The court also ordered the defendant to pay 300 thousand euros in compensation to the victim’s family.
A 39-year-old man was sentenced to 19 years and nine months in prison for the death of another, aged 44, in October 2024, in Inguias, in the municipality of Belmonte.
According to the ruling, handed down on January 12, by a jury, composed of three judges from the collective and four citizens, the defendant was accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of a crime of qualified homicide, a crime of possession of a prohibited weapon and a crime of driving a vehicle without a legal license.
On the day of the occurrence, October 30, 2024, the victim, a construction worker, he was doing work at the house of the accused’s ex-partner.
The accused went to the scene, wielding a shotgun and, addressing the victim, asked: “How much do I owe you?”
Despite having told the police and judicial authorities that “he did not intend to take the life of the offended party, he only intended to intimidate the victim”then “it was not his intention to physically offend the victim, much less to harm his life”, the accused fired a shot and hit the victim in the left groin.
Still, he claimed that “What occurred was an accidental and involuntary shooting, caused by the state of exaltation in which he was found and, also, by the victim having grabbed the barrel of the shotgun.”
The victim was assisted, but death was declared at the scene.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office considered that the accused “predicted taking his life” to the other man, “taking into account the area of the body affected and also the dangerousness and lethality of the object used and its suitability to cause the victim’s death”.
Considered that he did “motivated by issues related to alleged debts and delays in the ongoing work, after which he used a firearm, (…) acting with a cold temper”.
A request for compensation was also requested, either by the process assistant and the victim’s partner, or by the children, worth more than 880 thousand euros. This request was partially considered, having been ordered to pay a total of 300 thousand euros to the victim’s assistant and seven children (five of them minors and one together with the assistant), for non-material damages.
He was absolved from paying the remaining amount, which also included a request from the victim’s father.
The ruling states that, in addition to the woman and her seven children, the victim was also the supporter of his partner’s two other children and contributed 200 euros a month to support his fatheralso an assistant in the process.
The accused, who managed an agricultural holdinghas several convictions on his criminal record, many of them suspended during their execution, mainly for driving without a legal license, but also for offenses against physical integrity, coercion or theft.
After the crime, walked around for a weekbefore handing himself over to the PJ da Guarda and being present for his first judicial interrogation at the Castelo Branco Court, having awaited trial in preventive detention.
