A fugitive since 2008, Correio presented himself on the 5th to the jury and was convicted of killing his ex-wife and trying to kill his son in Guarulhos
by Bruno Paes Manso and Marcelo Mora
The pagodeiro Evandro Gomes Correia Filho was sentenced yesterday to 33 years and 20 days in prison for the homicídio qualificado (qualified homicide), for the death of his former wife, cashier Andréa Cristina Nobrega Bezerra, and the attempt to kill their son in November of 2008. After nearly five years on the run, he appeared on Thursday, September 12th, on the second and final day of the jury at the Fórum Criminal de Guarulhos (Criminal Forum of Guarulhos), in the greater São Paulo area.
Judge Maria Gabriela Riscali Tojeira determined that Evandro should remain imprisoned. The qualifiers of the penalty are perverse motive and not having given the victim the opportunity to defend herself. Andréa’s four sisters listened to the sentence hand in hand, accompanied by the family of lawyer Mércia Nakashima, who was also murdered by an ex-boyfriend in 2010, the former PM (Military Police officer) Mizael Bishop de Souza was sentenced in March to 20 years in prison for the crime.
“After five years on the run, he arrived with the same arrogance as always. He threatened me and said that we were going to have to pay for everything we were doing to him,” said Josilene Nobrega Bezerra, one of Andréa’s sisters.
Evandro’s lawyer, Ademar Gomes, said that “the condemnation of the media was crucial” to the result of the jury and that he will appeal the decision.
According to the prosecutor Rodrigo Merli, the pagodeiro (pagode musician) must serve two-fifths of the sentence in a closed regime, which means Evandro will spend every day for 12 years in a cell only leaving to do work on specific occasion and eight years in a semi-open regime (1) if the sentence is upheld in the second instance. Only after 20 years would he be able to progress to an open regime (2), which for Brazilian standards is a considerable penalty.
For the prosecutor, the fact that he appeared on the eve of elections in 2010, when he could not be arrested in order to give an interview dressed up like (late musician) Raul Seixas contributed to his sentence (3) – Alexandre Nardoni, for example, was sentenced to 31 years for the murder of his 6-year old daughter in 2008.
Jury: In two hours of testimony on Thursday afternoon, Evandro denied that it led his wife and son to fall from an apartment. The musician remained handcuffed and cried twice. Once, watching the video of the funeral of his mother when he was a fugitive, and, again, when the defense attorney said the child was a “xerox (copy or spitting image) of his father.”
According to the indictment, Evandro had a jealous fit when arriving at the apartment where they lived, in Guarulhos, cut the gas hose and threatened to blow up the place. He was at the door with a knife, preventing the two from leaving the location. Andréa then threw the boy on the third floor balcony of the building, which was about a meter wide. The boy was hospitalized with a broken jaw. She tried to jump onto the ledge, but fell and died.
Consistency: Evandro’s son, Lucas, now 11 years old, testified on Thursday, confirming that version of the story. According to the prosecutor Rodrigo Merli, the boy’s “firmness and consistency” impressed the judges. The child’s testimony was the primary evidence for conviction.
The district attorney tried to argue to the jury that in case the father was acquitted, he should get custody of the child, and that the members of the jury would have to live with that decision.
Notes
1. Semi-open regime: In a semi-open regime, serving the sentence must occur in agricultural colony, industrial or similar establishment. Here, the offender may be housed in local collectives and their sentences will be connected to their job. A common example of this type of prison is to reduce a day’s penalty for every three days worked.
2. Open regime: In an open regime, the prisoner serves their sentences in a hostel or shelter, which is a minimum security prison or suitable establishment and the limitations in this case are smaller. In this case, prisoners remain in place only for sleeping and weekends, and are required to work or prove that he/she has conditions for going into the job market immediately after the progression.
3. Wearing a wig, goatee and sunglasses, looking like famed, late musician style Raul Seixas, Evandro, appeared on the afternoon of September 29, 2010, taking advantage of the election period in which no one can be arrested, to give his version of what happened to his ex-wife on November 18, 2008. According to him, his ex-wife is jumped, along with her son through the window after an argument between the couple.
Leave a Reply