Isaiah Carvalho filed for divorce from his wife, Valerie Cincinelli, five months ago and had a trial scheduled for June, so it came as a shock to hear she was allegedly planning to have him murdered, he said.
The estranged husband of a New York City police officer accused in a plot to kill him said he’s still in shock after learning of the violent end she allegedly had planned for him, despite their outwardly cordial relationship.
“We didn’t have, like, a heated custody battle,” Isaiah Carvalho said to ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Wednesday. “We were about to reach an agreement, so I don’t see why she would attempt to do this to me, or to my son for that matter.”
Carvalho filed for divorce from his wife, Valerie Cincinelli, five months ago and had a trial connected to the divorce scheduled for June, so it came as a shock to hear she was allegedly planning to have him murdered, he said.
"I can't believe it. I'm still in shock," he said. "I'm still lost over this whole thing and I'm trying to process everything."
Federal investigators said Cincinelli, 34, in February put her boyfriend in charge of finding a hitman who would kill Carvalho and her boyfriend’s own teen daughter, but he instead contacted the FBI.
Cincinelli and her boyfriend, who was cooperating with authorities, continued to plan the killings and she allegedly gave him $7,000 to give to the killer-for-hire, officials said.
Then on Friday, a Suffolk County detective went to Cincinelli’s home on Long Island to tell her that her estranged husband had been found dead. When she heard the news, Cincinelli allegedly cried “fake tears,” a police source told the New York Post.
About an hour later, an FBI agent posing as the hitman sent her a photo of the murder scene and instructions to send an addition $3,000 to kill her boyfriend’s daughter.
Carvalho was made to pose by the police as if he had been killed to convince Cincinelli that he had been murdered, which he said took an emotional toll.
“It was the craziest thing I've ever had to experience," he said. "They had me sit in my car. They put glass on the floor and all over me, and had me hunch over into the passenger seat."
After receiving the texts from the supposed hitman, Cincinelli allegedly instructed her boyfriend to delete all texts and photos to each other from their phones and began talking about an alibi with him, investigators said.
Cincinelli was arrested at her home that same day and charged with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, officials said.
Cincinelli’s father, who lives in Virginia, told the Post that his daughter is innocent, saying the allegation that she wanted Carvalho killed “b*******.”
“They were married, they have a kid together. … There is no way on the planet my daughter would have someone try to murder him. That’s nonsense!” he said.
He told the Post that Cincinelli's boyfriend, whom he would not name, was “some wacko who made an allegation against her before that she tried to kill him. ... This jackass made allegations about her, and I’m sure he’s behind this.”
Carvalho did not respond to his father-in-law’s comments, but said he has one question for his estranged wife: “Why?”
"I didn't want to believe it, but apparently it's true," Carvalho said. "I didn't think she would be capable of it, but now I don't put anything past her."
Cincinelli’s attorney declined to comment when reached by InsideEdition.com earlier this week.
RELATED STORIES
