Érika de Souza responds for vilification of a corpse and fraud; Civil Police began investigating her for culpable homicide
Érika de Souza said she did not realize that Paulo Roberto Braga, her uncle, was dead when she took him to withdraw a loan of R$17,000 at a bank branch on April 16. She is responsible for vilifying a corpse and aggravated theft through fraud. She was arrested red-handed on the day she attempted to obtain the loan, but released on May 2 after being authorized by the courts to respond to the case in freedom.
“Those were horrible days away from my family. I lived moments in my life that I could no longer bear. Very difficult. It was horrible, I didn’t realize my uncle was dead”, declared Érika in an interview with the program “Fantastic“, from the TV Globo, shown on Sunday night (May 5, 2024). “I’m not that person they’re talking about, I’m not that monster” he added.
According to Erika, the relationship with her uncle was “excellent”. She said: “He was independent, he walked, he did what he wanted. He had a good mind. He wasn’t in a wheelchair and I wasn’t his caregiver.”.
Érika’s defense argues that the man, who died at age 68, would be alive when he arrived at the bank. The investigation into the case, however, indicates that he had already arrived at the establishment dead.
To the “Fantastic”, Érika said that her uncle asked to go to the bank and she did not consider that he would be unable to go to the branch. She stated that it was “all good” on the journey made in the car, a vehicle called via an app.
Security camera footage shows that, once outside the car, Érika supports Paulo’s head with her hand. “I asked if that would be better, he said yes,” she states.
Regarding what happened inside the bank branch, Érika said that “can not” remember “a lot of things” and that this forgetfulness may be due to the prescription medications he takes regularly. “As I undergo treatment, I took zolpidem. Sometimes I took more than I should”, he declared.
Erika said that neither she and “not many people” present at the bank realized that Paulo had died. “How do you give a dead person a piece of paper to sign?”, he questioned. She refers to the fact that Paulo’s condition was only noticed when he did not move to sign the loan papers presented to him.
“If they [atendentes] had noticed something, perhaps they had not realized anything [para ele assinar]”, he said, adding that he only confirmed the death when a team from Samu (Mobile Emergency Care Service) certified the death.
Paulo Roberto had been hospitalized for a week. She went to the bank with her uncle on the same day she was discharged, but was informed that the loan would have to be withdrawn at another branch, where they went the following day. It was at this agency that Paulo was declared dead.
According to the niece, at the time of discharge, there was no recommendation for Paulo to stay at home. “They gave me a prescription for a 5-day medicine. I bought the medicine and the diaper. I thought he was going to get better, that it was just pneumonia“, he said.
To maintain her freedom, Érika must appear in court monthly and is prohibited from leaving the Bangu District for more than 7 days.
The week she was released, the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police began investigating her for manslaughter. The complaint, however, has not yet been presented to the Court.
Érika is responsible for vilifying a corpse and aggravated theft through fraud. She was arrested red-handed when she tried to withdraw a loan of R$17,000 in the name of her uncle, whose body was carried to the location in a wheelchair. A video recorded by an attendant shows Érika speaking to Paulo’s body, asking him to sign a document.
Watch (1min46s):
