Renato Seabra, convicted of the murder of radio host Carlos Castro.
Fifteen years after the murder of Carlos Castro, a vast judicial process made it possible to reconstruct, in detail, the crime that marked Portugal, committed in the USA by the model Renato Seabra.
The dossier, to which he had access, under FOIL (New York State’s freedom of information law), contains 4,212 pages, 411 photographs, 38 videos and 11 audio files, including video surveillance images, evidence collected at the scene and the complete transcript of Renato Seabra’s trial.
The documentation shows that Carlos Castro and Renato Seabra they met on October 15, 2010when they were 65 and 20 years old, respectively. Messages exchanged on Facebook and the model’s confession help trace the evolution of the relationship. That same day, according to Seabra, the two kissed for the first timeand shortly afterwards Carlos Castro would have tried to open doors for the young model’s career, having even sought contacts at modeling agencies in Manhattan.
The first photographs captured in New York and shown by the Observer reveal a relaxed atmosphere, with Seabra smiling for the camera. However, the video surveillance images show an atmosphere of increasing tension on the eve of the crime, at the Intercontinental Hotel.
Emails sent by Carlos Castro even indicate that the journalist tried to anticipate his return to Lisbon just hours before he was brutally murdered on January 7, 2011.
In court, Renato Seabra said he was unable to explain what happened that day.
“The moment I entered the room that day, something took over me”, said the model in court. “We used to play fights with each other, but it was always for fun. I’ve never been aggressive before. I never had a fight with Carlos. That day, I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t understand the way things happened and I can’t understand why. Only God knows what happened that day”, he also said, quoted by the Observador.
Despite the statements made by the killer who is still in prison today for second-degree murder, elements collected by the prosecution sought to demonstrate that Renato Seabra was aware of what he was doing at the time of the crime. Carlos Castro’s cell phone was silent when a friend tried to call her dozens of times and the bedroom phone was found off the hook. The curtains were also closed and there was a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. Money was taken from the room.
In December 2012, the former model was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
