Woman marries to get citizenship and then tries to kill husband, NY officials say

This story was updated Jan. 16 to include that Olivia Raimo was sentenced.

A woman married an elderly man to “illegally obtain” citizenship and later tried to kill him with a straight razor, New York prosecutors said.

Olivia Raimo, 30, from Jamaica, pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder following the attack on her 74-year-old husband on Jan. 24, 2020 that left him without any function in his hand, a Nov. 19 news release from the Westchester County District Attorney’s office said.

“Violent acts are particularly heinous when they target the elderly,” District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah said.

Raimo was sentenced “to 15 years in state prison, with five years of post-release supervision on her plea of guilty to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, a felony,” the district attorney’s office announced Jan. 13.

Raimo and her husband, who is not being identified, married in 2017 but still had to prove their marriage with legitimate in order for her to obtain citizenship. In a meeting with an attorney in preparation for a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interview, the couple was told “they would have a hard time passing their marriage interview,” the release said.

Some time afterward, while at the victim’s home in New Rochelle, Raimo is accused of pushing her husband between a toilet seat and a wall and slitting his wrist with the razor, according to the release.

At about the same time the husband’s home health aide arrived at the door and Raimo refused to let her in.

Then, the aide called 911 and told New Rochelle police she did not know Raimo.

Once officers arrived at the home, they heard the husband screaming from the bathroom.

He was taken to Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx where his tendons were reattached during two separate surgeries.

After an investigation, Raimo was arrested by police on Feb. 11, 2020.

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The district attorney’s office declined further comment.

This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Woman marries to get citizenship and then tries to kill husband, NY officials say."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.