The young woman who became a lawyer and managed to acquit her mother of the accusation of killing her boyfriend in Bahia

Twelve years after being accused of killing her boyfriend, Rosália was acquitted by a jury, in a trial in which her daughter served as her defense lawyer.

A loud bang breaks the silence around 8pm on Tuesday in the city of Valença, Bahia. The noise is accompanied by a sequence of desperate cries for help.

Neighbors in the cul-de-sac seem to immediately respond to Rosália Maria Negrão Pita’s calls for help. Her then boyfriend, José Antônio Silva Braga, known as Tony Veículos, aged 35, had just died from a gunshot wound to the heart with a .38 caliber revolver.

The weapon used in the crime was found by the police on the passenger seat of the car where he was found dead.

It was the start of a saga that lasted 12 years until she managed to be acquitted two weeks ago, on September 25 this year. The Court of Jury decided unanimously (4 votes to 0) that her then boyfriend took his own life and that she is not a murderer.

The most surprising detail is that, among Rosália’s defense lawyers, was her 26-year-old daughter, Camila Pita. The young woman went to college because of the case that affected her family. She studied for more than a decade and earned a law degree to be part of her mother’s defense team.

BBC News spoke to Camila, the Bahia Public Prosecutor and experts to understand the case.

The night lasted 12 years

The city of Valença is a stop for many tourists as it is the main access point to the island of Tinharé, where the city of Morro de São Paulo is located, a paradise of beaches with warm, crystal-clear waters south of Salvador.

In an interview with BBC News Brasil, lawyer Camila Pita states that she was 14 years old when her mother’s boyfriend, according to the defense version, committed suicide in the car and, from that moment on, a 12-year saga began until she was declared innocent.

Camila says she did not have a “very present” father and was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother.

Considered small, the city which has 85 thousand inhabitants, according to the latest census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), has mobilized around the case. In publications on the topic found on Instagram, some residents of the municipality believe that Tony Veículos was murdered by his girlfriend, while others claim that a suicide occurred.

Attorney Camila Pita says she doesn’t remember exactly, but she was 7 or 8 when her mother met Tony.

“They had a somewhat troubled relationship, with a lot of comings and goings, but without getting married. They dated for about 7 years until the accident happened,” says Camila.

The lawyer claims that about 15 days before Tony’s death, the couple had ended their relationship. He was trying to get back together, in Camila’s words, and his mother denied it.

“During an argument, Tony threatened that he would kill himself if she didn’t get back with him. He left the house, said he would fix the situation and got into his car saying he was going to do something stupid,” Camila says.

The lawyer says Tony had done this before. On those occasions he would point the gun at his chest and head, repeatedly, several times, threatening to pull the trigger.

The night he died, Rosália insisted several times that he calm down and give up the idea. After Tony got into the vehicle, she also said that she would get in the car with him. First he would have asked to collect the bag that had been left inside his house.

In her statement, she said that as soon as she turned to look for the personal item, she heard a shot. When he turns again, Tony is bloodied and lifeless.

She says she doesn’t know whether it was accidental or intentional, as her back was turned at the time of the shooting. The immediate reaction was to scream and ask the neighbors for help.

Witnesses arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting, according to testimony.

Tony’s family doesn’t believe Rosalia’s story and suspects that she was the perpetrator of the fatal shot.

In a statement distributed to local press, the family said before the trial:

“We call on society and the press to join us at this crucial moment, and on the authorities to listen to our appeal, so that together we can ensure that those responsible pay for what they have done and that Tony, a man of many dreams and loves, receive the respect you deserve,” reads an excerpt of the note

The Report was unable to contact Tony’s family until this report was published.

Jury court

For the lawyer Camila, the report and investigations have already provided sufficient information to exonerate the mother and avoid stress for the entire family.

Forensics collected all the fingerprints at the crime scene. None of the subjects found in the weapon belonged to Rosalia.

The defense claims there were no signs that Tony’s then-girlfriend had gotten into the car with him because only the driver’s door was open. He also would not have fired a shot from the outside, as there were no bullet marks in the vehicle.

Forensic experts indicated that the shot was fired inside the vehicle. The defense argues that a relatively short woman, 5 feet 10 inches tall, would not be able to shoot a 5 feet 10 inches tall man and kill him with a single shot.

Tony’s death made headlines in local newspapers and news portals and moved the population of Valença. The boy was well known for his work in the car resale sector and for having been a candidate for city councilor.

The police investigation phase, with investigations, declarations and reports, lasted about a year.

For Camila, the case should have closed immediately after the end of the police investigation, with the mother’s acquittal and without the need for a jury.

“Unfortunately justice is sometimes blind, especially when it comes to the Court of Jury. In other words, they understand that everything must exist in the Jury,” he says.

Contacted by the report, the Public Prosecutor of Bahia informed in a statement that, in July 2013, Rosália had been charged with murder based on the police investigation.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the investigations presented “clues of paternity and materiality of the criminal facts, with testimonies and expert reports that excluded the hypothesis of suicide hypothesized by the accused”.

The Prosecutor’s Office also specified that this accusation was evaluated by the Court, which accepted the complaint.

“(The Court) held that the passage contained the necessary elements to initiate criminal prosecution and criminal investigation. The Court also held that there was sufficient evidence of paternity and materiality to determine the popular trial against Rosália Maria, reason why he pronounced the sentence on the accused for murder”, reads the note.

In 2020, the Court of Justice rejected Rosália Maria’s appeal and ordered her trial to be by popular jury.

“The Public Prosecutor of Bahia reaffirms that he has zealously fulfilled his constitutional duty and that he has acted in accordance with the law and in accordance with the evidence of the case in all phases of the trial,” the Prosecutor’s Office informed.

College to defend the mother

When Tony died, Camila was 14 years old. He was in high school and starting to choose a profession.

He says everything in his family started revolving around this process and it also influenced his career choice.

“I started studying the trial a lot to understand it. I wanted to know what was happening, what the criminal trial was, and I started to get interested in the law,” Camila tells the reporter.

He says he took the entrance exam and started studying on the campus of the State University of Bahia (Uneb) in Valença.

“When I started college, I fell in love with jury trials even more after I saw the first one. I said, ‘I’ll have to learn how to do it there,'” he says.

Under Brazilian law, the trial for crimes such as intentional homicide (when there is an intent to kill) is conducted by a body composed of a career judge and jurors chosen by drawing lots from among local citizens. This body is called the jury court.

Serving as a defense attorney in a jury trial for his mother was his eighth in three years of practicing. Camila’s intention was to act in as many cases as possible in court to gain experience and defend her mother.

“Right when I started (college), I didn’t know if I would have time (to defend my mother). But two years passed and I was already talking to her lawyers and they told me I would graduate on time. And she worked well,” he says proudly.

The phrase

Twelve years after Tony’s death, seven people listened to the defense, Rosália and the prosecutor Rita de Cássia Pires Bezerra Cavalcanti in the Gonçalo Porto de Sousa forum to decide the future of the accused.

One of the points most questioned by the family in these 12 years and by the prosecution during the trial, according to Camila, are the tests that would identify the presence of gunpowder on the clothes and skin of both the victim and Rosália. The result was inconclusive for both.

“The only basis they used was that a gunpowder test had been done on Tony’s hands and there was no gunpowder on his hands. But it’s an examination that the report itself contains more than ten items that could lead to a false negative. This is a test that in some states the police even suspended for a period”, he says.

After all considerations, at 0:50 on September 25, 2024, Rosália was found innocent by four votes to zero. The final three jurors didn’t even need to be heard because the jury had already formed a majority.

“There were a lot of emotions because obviously I was afraid that things would go wrong. It was the largest jury ever seen here in the city. The forum was packed, with many people standing. At least 50 people were wearing T-shirts that said Rosália Inocente. That was a lot news, it was the talk of the town, so there was a lot of nervousness because I was afraid she would get arrested,” Camila says.

She also said that she gradually calmed down, as she had studied the trial a lot and was confident in her mother’s innocence. After the result, the emotion.

“At the time, I cried a lot. I couldn’t stop crying. My mother was already in a lot of shock because she spent the whole process in great apprehension. She had to relive what was a very big trauma for her,” she said. said. he says.

“The feeling is one of relief for us. It was a turning point, and because I did so well, I will be able to use this as a driving force in my life.”

Source: Terra

Rose

Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.