This week, the São Paulo Court denied, for the fourth time, the request for the release of Fernando Sastre Filho made by the defendant’s defense.
Sastre is accused of killing ride-hailing driver Ornaldo Viana in March of this year, when his Porsche collided with the victim’s car. He has been in prison since May in Tremembé, in the interior of São Paulo.
The decision was made last Tuesday (3) by judge João Augusto Garcia, of the 5th Criminal Law Chamber of the TJSP.
In the request, Sastre’s defense argued that his release would be convenient, as the defendant had already undergone an evidentiary hearing on August 2, in which he gave his testimony.
According to the defense, the records contain opinions from medical experts who would have attested to the absence of possible intent. Therefore, the detainee’s lawyers argued that compliance with precautionary measures would be sufficient.
Among the precautionary measures commonly adopted by the Courts are the seizure of the passport, the inability to leave the municipality of residence and periodic appearances in court.
In denying the request, the judge argued that the cause of the crime was not only the driver’s drunkenness, but also the excessive speed while driving the vehicle.
“In addition, it was possible to extract, within the scope of the aforementioned act, the worrying history of fines/accidents, which would indicate the insufficiency of the various precautionary measures”, wrote Garcia.
The judge also highlighted that it is not possible to conclude that the investigation of the case has been completed. “In fact, other witnesses may testify in the plenary session,” the judge considered.
Remember what happened
The incident occurred in the early hours of Easter Sunday on Avenida Salim Farah Maluf in Tatuapé, east of São Paulo. Fernando Sastre Filho was driving the Porsche that crashed into the back of the Sandero of app driver Ornaldo da Silva Viana at around 156 km/h. The speed limit for the road is 50 km/h.
The police officers who responded to the incident allowed the businessman to leave the scene with the help of his mother, who said she was going to take her son to the hospital. When the officers went to the hospital to perform a breathalyzer test and get their version of the accident, they could not find either of them.
According to an investigation by the Military Police, the officers made a mistake in not carrying out a breathalyzer test on the businessman immediately after the accident.
The driver of the luxury car, however, appeared at the 30th Police District of Tatuapé, east of the capital, almost 40 hours after the incident, on April 1st – the same day that Viana was buried in Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo.
This content was originally published in SP court denies freedom to Porsche driver for the 4th time on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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