RIO DE JANEIRO — A federal courtroom sentenced Brazilian engineer Mário Marcelo Santoro to 27 years in jail on Thursday, after he confessed to the 2018 homicide of former girlfriend Cecília Haddad in Australia.
Santoro, right this moment in his mid 40s, was convicted of aggravated murder, asphyxiation, femicide and concealment of a corpse.
The seven-person jury within the Rio de Janeiro – manufactured from six girls and one man – delivered its determination on Thursday morning. Santoro’s lawyer mentioned he’ll attraction.
In April 2018, the physique of Haddad, then 38, was discovered within the Lane Cove river in Sydney, Australia, a couple of miles from her condominium. By then, Santoro had already left the nation and flown again to Brazil.
Based mostly on hundreds of messages reviewed by Australian legislation enforcement and testimonies from family and friends members, Haddad had damaged up with Santoro, however he refused to just accept her determination.
About 10 days earlier than her loss of life, Haddad had given Santoro an ultimatum, asking him to depart the condominium or else she would name the police, mentioned Australian detective John Edwards, in line with O Globo newspaper and different media retailers that attended the trial. At one level, Haddad had left her place to stick with some pals.
Cellphone monitoring positioned Santoro at Haddad’s condominium and by the river the place her physique was later discovered, O Globo reported. Sand and vegetation from that very same space was additionally discovered within the sufferer’s automobile, which Santoro was seen driving on photographs caught by safety cameras.
In testimony he delivered on Wednesday, Santoro acknowledged going to Haddad’s home to retrieve his passport to catch his flight again to Brazil. He mentioned they obtained right into a battle and he “grabbed her neck” and “squeezed actually laborious” earlier than “she fell limp” in his arms. Santoro, who in any other case appeared pretty relaxed in the course of the trial’s lengthy and detailed testimonies, cried whereas confessing to Haddad’s homicide.
“The defendant solely confessed within the jury room, after intensive evidentiary materials had been produced towards him,” mentioned federal decide Ian Legay Vermelho. “In different phrases, he didn’t confess earlier than the Australian police when he arrived in Brazil. He didn’t confess earlier than the Brazilian investigators, nor earlier than the judicial phases he had gone by as much as that day.”
Earlier than the ruling, Haddad’s mom, carrying a white t-shirt with a photograph of her daughter, informed reporters that Santoro was “not a human being however a monster,” and that he belonged in jail.