More details have emerged in the attempted armed kidnapping of Daria Berenato, who portrays Sonya Deville in WWE.
Early Sunday morning, a South Carolina man who had been stalking Berenato on social media drove down to her home in Lutz, Florida. The man, identified as Phillip A. Thomas II, cut a hole into the screen of her lanai and watched and listened through the windows of Berenato’s house. After Berenato and her guest went to sleep, Thomas opened the sliding door, activating the security system. Berenato and her guest escaped and called 911.
Thomas was arrested and charged with aggravated stalking, armed burglary of a dwelling, attempted armed kidnapping, and criminal mischief.
Earlier today, Berenato received a temporary injunction against Thomas. On August 27, a hearing will be held to determine if this should be a permanent injunction. A pre-trial hearing is also set for Thursday to determine if Thomas should be released on bail or not.
The petition, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, Berenato detailed the harrowing incident:
“What are doing, what do you want?” Deville yelled as he stared at her from just four feet away. He then began to walk toward her.
“That is when I realized this person was not here to rob me, he was there to hurt me.”
First hearing the alarm and seeing that a door in the family room was opened, she woke up her friend Amanda Saccomanno, who portrays Mandy Rose on WWE.
After confronting Thomas, Berenato told Saccomanno there was a man in the house and they escaped in her car. Watching the security camera footage later, Beranato saw that Thomas followed her into the house, but thought she had gone upstairs. This left her just enough time to escape with Saccomanno.
Berenato would later check her social media account and found hundreds of messages from Thomas that ranged from obsessive, suicidal, and idolizing. As she did not follow the account, the messages wound up in her request folder along with hundreds of other accounts.
Thomas had messaged that night that he was on her porch and was going to kill Saccomanno. In a message in July, he sent her home address to her. Thomas also threatened to decapitate or sexually assault Berenato’s family members and friends. He also sent her a picture of his penis.
The prosecution motion states that Thomas admitted his intention was to hold Berenato hostage in her home until she answered “all his questions.”
“The defendant admitted that his intention was to take Mrs. Berenato hostage by spraying her (with) pepper spray, binding her hands with the zip ties, and wrapping duct tape around her arms to prevent from fighting back. He stated that he intended to keep Mrs. Berenato hostage, preventing her from attending a planned event schedule for the following week, and that he was not going to leave her residence without her answering all of his questions.”
We will continue to follow this story as more becomes available.