Niece speaks for the first time about uncle Paulo: ‘I didn’t realize he was dead’

The niece who took her dead uncle to the bank to withdraw a R$17,000 loan was released by the courts and spoke for the first time about the case.

Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, 42, told Fantástico, on TV Globo, shown this Sunday, the 5th, that when she arrived at the bench she supported Paulo Roberto Braga’s head because he asked. “It was horrible I didn’t realize my uncle was dead.”

And he adds: “I’m not that person they’re talking about, I’m not that monster.”

Erika reports that she only realized that her uncle died after the Samu team arrived and certified his death.

At another point in the interview, when asked if her uncle was too weak to go out, she replies: “No, because he asked me to go”. And she explained that nothing different happened inside the car on the way to the bank.

Erika also says she doesn’t remember what the bank employees told her. “As I undergo treatment, I took Zolpidem, sometimes I took more than one. I don’t know if it was the effect of the medicine I had taken that day,” she says.

+ Tio Paulo case: niece leaves prison and is welcomed by her children
+ ‘Uncle Paulo’ case: Justice orders the release of dead elderly man’s niece

Justice

A Justice of Rio de Janeiro ordered to release Erika, on Thursday, 2, who was imprisoned for two weeks. The request to revoke the preventive detention of the niece’s defense was granted, through judge Luciana Mocco, from the 2nd Criminal Court of Bangu.

The document, to which the THAT IS had access, shows that Mocco established precautionary measures, such as: monthly appearance at the court registry to inform and justify his activities or possible change of address, in addition to the prohibition of being absent from the city for a period longer than seven days.

Erika rear

In addition to revoking Érika’s arrest, the Court also accepted the complaint from the MPRJ (Public Ministry of the State of Rio de Janeiro) against Paulo’s niece. She is now a defendant and will answer for the crimes of attempted embezzlement and vilification of a corpse. In the criminal action, the MPRJ expressed its opposition to a request from the defendant’s defense for provisional release.

In a released note, the complaint highlights that although the loan was taken out by Paulo, when he was still alive, the withdrawal of R$ 17,975.38 could no longer be carried out, “since at the time of the arrest in the act of the accused, the victim had already died.”

“The crime was not carried out due to circumstances beyond the control of the accused, since bank employees, noticing that the elderly Paulo Roberto Braga was unwell, looking pale and unable to sign a document, called the Mobile Emergency Care Service – SAMU, and his death was later confirmed, a fact that prevented the withdrawal of the amounts intended by the defendant”, describes an excerpt from the complaint.

The prosecution highlights to the Court the “contempt and disrespect” for the elderly person when taking him to the dead bank to withdraw the money.