20-year prison sentence confirmed for shooting wife to death out of jealousy in Ponte de Lima

The Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) confirmed the 20-year prison sentence imposed by the Viana do Castelo Court on the man who, in May 2022, shot and killed his wife outside her house, in Correlhã, in Ponte de Lima.

According to Jornal de Notícias (JN), the defense had appealed because they considered the sentence “not very judicious and unbalanced”, but the advisory judges considered it “fair, correct and appropriate”.

In the ruling, the STJ maintains that the “feelings of insecurity” and the “idea of ​​infidelity” invoked by Fernando Correira, but not proven, do not justify the crime.

“The so-called honor crimes are, as is known, explicitly subject to rejection by the Istanbul Convention”, states the ruling, cited by the JN.

As O MINHO reported at the time, driven by unhealthy jealousy, Fernando Correia shot and killed his wife, Sónia Marisa, and then tried to commit suicide, on the morning of May 3, 2022, in Correlhã, Ponte de Lima, in street of the residence where they lived.

Married since 2009, with two minor children, aged four and 11, they lived on the ground floor of a house whose first floor was the victim’s parents, aged 35.

From what O MINHO found, Fernando Correia worked on high voltage lines and in civil construction. He emigrated to Germany, having returned to Portugal last Christmas. He had been out of work since the week before the crime.

His wife, Sónia Marisa Barros Correia, was a maid and had great support from her mother in caring for her grandfather, who lived in the house next door, and who has been bedridden for many years.

Fernando Correia was convinced that his wife had a lover, which led him to shoot her three times, after she had dropped her children off at school.

The man, from the municipality of Vila Verde, then tried to commit suicide, shooting himself in the chest and head.

He was transported in critical condition to Braga Hospital, but survived.

When he left the hospital, he was detained by the Judiciary Police and placed in preventive detention.

In April last year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Viana do Castelo Court, a sentence that has now been confirmed by the Supreme Court.