Supreme Court reduces sentence of man who killed and dismembered boyfriend in Lisbon to 20 years
The Supreme Court of Justice reduced Noel Rojas's sentence to 20 years, invoking case law criteria for aggravated homicide.
Supreme Court cuts further three years from sentence of man who dismembered boyfriend in Lapa
The Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) reduced to 20 years' imprisonment the sentence of Noel Rojas, convicted of the murder and dismemberment of his boyfriend Paulo Machado in the Lapa neighbourhood of Lisbon. The case was reported by Correio da Manhã.
The Lisbon Court had imposed the maximum sentence — 25 years' imprisonment. The Court of Appeal had already reduced the conviction to 23 years. The STJ has now cut a further three years, invoking what the judge rapporteurs describe as their "case law criteria": sentences for aggravated homicide should not exceed 20 years.
The crime
In March of last year, Noel Rojas stabbed Paulo Machado during an argument. Following the victim's death, he cut the body in half and dismembered it, distributing the remains in bags placed in waste bins in the Lapa neighbourhood. The crime was discovered by a street sweeper from Lisbon City Council, who opened one of the bags and found the lower part of the corpse — the only part that would be recovered.
The STJ's reasoning
The judge rapporteurs described Rojas as having a "cold, calculating personality", but considered that the homicide itself did not "exceed" crimes committed "in a context of cohabitation and romantic relationship". In the court's view, the three knife wounds inflicted with a kitchen knife during an argument between the victim and the defendant fall within a pattern recognised in this type of case.
The STJ noted that "only the conduct following the commission of the crime goes beyond the behaviour more commonly seen" — referring specifically to the acts carried out to conceal the homicide, dissimulate and dispose of the corpse.
The sentence reduction was justified on the basis of case law criteria according to which convictions for aggravated homicide should not exceed 20 years' imprisonment.
Source: Correio da Manhã