Judge: Murder for drug money ‘unforgivable’
Woman sentenced in death of paraeducator
A Waterbury judge on Wednesday sentenced Heather Anderson to 30 years in prison for the murder of Shelley Stamp, saying the crimes against Stamp were unforgivable and left him speechless.
“This is a particularly troubling murder,” said Judge Joseph B. Schwartz in Waterbury Superior
Court on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s not as if there was a fight with this individual or you knew this individual. It was truly completely random,” he said.
Stamp was found dead in her Waterbury apartment on Oct. 29, 2022 after Anderson forced her way into Stamp’s apartment, shoved her into a microwave stand, ransacked her apartment — stealing some cash, credit cards and a container of leftovers she had in the refrigerator — and left her there to die.
“I agree with the state, it was done for peanuts. For nothing but a few bucks to buy drugs,” said Schwartz. “It is unforgivable. It kind of leaves me at a loss for words.”
The 36-year-old woman from Naugatuck accepted a plea deal in December, pleading guilty to murder in the commission of a felony in exchange for a 30-year sentence.
Anderson entered her plea under the Alford Doctrine, which means she doesn’t agree with all the details of the charge against her but recognized there was enough evidence to likely convict her.
Stamp, a paraeducator, was 34 when she was killed. Her family has been tirelessly advocating for justice in her senseless slaying and has spoken out against Anderson’s plea deal, saying it simply isn’t enough.
They echoed that same feeling both inside and outside the courtroom on Wednesday.
“This is not justice,” said Stamp’s mother, Kathy Daversa, outside Waterbury Superior Court on Wednesday. “This is not the sentence we wanted.”
Before the judge handed down his sentence — 30 years to serve with a mandatory minimum of 25 years behind bars
— Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Donald E. Therkildsen, Jr. asked the court to impose a 36-year sentence. Stamp’s family has stated that they wanted her to serve at least the length of Stamp’s life.
Daversa, who was wearing a T-shirt that said, “Justice for Shelley,” said her daughter “had at least 50 more years to live” and should never have had her life cut so short.
“My daughter is gone and will never be back for no reason, she was not sick or in a car accident,” she said. “All her hopes and dreams are gone, her future is gone.
“All that’s left of our lives is to learn to live without Shelley,” Daversa added.
Schwartz sympathized with the magnitude of Stamp’s family’s loss, explaining to Anderson the ripple effect of her crimes.
“When you murder somebody, you don’t just murder the complainant. In a lot of ways you murder their entire family,” he told her. “Not only have you changed them forever, you have stolen all kinds of memories and the future that they were supposed to have together.”
Stamp’s loved ones addressed the court, and Anderson directly, as they delivered emotional victim impact statements and called for a lifetime behind bars.
Her sister, Laura Tajildeen, spoke of what had been stolen from her.
“You have stolen so much from me,” Tajildeen said. “You have stolen my opportunity to stand by my sister on my wedding day. You have stolen my opportunity to spoil my nieces and nephews that she planned to have.
“You have not only stolen my future,” she added, “but the future that we planned together.”
Tajildeen said her relationship with her sister “was something most people would wish for, we had a bond that was unexplainable,” and that Stamp was a devoted aunt to her children. Together, she said, they could overcome any obstacle. Now, she faces a future without her best friend and biggest supporter.
“I hope you rot in your prison cell for the rest of your miserable life,” Tajildeen said.
“You hunted down a vulnerable person and took advantage of her kindness, this was your choice. I hope the look on my sister’s face, the cries for help as you brutally attacked her, haunts you for the rest of your life.”
Stamp’s mother spoke of the moments she will miss most and the memories she cherishes, like graduations, dance recitals, school plays, cheerleading events and watching her daughter go off to college and start a life of her own.
The mother and daughter loved to shop and travel together, with their last trip being an annual October visit to Salem, Massachusetts. Daversa said she wished she knew that when she hugged her goodbye in Salem it was for the last time.
“I would never have let her go,” she said.
“Instead of watching her walk down the aisle at her wedding, I had to watch her casket be carried by pallbearers throughout her funeral,” she told court.
“This defendant has no regard for human life,” she added, noting that Anderson still has the opportunity to laugh, explore hobbies and make new friends in prison while her daughter can never do those things.
“My daughter is dead,” she said. “She is reduced to ashes in a box.”
Daversa told the court that she felt she had failed her daughter and that the justice system had failed her, too.
“I’ve come to a resolution, I have failed my daughter,” she said. “I have failed her miserably, 25-30 years is not justice.”
After the family made their statements, Anderson’s lawyer read a statement from her. In it, she maintained that Stamp was “still alive” when Anderson left her apartment after the home invasion and that she did not “intentionally kill her.” She said she was struggling from a years-long substance use disorder and that the events of that night were fuzzy.
“I know I didn’t strangle or beat Shelley, I did however take things from her home that I shouldn’t have,” she said in the statement. “I could not be more sorry for my actions.”
Then, she turned around and mouthed “I’m sorry” to the family.
“No!” her family shouted back in an emotional outburst.
Anderson, who was brought into court in jeans and a gray sweatshirt, her hands shackled behind her back, then spoke briefly and tearfully to the court.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean for any of this.”
Throughout the sentencing hearing, nearly a dozen loved ones wiped away steady streams of tears. When the prosecutor detailed facts of the case, how Stamp was found lying face down on the floor of her apartment, Daversa covered her eyes and began uncontrollably sobbing.
She said the image still keeps her awake.
“I am not able to sleep at night because all I can think of is the horror my daughter went through,” she said.
“No one can imagine picturing your daughter’s vicious murder obsessively. A person like that needs to be off the streets for the rest of her miserable life for the safety of others,” she told the judge as she begged him to reconsider the sentence.
“Justice for Shelley, everyone please justice for Shelley,” she cried.
After handing down his sentence, Schwartz explained that the 30-year sentence was part of the plea deal and that the purpose of a plea deal is to avoid the risks and further trauma associated with taking a case to trial.
Schwartz assured her and her family in the courtroom that they had not failed Stamp.
He said they “truly have been champions for Shelley,” showing up to every court date and making multiple victim impact statements.
As the family listened, Daversa leaned against her surviving daughter, who wrapped an arm around her mother.
“I can’t imagine coming up here and making a statement like that once,” let alone multiple times, he said. “You didn’t fail her.”