A Brazilian man convicted of murdering his former girlfriend in an apartment in Cork has been sentenced to life imprisonment and apologised to her family for ending her life.
32-yr-old Miller Pacheco, from Formiga in Minas Gerais, Brazil, accepted the verdict of the Central Criminal Court in Cork today after receiving a life sentence for the murder of Bruna Fonseca, reports RTE.
At the close of the proceedings, his senior counsel Ray Boland told the court that Pacheco would not be appealing the conviction.
He said his client wished to convey his remorse for the “devastation” inflicted on the Fonseca family, reports RTE.
Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford said the 28-year-old Ms Fonseca was an “exceptional young woman” and described her as a “complete human being”, reports RTE.
She said Pacheco had denied Ms Fonseca the right to move forward with her life after their relationship ended in November 2022.
Ms Fonseca had been in a relationship with Pacheco for five years in Brazil before moving to Ireland in September 2022 with her young niece, reports RTE.
Pacheco travelled to Ireland in November 2022, but the relationship ended just days after he arrived in Cork.
Ms Justice Lankford noted that Ms Fonseca had secretly recorded a conversation with Miller in which she told him she was not a “trophy”, reports RTE.
She said Ms Fonseca could not be “won or lost” because she had her “own hopes and dreams”, reports RTE.
Yesterday, the jury took just one hour and two minutes to unanimously convict the accused of murdering Ms Fonseca on New Year’s Day 2023 at his flat on Liberty Street in Cork.
At the sentencing hearing, Ms Fonseca’s older sisters Izabel and Fernanda, her cousin Marcela and her niece Maria wore t-shirts bearing the image of their “unforgettable” loved one, reports RTE.
In her victim impact statement, Izabel said that at 4.45am on 1 January 2023 her family in Brazil received the most devastating phone call of their lives.
“While we were celebrating the beginning of a new year we were left floored, speechless and joyless. We were told our baby sister was gone,” she said, reports RTE.
“Then came the hardest task, telling our mother that her daughter would never return home. Then waiting for the remains, the wake and the burial. In the early hours of 16 January, Bruna arrived. She looked serene.
“When our mother tried to touch her, she felt a coldness that should never be a part of that farewell. That scene marked our family permanently.
“We fixed her hair and did her make up with all our love, so that she would be as she always was,” reports RTE.
Izabel said the investigation clearly showed that Ms Fonseca was not responsible for what happened, noting that the jury rejected the accused’s claim that he placed her in a chokehold only to stop her hitting him.
She emphasised that Ms Fonseca was not a statistic, but a vibrant person with dreams, plans, laughter and a future ahead of her, reports RTE.
“She came to his country moved by the hope of building a better future. Bruna was strong. Even living a relationship (with Pacheco) characterised by constant manipulation, she always tried to solve problems that were not her own,” she said, reports RTE.
“Among all the things taken from her was the chance to meet her youngest niece and to see her grow,” she added, reports RTE.
Izabel said that although Ms Fonseca could no longer speak for herself, her family always would.
“Her name will be remembered with dignity, truth and love. Nothing will bring Bruna back. But it is fair to recognise the seriousness of what was done and clearly state that her life mattered,” she said, reports RTE.
Ms Fonseca’s cousin Marcela, who was living in Cork at the time of the murder, said in her victim impact statement that she had promised Bruna’s mother she would bring her body home for burial.
“And that is what I did. I sent her body back to Brazil. My life was never the same again. I carry the trauma with me,” she said, reports RTE.
Marcela said Bruna was not merely a number.
“I do not see statistics. I see a familiar face. A name. A story. A man decides to take somone’s life. And the question that remains is how little is your life worth. A life that was taken because a woman was not allowed to move on, to choose, to love, to live her own life,” she said, reports RTE.
Evidence heard during the trial showed that Miller sent Bruna more than 2,000 messages between his arrival in Ireland on 18 November 2022 and her death on 1 January 2023.
Pacheco told gardaà that he did not intend to kill Ms Fonseca, saying he was not a “monster” and insisting he was “not that person who kills someone I love”, reports RTE.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the court that Ms Fonseca died from asphyxia caused by manual strangulation and had sustained more than 65 external and internal bruises across her body.
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