Story By: William McGee, Sub-Editor: Lee Bullen, Agency: Newsflash
A Brazilian businessman has been sentenced to 23 years and three months in prison for murdering his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend 24 years ago.
Gabriela Regattieri Chermont fell from the 12th floor of a building in the city of Vitoria in the south-eastern Brazilian state of Espirito Santo on 21st September 1996.
Her ex-boyfriend, businessman Luiz Claudio Ferreira Sardenberg, claimed the economics student had killed herself.
However, the suicide hypothesis was ruled out at the trial. According to the victim’s family’s lawyer Cristiano Medina da Rocha: “We proved that there were injuries to the right arm, fractures to her teeth and face that happened before the fall. In other words, it was proven that she was tortured before being thrown.”
The investigation revealed that the couple had broken up and that the victim was in a new relationship. Unhappy with the situation, Sardenberg started to call her constantly.
He managed to get her to meet him on the night of 20th September 1996. Witnesses said the pair went to a bar and then to an apart-hotel where they stayed.
According to Sardenberg, the pair had sex, a point contested by the victim’s family. It is in the apart-hotel that Sardenberg is believed to have attacked Chermont, breaking her teeth and causing bruises to her lower back. He then dragged her and threw her from the balcony.
Sardenberg claimed to have only drunk beer on the night of the crime. However, a drugs test revealed he had also taken cocaine.
The case took 24 years to go to trial by jury after it was postponed nine times for various reasons, including appeals that reached the Supreme Federal Court in Brasilia.
Rocha stated: “The judge himself said it was a failure of the Judiciary Branch and of the Civil Police for taking so long to obtain the necessary evidence to try the case.”
Sardenberg was sentenced to 23 years and three months in prison on 12th November.
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