A man sentenced to 24 years in prison for the crimes of aggravated murder of his boyfriend and concealment of a body that occurred in April 2023 in Kadavale has appealed the decision, demanding a new trial or a new ruling.
The appeal to the Lisbon Court of Appeal of the 13th, to which the Lusa agency had access this Thursday, asks for a re-evaluation of the evidence through a “hearing” or the drafting of a new decision of the first instance court. example .
The defense argues that “the specific evidence supporting the decision is clearly contradictory,” that the decision contains “errors in the merits,” and that a re-evaluation of the evidence may lead to a different decision.
“There was no evidence presented to attribute the death” to the other defendant, he argues, believing that the court violated the principle of the presumption of innocence of the accused.
The defense argued that sudden death was caused by a combination of drugs, alcohol and antidepressants, which were found during the autopsy.
Therefore, the defense believes, it would be important to hear the expert who wrote the autopsy report in order to better clarify the cause of death, which the court refused.
Despite his history of mental and physical health issues, the panel of judges also did not wait for a psychiatric expert to rule in favor of the defendant’s guilt, the defense also claims.
The defence also accuses the panel of judges of discounting the evidence presented in this regard and of not reducing the sentence because the defendant had cooperated in the investigations of the Judicial Police (SP).
Thus, he adds, the sentence imposed is excessive for this type of crime, and the crime of murder should not be aggravated, since there is no de facto union between the two men – the victim “only had sporadic intimate relations with the accused to resolve issues related to his financial problems” – not even because he planned the crime in advance – only after the death the accused went to get knives to dismember the body and purchased bags to transport it, he argues.
The defense accuses the SP not only of influencing the results of the autopsy, being its witness, but also of deceiving the accused during the investigation, which led him to “illegal self-incrimination” by subjecting him to a photo report on the reconstruction of crimes based on the data of the investigation, since it was exhausted.
On July 22, the Loures court sentenced the man to 24 years in prison, having proven the crimes of aggravated murder of his boyfriend and concealment of a corpse, included in the prosecutor’s indictment.
According to the ruling, because he was in a “weak economic situation,” the victim often asked the defendant for money, threatening to end the relationship if he did not help him.
Given the pressure from the victim, the perpetrator became convinced that the guy was only maintaining the relationship for economic gain and began to distrust him.
On April 26, 2023, he refused to help him, resulting in the victim humiliating him with verbal abuse.
Planning his murder, the perpetrator armed himself with a sledgehammer and, while his boyfriend was sleeping, dealt at least three strong blows to the head, which led to several injuries and a cerebral hemorrhage and, as a result, death.
Having worked in the Kadaval morgue and having experience in cutting up corpses, he dismembered the body and placed it in plastic bags, and on the 28th transported them to different isolated places.
Upon returning home, he tried to hide evidence of the crimes, washing the car, clothes, floor, walls of the house, furniture, knives and a saw that he used, and also hiding part of the bloody mattress on which the victim lay in the field and slept.
The discovery of a bag containing a body part by members of the public on the night of May 2 alerted the judicial police, who began investigating the case.
The presence of tattoos on various parts of the body, one of which referenced the national flag of Brazil, allowed authorities to determine the victim’s nationality and contact the accused.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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