Sentenced to 14 years in prison for the murder of his brother in Vila Pouca de Aguiar.

On Tuesday, a Vila Real court sentenced a 49-year-old man to 14 years in prison for the murder of his brother in Vila Poca de Aguiar.

The case was tried by a jury at the request of the defendant’s defense.

The panel of judges disqualified the crime from qualified murder to simple murder aggravated by the use of a weapon, and sentenced the defendant to 14 years in prison and a fine of 1,500 euros for possession of a prohibited weapon.

He was also ordered to pay compensation of about 100 thousand euros to the daughters of his brother, who was 58 years old.

During the announcement of the decision, the president of the collective considered the defendant’s behavior reprehensible, despite the fact that the victim was considered a person in conflict with his family and neighbors.

Disagreements over land and livestock between the two family members were long-standing, and they did not speak to each other for five years.

At the first hearing of the trial, the defendant confessed to the murder of his brother, a crime that occurred on February 26, 2023, and expressed regret for the crime committed at the house of Veiga, in Eirize, parish of Vreya de Born. Vila Pouca in Aguiar, in the Vila Real area.

Throughout the trial, which began in February, several villagers were present at the Vila Real court and even waited until the accused entered and exited the building to applaud him in support.

A petition was also delivered to the court, signed by the majority of residents of the locality, which condemns the act committed, but expresses support for the defendant, not considering him a dangerous person.

The brothers had had a bad relationship since they were children and the perpetrator said he lived on alert, although he did not sue the victim.

The team considered that they acted under the influence of a combination of factors, such as insults, threats and the belief that it was their brother who had taken the meadow in which their cows grazed, a situation which was described to them as if they had “taken away their son”.

On the day of the crime he was involved in a boar ride and was drunk, although the court found that he was conscious, he said that he stopped the car after seeing his brother in his meadow with cows, that they were arguing and that he then went home to get a weapon, who ended up killing a member of his family.

At the moment, the court considered that it has not been proven that there was provocation and aggression on the part of the victim.

The chairman of the board also reported that the defendant gave a partial confession, that immediately after that he did not regret what he had done and that he only dropped the weapon by the force of third parties, who then waited for the authorities to arrive.

He also concluded that the conduct of the now convicted man could not be legitimized simply because his brother was conflicted by asserting that all human lives are equal.

As a result, the defendant’s lawyer, Manuel Rodriguez, believed that the court was right for the defense to disqualify the crime, although he admits that he appealed the decision.

“It turned out that this did not happen for a banal, simple reason. It gave us a reason because there was no planning, no conspiracy, as was accused. In this aspect, the court accepted, and correctly, simple murder,” he said . stated.

However, in his opinion, the team could “go a little further in assessing mitigating circumstances,” since “there are conditions and specific cases that require the court to soften the sentence a little more.”

“And in this sense, I think we will file an appeal to bring these special circumstances to the attention of the higher court,” he emphasized.

The jury consists of three career judges and jurors selected by lot from the voter lists of the competent court, and hears cases in which the maximum penalty for crimes exceeds eight years’ imprisonment.

Jury decisions in the Portuguese court system are made jointly by the collective and the jury.