The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice is "praying very heavily" for the family of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas following a fatal home invasion.
"Teresa was very shaken by the news and was very emotional when she heard about it," Teresa's attorney James Leonard Jr. says in a statement to PEOPLE.
On Sunday, Salas' son was killed, and her husband, defense attorney Mark Anderl, was shot multiple times at their North Brunswick, New Jersey, home. Salas was not injured in the shooting, the Bergen Record reported. The suspect has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, multiple outlets report.
Salas' son was a junior at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., according to the Bergen Record. He was 20. At this time, Salas' husband's condition is not known.
Salas sentenced both Teresa, 48, and her ex-husband Joe Giudice, 50, to prison for crimes including bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion in October 2014.
"She called me this morning at 6:30 a.m. and asked if there was any update and I told her I had read online that the son had passed away. She was very emotional when she heard that," Leonard says of Teresa. "She told me that she would be praying very heavily for Judge Salas and her family. This is absolutely devastating."
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Teresa and Joe – who share daughters Gia, 19, Gabriella, 16, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10 — were allowed to serve their time separately. First, Teresa served a little over 11 months in prison and was released on Dec. 23, 2015. Joe was sentenced to 41 months in prison, reporting to custody in March 2016 and being released in March 2019. From there, he was held in an immigration detention center, fighting to appeal the decision to deport him back to Italy, where he was born, for seven months. But in October 2019, Joe chose to move to Italy and continue his appeal battle as a free man.
Last December, PEOPLE exclusively confirmed that the couple had separated after 20 years of marriage.
"They still love one another, but as Teresa told Andy Cohen on the WWHL special, they are separated by the Atlantic Ocean," Leonard told PEOPLE at the time. "Neither is interested in a long distance relationship.”
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