During his interrogation at the Barra Funda Criminal Forum in São Paulo, businessman Fernando Sastre Filho admitted for the first time that he had consumed alcohol before driving the Porsche that struck and killed app driver Ornaldo da Silva Viana on March 31, 2024. The confession, recorded on video, directly affected the sentence he received: just over 17 years in prison.
Judge Melanie Liesenberg sentenced Sastre to 17 years, 1 month and 10 days for qualified homicide by common danger with eventual intent in Viana's death, and for grievous bodily harm against Marcus Vinicius Machado Rocha, a friend who was in the Porsche's passenger seat. Without the confession, the sentence would have been about 18 years, 6 months and 28 days. The judge recognized the confession as a partial attenuating factor, reducing the penalty by 1/12.
The interrogation took place on Thursday, the second and final day of the jury trial, and lasted about one hour and ten minutes. Sastre abandoned the account he had maintained since the crash that he had drunk only water. He told the jury he had ingested alcohol before taking the wheel and said he had consumed two drinks. He apologized to Viana's family, saying he could imagine their pain and devastation, and said he regretted not telling the truth from the beginning.
The judge considered the confession only partial because Sastre admitted drinking and causing the collision but continued to deny that he had assumed the risk of killing. During the investigation, he had told police and a May 2024 Fantástico interview that he had consumed only water. At trial, Marcus reaffirmed that Sastre had drunk alcohol before driving, and Marcus's then-girlfriend, Juliana de Toledo Simões, gave testimony to the same effect.
Other evidence included a video recorded by friends shortly before the crash in which Sastre's speech was described as slurred, a characteristic associated with intoxication. In the same recording, his then-girlfriend is heard asking him not to drive the Porsche. Witnesses who arrived at the scene soon after the collision told police and the jury that Sastre showed signs of intoxication, and some said he staggered after leaving the vehicle. Body-camera footage recorded firefighters saying at the scene that he appeared intoxicated. He was released by military police and did not take a breathalyzer test.
The crash occurred in the early hours of March 31, 2024, on Avenida Salim Farah Maluf in Tatuapé, in São Paulo's East Zone. According to the prosecution, Sastre was driving drunk and at high speed when he hit the rear of the Renault Sandero driven by Viana, who was 52. Marcus lost his spleen, fractured five ribs and was hospitalized for about ten days, part of the time in an intensive care unit.
After the sentence, prosecutors Rodolfo Morais and Lucas Schaefer said they would appeal to try to raise the conviction to more than 20 years in prison. They argued the punishment was below what the Public Ministry considers compatible with the seriousness of the case. Sastre has been in preventive detention since May 6, 2024, and has served about two years and five months, which will be deducted from his sentence. If the sentence is maintained and no legal benefits are considered, about 14 years and eight months would remain, with an estimated end around 2041.
The trial also included an episode involving Sastre's then-girlfriend, Giovana Pinheiro Silva. According to the Public Ministry, the judge expelled her from the jury room after she made comments and mocking expressions during testimony by prosecution witnesses. The judge fined her the equivalent of 10 minimum wages, about R$16,400. The Public Ministry said it intends to hold her responsible for false testimony and will ask the Civil Police to investigate possible procedural fraud. Prosecutors say she helped sustain the version that Sastre had not drunk alcohol before the accident, a claim later contradicted by Sastre himself.
The defense for Sastre and Giovana said it will appeal the conviction and disagreed with the fine. In a statement, lawyer Jonas Marzagão said the defense received the jury's decision with serenity but disagreed frontally with its grounds and result. He said the decision contradicts the evidence in the case and that the defense will file the appropriate appeal to reverse the judgment before the Court of Justice. During the trial, the defense argued the case should be reclassified as culpable homicide in vehicle driving, which would carry a penalty of 2 to 4 years, but the jury rejected that argument.
Sources: G1.