Story By: William McGee, Sub-Editor: Lee Bullen, Agency: Newsflash
A jealous man accused of torturing and killing a teenage girl he had fallen in love with by stuffing a whole T-shirt down her throat before wrapping her up in the carpet has gone on trial for murder.
Paulo Adriano Ito, 34, is being tried by jury in Brazil for the murder of Jully Anne Esteban Martins, whose decaying body was found wrapped in the carpet with her hands and feet tied up. The T-shirt was stuffed in her mouth all the way to her throat in the south-eastern city of Sao Jose do Rio Preto in November 2018.
Ito handed himself in on 3 December 2018, and confessed to killing Martins out of jealousy when he heard she was leaving town, and he went on trial in the city where the killing happened yesterday. (10 November)
Ito was in love with the young woman although they had only met sporadically and had been seeing each other only that month.
Martins’ dead body was found in the house Ito rented after neighbours complained of a strong smell emanating from the property. The police called a locksmith, who opened the door to the house, where the body was found, wrapped in the rug.
After over four days on the run, Ito handed himself in and was placed in preventive detention.
At the time the police report was filed, a friend of the victim revealed she had been due to move to the state capital of Sao Paulo in a few days, which caused Ito to become jealous.
Student Brenda Gabriela de Oliveira told local media: “She was going off to live with relatives and she told her client. He couldn’t accept it and he said she wouldn’t be with anyone else apart from him.”
Oliveira had been with Martins a few hours before the young woman was last seen. She then went to the suspect’s home.
Martins had told her grandmother to call her on her mobile phone at 9 pm, to use as an excuse to be able to leave. However, she was killed by asphyxiation at the property.
Ito’s lawyer had tried to plead insanity for his client. However, this was rejected by the judge. The lawyer has also claimed Ito is an alcoholic.
Ito is being tried for quadruply-qualified homicide – in this case, killing for trivial reasons, by asphyxiation, preventing the victim from being able to defend herself by tying her hands and feet, and femicide.
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