What is the story of Daniella Perez’s murder?

In 1992, a brutal crime shocked Brazil. Daniella Perez, 22, daughter of playwright Gloria Perez, was murdered with scissors on December 28 by actor Guilherme de Pádua and his accomplice, Paula Thomaz, who was pregnant with him at the time.

To detail the case, HBO Max launches this Thursday the miniseries “Brutal Pact”. With five episodes, the production promises to give details about a crime that, even three decades later, is still widely talked about.

Daniella and Guilherme were colleagues and worked together on the soap opera “De Corpo e Alma”, on TV Globo, written by Gloria Perez. In the plot, the characters, the dancer Yasmin and Bira, had a quick romance. At the time, the actress was married to Raul Gazolla.

Shortly after recording the scene in which the couple separates, the actor cried a lot in his dressing room. At that moment, he believed it was the end of his character in the plot and his appearances would be increasingly reduced in the production.

Crime

It is not possible to be sure that this was the real motivation for the crime, but what is known is that, on the afternoon of December 28, Guilherme found Daniella outside the studio where they were recording the soap opera. He followed the actress along with Paula Thomasthe actor’s then wife, who was hiding in the back seat of the car.

When Daniela stopped at a gas station, she was ambushed: Guilherme punched the artist, who fell unconscious.

The actress was placed in the back seat of the actor’s car, now with Paula at the wheel. Driving Daniella’s vehicle, Guilherme drove to a vacant lot in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro.

Once at the scene, the couple stabbed Daniella Perez with scissors more than 18 times. According to the forensic report, the lung, heart and neck were hit.

See who are involved in the Daniella Perez case

Witness

Hugo da Silveira, a lawyer who was passing through the vacant lot at the time of the crime, found it strange to see two cars stopped. As a precaution, he wrote down the license plates of the vehicles and alerted the police that something could be happening at the scene.

The authorities followed the complaint and found Daniella’s car. While walking around the place, a policeman found the body of the actress.

With the license plate provided by the witness lawyer, the police soon arrived at Guilherme’s vehicle. At the time, the actor tampered with a letter on the plate, but was found anyway.

Judgment

Initially, the killer denied the crime. He was taken to the police station on December 29. After the evidence was presented, Guilherme de Padua admitted guilt. When analyzing the case, the police understood that Paula was also involved and, on the 31st of the same month, the arrest of the two was decreed.

The trial took place five years later and both were convicted of aggravated homicide for clumsy motives, with the victim being unable to defend themselves. Guilherme was sentenced to 19 years, and Paula to 18 years and six months.

In May 1993, Paula gave birth to Felipe while in prison. She and the actor separated shortly after, due to the different versions presented as a defense. In most of them, he blamed his wife for the crime.

With only seven years in prison, the two were placed on parole.

It was seven years in a second. Is my daughter’s life worth that much? The seven years of stewardship that Guilherme de Padua spent in jail?
Gloria Perez, at the time of Guilherme’s release

“All the suffering that night when I went to get my only dead daughter, stabbed and dumped in a thicket, the five years of public exposure, waiting for the trial, the weight of it all fell on me.”

“Body and soul”

Gloria Perez left the soap opera, but it was for a short time. Weeks after the crime, she was back.

The author included themes such as the slowness of justice and the inadequacy of the Penal Code in the plot. Daniella won a tribute in the soap opera and Guilherme’s character never appeared again.

Despite being a success, “De Corpo e Alma” was never rerun.

change in law

On the playwright’s initiative, qualified homicide, committed for a base or futile motive, or committed with cruelty, was included in the Law of Heinous Crimes, with more than 1 million signatures.

With the change, it is no longer possible to post bail and more time is needed for regime progression.

Nowadays

In April 2016, Gloria Perez and Daniella’s ex-husband, Raul Gazolla, won a lawsuit for moral damages against Guilherme and Paula, receiving about R$ 480 thousand. In addition, the killers were forced to bear the burial and funeral expenses of the actress.

In 2020, Guilherme de Pádua appeared in the media again when he was in a pro-Bolsonaro demonstration alongside his current wife, Juliana Lacerda. In a video posted on Instagram, he criticized the Chamber of Deputies and the press. Furthermore, he is an evangelical pastor.

In May 2021, Paula Thomaz filed a criminal complaint against Gloria Perez for threat and defamation. That’s because the convicted of the murder is trying to invest in the acting career of her youngest daughter, 5 years old.

She did not preserve the child that was in her belly when she became a murderer, and she does not preserve her daughter from an environment where she will always have as a reference being the daughter of a murderess.
Gloria Perez, in a Facebook post

In her social networks, Gloria Perez always writes about her daughter. She reports missing and regrets Daniella’s death. “The more time passes, the more this day hurts,” the author wrote in an Instagram post.

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