Argument in the video is one thing, intention is another, says driver’s lawyer

The lawyer for Christopher Rodrigues, an application driver who ran over and mocked the street vendor, Matheus Campos, 21, suspected of stealing a cell phone, said this Thursday (4), that his client had another intention in relation to what he said to the victim of the hit-and-run.

“His argument in the video is one thing, but the intention is another. The issue of moving the car, anyone knows that if he engaged the first gear, went forwards or went backwards, it could injure the boy even more”, said lawyer André Nino.

In the video, obtained by CNN , it is possible to hear a person saying to Matheus: “Hey, comedy. Are you going to steal a worker, are you going to steal a worker, you asshole? No? It won’t come out of there. Call the police. Just go out with the police. Call no.”

In the recording, it is possible to see Matheus shaking his head and finger, making a negative sign. According to one of Matheus’s sisters, Paloma Campos, the voice would be that of the driver himself, Christopher Rodrigues, who, according to her, would have shared the video in a group of app drivers.

After the hit-and-run, on April 25, the driver recorded a video posted on his social networks, in which he appears mocking the situation. Without showing regret, Christopher Rodrigues said, among other things: “Less one doing the L”, an allusion to the symbol of the voters of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), during the presidential elections.

The driver also hinted that the victim would go to hell.

Christopher’s defense stated that the hit-and-run was accidental and that, at the time of the collision, his client did not know that Matheus had been accused of theft. “It was a perhaps unfortunate video that he made at the time he did, but the intention that he wanted the boy to die, there was no”.

Still according to Christopher’s lawyer, the videos made by the client are “an outburst of a citizen who is tired of so much violence”. The legal representative also said that the driver would be willing to give a new statement.

The chief delegate of the 5th Police District, Percival Alcântara stated that Christopher Rodrigues is being investigated in the police investigation.

“The Civil Police is trying to determine whether there was an accidental or intentional hit-and-run, which would be manslaughter or intentional homicide. Other than that, the fact that the posts are also criminal, they are absurd, they are posts that can already be a criminal liability as incitement to crime, in addition to the omission of help that he may have performed”, said Alcântara.

Stolen driver testimonial

The police heard, on Wednesday (3), the testimony of the app driver who was stolen. According to the chief delegate of the 5th DP, in his statement, the witness was unable to describe exactly the face of the person who stole it.

The driver also said that there was a short time interval between the theft and being run over on the Júlio de Mesquita Filho viaduct, in downtown São Paulo, and that the seller would be the only person on the road.

Shortly after the theft, the witness said he heard a noise, pulled over the car and observed his cell phone on the ground.

A CNN had access to the content of the driver’s testimony that was stolen. The witness claims that he was carrying a couple: a man in front and a woman in the back.

“When they looked to the left, the declarant felt an impact on the dashboard and realized that his cell phone that was there had been stolen, and that the individual who stole it ran in the opposite direction to the flow of vehicles”, he quoted.

Still according to the statement, the woman who was in the back seat of the car asked the man who was in front to call the rescue, got out and went to look at what had happened.

According to the driver, the passenger and the driver of the car that ran over Matheus “tried to stop an ambulance passing by, but the driver said he was with a patient”.

The witness also stated that the passenger and the driver of the vehicle that ran over the street vendor “asked for a GCM vehicle [Guarda Civil Municipal] who passed by the place to stop and help the victim”.

Matheus Campos’ defense claims, however, that there is no confirmation about the attempts to stop vehicles on the street to call for help and argues that it is still not possible to say that the cell phone was stolen by the victim of the hit-and-run.

The defense assistants of Matheus Campos’ family want Christopher’s preventive arrest, in addition to the case being typified as intentional homicide.

The case was initially registered as “theft and suspicious/accidental death”, but the chief delegate of the case stated that the typification should change in the final report.

The Civil Police intends to hear, this Friday (5), the sister of the victim of the hit-and-run, Paloma Campos and other witnesses in the case. The idea is to cross-reference the new reports with the information already collected.

Investigators are still looking for security camera footage at the crash site and are also looking into the possibility of calling Christopher Rodrigues to testify again.