Carlinhos Bezerra's 36-year sentence upheld in Brazil

A Brazilian judge has upheld a 36-year prison sentence for businessman Carlos Alberto Gomes Bezerra, known as Carlinhos Bezerra, for the feminicide of his ex-girlfriend Thays Machado and the homicide of her boyfriend, Willian César Moreno.

In Cuiabá, Judge Mônica Catarina Perri Siqueira rejected defense appeals regarding the calculation of the sentence. The judge clarified that while the motive was dissatisfaction with the end of the relationship, the intent was to kill each victim autonomously. The ruling noted that Machado was executed at her location, while Moreno was pursued and shot four times.

Separately, the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso (TJMT) unanimously upheld the seizure of a property owned by Bezerra to settle more than R$ 51,000 in unpaid alimony owed to the mother of one of the victims. The defense's argument that the property was a protected family residence was rejected, as the court found insufficient evidence of permanent residency and noted difficulties for officials attempting to access the walled and locked premises.