07/17/2024 – 21:47
The Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro (TJRJ) decided this Wednesday (17) to reduce the sentence of Caio Silva de Souza, sentenced to death by cameraman Santiago Andrade. The professional was hit by a firework while covering a protest in the city center for TV Bandeirantes, in 2014.
In December of last year, Caio had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in a closed regime. In today’s sentence, this sentence was changed to four years in an open regime. In the same sentence, the acquittal of Fábio Raposo Bernardo, who was also a defendant in the trial, was upheld.
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The 8th Criminal Chamber of the TJRJ ruled on two appeals this Wednesday. One of them was filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) against Fábio’s acquittal. The request was for the trial to be annulled or sent back to the 1st instance. Thus, Fábio would be tried by the 3rd Jury Court of the Capital, as happened with Caio.
The other appeal was filed by Caio’s defense. The lawyers asked that the sentence be changed to manslaughter or explosion followed by death, and not as bodily harm followed by death. The court upheld the classification, but reduced the sentence.
“As highlighted by the learned sentencing judge, considering the number of people at the scene, the appellant Caio could have foreseen that his conduct could reach and injure third parties. Because he assumed the risk of injuring other people, acting with eventual intent, the occurrence of the crime of bodily harm followed by death was evident, as stated in the sentence. (…) the consequences of the crime, although serious, are part of the qualified criminal type, that is, bodily harm followed by death, and do not go beyond what is considered normal for the aforementioned crime,” wrote the reporting judge Gilmar Augusto Teixeira.
Previous judgment
The first sentence in the case was handed down on December 13th of last year. The 3rd Jury Court of Rio de Janeiro decided to acquit tattoo artist Fábio Raposo. The artist Caio Silva de Souza was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The jury concluded that there was no intentional intent to kill the victim. This led to the crime being downgraded and the jurisdiction to try the defendant was transferred to Judge Tula Correa de Mello, who convicted him of the crime of bodily harm resulting in death. Caio was also allowed to appeal while free.
In his testimony, Caio said that he was guilty of having killed a worker, but that he did not know, initially, that he had committed the crime. According to him, Fábio approached him and asked for a lighter. Caio then lit the firework, without knowing that it was that type of device. He said that he thought it was a firework, which released an explosion of colors. And that, after lighting the device and placing it on the ground, he left the scene without knowing that he had hit Santiago.
Fábio said he saw an object on the ground and picked it up out of curiosity, not knowing it was a firework. He said he gave the device to Caio after the latter insisted a lot. He also said he left the place soon after, with his eyes irritated by the gas released by the police and did not see when Caio lit the device.
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