Man who ordered wife's murder in Viçosa (MG) arrested 21 years after the crime
A 46-year-old man was captured in Embu-Guaçu (SP) after decades of legal appeals. He had hired a gunman for R$ 5,000 to kill his wife in 2005.
Man who ordered wife's murder arrested in SP 21 years after the crime in Viçosa
A 46-year-old man, sentenced to prison for ordering the death of his own wife in Minas Gerais, was detained last Thursday (15) in Embu-Guaçu, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, as reported by www1.folha.uol.com.br. The crime took place in August 2005 — more than two decades before the arrest.
According to the MP-MG (Minas Gerais Public Ministry), the defendant hired a gunman for R$ 5,000 to eliminate his wife, motivated by suspicion of infidelity. On 29 August 2005, he invited the victim for a bicycle ride in a rural area of Viçosa. The hired killer went to the location and fired four shots at close range against the woman, simulating a robbery.
A complaint to the Public Ministry was filed with the court in 2007. In October 2011, a jury trial sentenced the husband to 17 years and six months in prison. The responsible judge authorised him to await the judgment of appeals in freedom.
The defence appealed the following year, and the Minas Gerais Court of Justice reduced the sentence to 14 years and six months. A new appeal, this time to the STJ (Superior Court of Justice), kept the case suspended for another three years.
In March 2016, with the conviction confirmed, the judge of Viçosa district ordered the defendant's arrest. The warrant was executed three days after issuance, but he remained in custody for less than a month: he obtained a habeas corpus and the right to await the exhaustion of appeals in freedom.
The decisive turn came in October 2024. The MP-MG requested a new arrest based on a ruling by the STF (Federal Supreme Court) on a matter of general repercussion, which established the possibility of immediate execution of convictions rendered by jury courts, regardless of the sentence length imposed. In total, the convicted man remained two years a fugitive throughout the 15 years that had passed since the first-instance sentence.
When located, he was working as an employee of a therapeutic community in the centre of Embu-Guaçu. The arrest operation was conducted by the MP-MG with support from the military police of Minas Gerais and São Paulo.
The man was taken to the jail annex of the Police Station of Itapecerica da Serra (SP) and is to be transferred to a prison in Minas Gerais.
Source: Google News BR — São Paulo