Story By Marija Stojkoska
News Editor Ajda Ender
A Brazilian court has upheld the acquittals of four people accused in the gruesome murder of a footballer who was found partially decapitated with his penis severed and hung from a tree.
Photo shows football player Daniel Correa Freitas in bed with Cristiana Brittes, undated. He was found dead in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Private photo(CEN).
The ruling was handed down by the Court of Justice of Parana in Curitiba, the capital of Parana state in southern Brazil, on 11th June.
Photo shows football player Daniel Correa Freitas in bed with Cristiana Brittes, undated. He was found dead in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Private photo(CEN).
Victim Daniel Correa Freitas, 24, was found dead in a rural area of Sao Jose dos Pinhais, in the Curitiba metropolitan region, on 27th October 2018.
Picture shows Brittes family, undated. Edison Brittes Junior is sentenced to 42 years in prison in Brazil. Note: Private photo. (CEN)
Businessman Edison Luiz Brittes Junior, 38, had admitted killing Freitas but claimed it was in revenge for the footballer trying to rape his wife Cristiana Rodrigues Brittes at a family party in October 2018.
Photo shows football player Daniel Correa Freitas, undated. He was found dead in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Photo is a screenshot from a video(CEN).
Freitas had been attending the drunken 18th birthday bash for Junior’s daughter Allana Emilly Brittes when he shared a photo with pals on WhatsApp showing himself in bed with her mum Cristiana.
Photo shows Edison Luiz Brittes Junior, undated. He confessed to having killed football player Daniel Correa Freitas in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Photo is a screenshot from a video(CEN).
A caption read: “I’m going to devour the birthday girl’s mum…and the dad is here.’’
Photo shows Allana Brittes (right) and Cris Brittes (left), undated. Football player Daniel Correa Freitas was found dead in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Private photo(@allanabrittes/CEN).
One replied: “That guy is going to beat you up.”
Just hours later, Daniel was dead and nearly decapitated after a deadly confrontation with Junior.
Photo shows Allana Brittes(right), Cris Brittes (left), Edison Luiz Brittes Junior (right) and unidentified woman (center), undated. Football player Daniel Correa Freitas was found dead in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Private photo(@allanabrittes/CEN).
Prosecutors rejected Junior’s rape allegations saying he had flown into a jealous fury when he found Freitas in bed with his wife and beat him senseless.
Then, Junior threw him in the boot of his car and drove him to remote woodlands where he stabbed him in the neck so badly that the head was almost severed.
Photo shows Allana Brittes and football player Daniel Correa Freitas in the past, undated. He was found dead in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Private photo(@allanabrittes/CEN).
Junior, said prosecutors, then cut off the footballer’s manhood and hung it on a tree over his body.
Seven people were originally charged in connection with the case.
During the 2024 trial, David Willian Vollero Silva, Ygor King, Eduardo Henrique Ribeiro da Silva and Evellyn Brisola Perusso were acquitted of all charges.
Cristiana was convicted of procedural fraud and corruption of a minor but cleared of homicide and witness coercion charges.
Allana was convicted of procedural fraud, corruption of a minor and coercion of witnesses after she allegedly tried to get underage friends to cover for her father.
Junior was convicted of triple-qualified homicide, concealment of a corpse, procedural fraud, corruption of a minor and witness coercion.
In the latest ruling, judges rejected an appeal by prosecutors seeking to overturn the acquittals of David, Ygor, Eduardo and Cristiana.
The court also upheld the conviction of Junior, the only person convicted of Daniel’s murder.
Photo shows Eduardo Brittes, undated. He is ne of the seven defendants for the murder of football player Daniel Correa Freitas in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana in Brazil on October 27, 2018. Note: Private photo(CEN).
At the same time, judges ruled that the offences for which Allana Emilly Brittes had been convicted were now time-barred, extinguishing her criminal liability.
Nilton Ribeiro, who represents Daniel’s family, said he would not appeal.
Defence lawyer Rodrigo Faucz, who represents David and Ygor, welcomed the decision and said it respected the verdict reached by jurors.
He said: “The acquittal of my clients was a decision based on the evidence in the case and therefore legitimate. The judges understood it in the same way, making the jurors’ decision definitive.”
Caroline Mattar Assad, who represents Allana and Junior, said the ruling meant Allana no longer faced criminal proceedings and would not have a criminal record.
She added that the defence would appeal to higher courts seeking a reduction in Junior’s sentence.
(Marija Stojkoska/Newsflash)
