sheldon Jeter.

And as for Sheldon Jeter, his uncle says that his nephew was home when Del Tando was killed, that he had an alibi. But that is not the end of Sheldon Jeter's legal troubles. No, two years after Del Tando was killed, a man named Tyric Pugh is shot to death. Tyrick had been living with Sheldon Jeter. In fact, surveillance footage shows them leaving the home a little after 11 p.m. on the night in question, and then later on that night, Sheldon comes home alone. A motorist is the one who actually finds Tyrick's body.

He'd been shot seven times, and authorities find a gun and ammunition in Sheldon's bedroom that matched the shell casings from where Tyrick was shot. So Sheldon Jeter was arrested, and he was ultimately found guilty at trial of first-degree murder. He's currently serving a term of life in prison. But that is not the end of the story there, because Judge, from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania ordered a retrial after it was discovered that a juror in Jeter's trial was Del Tando's next-door neighbor. In fact, this juror had been in the middle of divorcing a distant cousin of Jeter. So that brings us back to the DA's announcement that

Sheldon Jeter is the prime suspect. And even though it was reported a grand jury had been in panel to hear evidence in the Del Tando murder case at one point, Sheldon Jeter has not been actually charged in connection with her death. The DA, Mr. Lazier, has said, we have been working on it continuously, and we have used every technology that's available. We've used every state law agency, federal agency, private expert in consultation looking for technologies to put Sheldon Jeter or another individual in that driveway at that time. So far, none of the technology has been able to make us do that. So we're hoping that additional information will help us.

Maybe this is an informant, but we're still looking for additional information as technology improves. The DA indicated that they will begin unsealing search warrant. in the case, and police will offer a cash reward for more information into deltando's death. But the deltandoes are not very happy with this announcement. They think it doesn't really add anything, and it's being used for political purposes by the DA. They've released a statement that says, how does this help define the killer of our daughter? Second, why make the announcement now? The answers to these questions are really clear to us.

This was a cheap, underhanded, pitiful political stunt pulled by Mr. Lazier in an effort to boost his campaign for re-election, which will occur in approximately two and a half months at the expense of our dead daughter and us. After five years of producing nothing, he is fearful that his ineptness as a DA is showing through and that the announcement was made to deflect his poor effort to bring justice to our daughter. Shame on him. Now, Lazier responded, saying, quote, I'm afraid that anything I do in an election year is

going to be painted as politics. I thought that the community and the family deserve to know our position. They were pleased with the approach that we had made and what we provided. Their position changed, and that is out of my control. So clearly, a lot has happened so far in this case. All right, as we continue our discussion into the latest development in the Rachel Del Tondo case, allow me to bring in attorney Michael Santa Cola, who represents Sheldon Jeter Jr., the man that the DA has now announced is the prime suspect in the murder.

Michael, welcome to sidebar. Thanks for taking the time. Thank you for having me. feels like a very interesting announcement considering people who were following this case had already suspected that your client might have been involved in this what did you make of the DA's announcement yeah I would agree with you definitely strange strange timing strange announcement I mean my client's name has been floated around the DA's office the police department shows national shows as a as a person of interest or somebody that's

involved in this girl's life or, you know, could possibly be a suspect. So to us, it really doesn't announce anything. In fact, I think it does more damage that it does good. Right, because they've announced them as a suspect, but they haven't charged him. Why do you think it's made now? The way I understand is Delgado's family, Ms. Delgado's family has said that they believe this was made for political reasons, that the DA's running for reelection. What do you think is going on here? Yeah, that's a common thing that many people have mentioned. I've stayed away from that because I don't, I can't say for sure. If I had to guess, it would certainly seem that that would be the most likely reason for announcing this. He's got a tough race going right now. And I think it's backfired on

him, quite frankly, because there's been a lot of backlash from people, you know, especially in the legal field, trying to wonder what the purpose behind this announcement would be. I think, quite frankly, by him doing this, by announcing that they believe he's the suspect that we can't charge, I'm not sure they could get it. Even if they did charge, they could get a fair jury in Beaver County. So my understanding is the DA has also said that he is going to be unsealing search warrants in the case, revealing some of the evidence they might have against your client. Are you concerned about that?

I'm not. I mean, this is not new evidence. This tragedy happened five years ago. We're well aware of my clients' whereabouts and we know that he was not involved. We believe he's innocent of this crime. And again, if they had enough evidence, they would charge Mr. either. And I've been doing this for 25 years, and I have seen many charges filed with some questionable facts or questionable inferences made by the Commonwealth against certain individuals.

So if they don't have enough to even charge him, what they're saying is they can't even make it past a preliminary hearing. They have asked now for the public's help. So they're going to release the information from the warrants. I believe the police are going to offer a cash reward for people with information. The DA has suggested maybe an informant would come forward. How do you think that's going to play out? I think that's a horrible idea. I don't I don't begrudge any law enforcement trying to use every means to try to get to the bottom of a crime. I know the detectives.

I know the police officers. I mean, these guys know what they're doing. I believe over the last five years, they have interviewed every single possible witness they could. I'm sure they didn't leave anybody out. So either people have told their stories numerous times or they have not told their story. I don't know the answer to that one. but obviously they didn't have any evidence they had nothing none of that was enough to bring charges against anybody so now to say hey listen if somebody wants to change their story

we'll pay you some cash uh does somebody else want to come forward that didn't talk before because we're going to pay you some cash um you know we've been involved with jailhouse snitches and those kind of cases in the past too they are inherently unreliable because there is a there's a self interest in their testimony there's a self-interest in their testimony there's a self-interest in why they would come forward. And that's just, you know, it goes to credibility. So the reason that your client has been suggested as being the one behind this is because he had a relationship, whatever that's defined as, he knew the victim in this case,

Rachel Del Tondo. They were reporting that he knew where she was that night, had seen her and her Lauren Watkins, who she was with, that he saw them and knew that they were going to the ice cream shop. This is somebody who was convicted by a jury of a shooting death two years later. And when you think about that, and what exactly was his alibi the night that Rachel Del Tondo was killed? And why is it that people who believe he did this, they should know that he didn't do it? Well, you know, I can't speak to his alibi, obviously. But if you look back at that case in some of the interviews, Ms. Watkins was with Ms. Del Tondo. She was the last person to see her alive. She was the last person to

interact with her other than obviously the person who killed her. And, you know, they were traveling in a car together. Ms. Watkins dropped Rachel Del Tondo off at her house to go in. And then by her own admission, she then sent a text message back to her a couple minutes later saying, hey, wait, why don't you, why don't you come back out? Come back outside. Let's take a walk, which was, I've never heard an explanation as to why that happened. And in that instant when she was outside is when she was shot. But are you suggesting Watkins is somehow involved in this? I don't know, but that's the facts, and you can read it any way you want. And if you asked Ms. Watkins, if Rachel Del Tonda was afraid of Sheldon Jeter, the answer was no.

She clearly said that, that Ms. Del Tando was not afraid of Sheldon Jeter. Del Tando's mother has come forward and said that Jeter was obsessed with her daughter and that he showed up to the house once drunk and she had to scare him off with some sort of weapon. Is that not true? Yeah. I've never had a conversation with Sheldon that that ever happened. So I know that she has said that. I don't know if that's the case. I mean, you know, Shelton knew Ms. Del Tondo since he was 17 years old.

Like I said, I believe there's an exchange of text messages between Shelton and several of the people that went to get ice cream that day or that evening, none of which are threatening, none of which seem adversarial, none that would indicate that there was some feud or problem at all between the two of them. It is the allegation that she was befriending and hanging out with his. a half-brother, and that might have been a source of anger or tension. Yeah, there's zero evidence of that being the case. I mean, that's a story created by the district attorney or the police. There's no evidence of that at all. There's no witness that would testify to that. There's no one that would show that they used to ever argued about it, discussed it,

had a conversation, anything that we are aware of. What do you think about the allegation when this first came out that she was killed potentially, for being involved in the investigation into the local police department, that there was a corruption that was being looked into and that she was worried about the police? Because that was one of the initial theories. Yeah, the, you know, that's information received through third parties that, you know, I don't have no independent knowledge or fact of that.

I mean, the idea was that there was a local reporter in our area, and Ms. Del Tondo was talking to him prior to her murder, was talking to him about being afraid, receiving threats. Um, and if that's the case and then she ends up, unfortunately being killed, you would think that there's a connection there. Um, and I, you know, what little we know about it. It's involving a, um, her fiancee who owned a bar where police officers had frequented many times in Aliquippa and that maybe something was going on. There was somebody was looking into it. And I think she worked there at a time. So she might have information involved in whatever was going on. I don't like I said, this is information. It comes to us through third parties. And that was that theory, I guess. Not how far they took that theory, how much they looked into it, I don't know. But that was the idea at first, which, again, you can't discount the fact that this poor woman was being threatened or being, you know, she was scared of somebody.

And it wasn't Shelton Jeter. And you were one of the few people, well, maybe not the few people, but you were one of the people who said that there was definitely a sexual relationship between. Mr. Del Tondo and your client, that has been denied by the Del Tando family. Why can you say definitively, or the best that you can, that there was a sexual relationship between the two of them? Well, if you recall, the story of Ms. Del Tondo and my client being caught in a car late at night with steamed up windows in a remote area of Alec Guilla. And that that they were caught. And that was the local police that had found him or found them together. He was a minor at the time.

That would have been a mandatory reporting situation. But the police at that time decided not to report it because their relationship with Mistel Tondo's fiancee at the time. Then when the story came out a year later, all of a sudden the police report emerged, a year after the incident that laid out what happened, which is what caused the cascading effect of her, I believe, sort of breaking up with her fiance and ending that relationship. that relationship. Now, the state police are well aware of the relationship between the Ms. Stel Tondo and my client because they were investigating that because when it came out,

he was a minor and she was an adult, which would make it a crime. And so, you know, that that investigation continued. To my, you know, my understanding is that, you know, there could have been charges filed against most Stel Tondo and Mr. Jeter did not want to do that. There was also that police report that you mentioned, it was leaked. It was leaked to the media. It was leaked to the school, the mayor. There was speculation that Mr. Altando's fiancé was the one who leaked it. Do you have any theories about who leaked that?

I don't. I'm guessing. It certainly would make sense that somebody from him or somebody that would want to hurt her would leak that police report. I question why it was even written a year later. What was the purpose of that? No charges were coming from that. Why would there be an incident report written up if it wasn't written up at the time and no charges were filed? Again, just questionable behavior by the law enforcement in that particular incident. Before I let you go, so my understanding is your client who is convicted for the murder of Tyrick Pew. There's a higher court that ultimately ordered a retrial. What's the latest in his case? Okay. So just I can give you a nutshell. I'm not the appeals lawyer. We have a specialist. Okay. ...lawyer on that named Corey Woods, very good lawyer. The argument, what happened was that at the time of the jury verdict, the courtroom was

filled with even more people that would normally have been there because it was the verdict. People in the audience noticed the jury and came up to the defense team and noticed that, hey, you realize that juror number four, that might not be the right number, but I believe it is, is the next door neighbor to Rachel Deltonda, which shocked us. And that further led us to investigate it a little bit and find out that she had spoken to her family about it during the trial. She had prayed with her father about what to do. She didn't know what to do. And all of those things are extreme possible violations of the law.

And so we filed a petition allowing us to let the judge allow us to have a hearing, basically question her about her veracity and whether she's attainted juror. or not the judge denied that well on many things that appealed to the superior court was that superior court did agree with us and said the judge should have given us a hearing on that so they have remanded that part back to beaver county so there will be a hearing held with this juror to determine if she isn't be tainted or somehow disqualified and if that is the case then the case would have to be retried other matters that were appealed are now on appeal to the supreme court Michael Santacola, thanks for taking the time, breaking down this update with us. Really appreciate it, sir.

Hey, thank you. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. this long crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.