Érika de Souza Vieira Nunes, 42, who took her uncle Paulo Roberto Braga, 68, to take out a loan when the elderly man was already dead, said she took Zolpidem, a medication with a hypnotic effect, on the day of the incident. The statement was shown in an interview on Fantástico, on TV Globo, this Sunday (5).
According to the woman, she always took the medicine to undergo treatment, but “sometimes she took more than she should”. Erika said she doesn't remember very well that Tuesday afternoon (16) precisely because she is under the influence of medication.
The niece states that she had a great relationship with her uncle. “He was independent, he walked, he did what he wanted and he had a good mind. He wasn’t in a wheelchair and I wasn’t his caregiver,” she says.
Throughout the interview, Erika claims that she didn't realize that her uncle was dead. “No, I can't understand that. Neither I nor many people realized that he passed away. I didn’t realize it until the SAMU guy spoke”, says the niece.
In tears, Erika reinforces: “I didn't realize that my uncle was dead, I didn't see it, I didn't see it, guys! I didn't know. He was alive, he held the car door. He was alive. I'm not the person they're saying I am. I’m not that monster.”
Erika also says that her uncle had never asked for a loan before and that he didn't have a steady job. “He weeded a yard, things like that, but he had no income,” she explains.
According to the niece, neither she nor her family needed the loan money, which would be used to renovate the garage used as a bedroom for the elderly man. “He wanted to build there. We always lived without my uncle having any income.”
MPRJ complaint:
Last Tuesday (30), the Public Ministry of the State of Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) charged the woman who tried to take out a loan using the body of her deceased uncle at a bank branch in Bangu, in the west zone of Rio.
Érika de Souza Vieira was denounced for attempted embezzlement and vilification of a corpse. She left the Djanira Dolores de Oliveira Penal Institute, in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro, on Thursday afternoon (2).
The crimes, according to the complaint, occurred when the woman attempted to withdraw R$ 17,975.38 which, although previously contracted by the elderly Paulo Roberto Braga while he was alive, became undue after his death.
The Prosecutor's Office highlighted the defendant's behavior to the Court, alleging that she demonstrated “contempt and disrespect” by taking the elderly man's body to the bank branch to try to make a withdrawal.
Remember the case:
On the afternoon of April 16, Érika de Souza Vieira, Tio Paulo's niece, took the dead elderly man to try to withdraw a loan worth R$17,000.
While she negotiates the loan, the man remains motionless the entire time. Bank employees found the situation strange and started filming.
To make the loan, Paulo had to sign a document, which was not possible, since he was dead. Even so, Erika insists: “Uncle Paulo, are you listening? You need to sign. If you don't sign, there's no way. I can't sign for you, it has to be you. What I can do, I do.”
Even without the elderly man moving a finger, the supposed niece continues talking to the dead man, while trying to get the corpse's hand to pick up the pen: “It's kind of like the document here, look. Paulo Roberto Braga. You hold on, you hold on tight as hell to the chair there.”
Seeing that it was difficult to get her uncle's hand to pick up the pen, the niece asks the attendants: “Didn't he hold the door there?” Two female voices respond that they didn't see him hold it.
“Hold on, uncle. Sign so you don't give me any more headaches, having to go to the registry office. I can’t take it anymore”, continues Erika.
At that moment, the two attendants begin to intervene, “he’s not well, no”. That's when a fly lands on a man's nose. Erika begins to ask the corpse: “Are you feeling anything? But he doesn’t say anything!” The attendants repeat that the man does not appear to be well, “his color is not staying…”. Erika responds by saying that her uncle is like that.
The niece ends the video by asking her dead uncle: “If you don't get well, I'm going to take you to the hospital. Do you want to go to UPA again?”
Source: CNN Brasil

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