‘Uncle Paulo’s’ niece says she didn’t realize he was dead: ‘I’m not that monster’

After being released last week, Érika Souza, niece of Paulo Roberto Braga, 68, defends herself and says she didn’t realize that her uncle was dead. In an interview with Fantastic This Sunday, the 5th, the woman states that she believes she was under the influence of medication and that she did not want the loan money for herself.

The now defendant for attempted embezzlement and vilification of a corpse starred in one of the scenes that most shocked the country in mid-April. The hairdresser is accused of taking her dead uncle, in a wheelchair, to a bank branch in Rio de Janeiro to take out a loan of R$17,000.

At the scene, employees realized that there was something wrong with Paulo and called the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu), which confirmed his death. When asked if she didn’t think her uncle was too weak to leave the house, Érika says no, and that it was he who asked to go to the bank.

In the images, inside the bench, she appears supporting the family member’s head, which according to the hairdresser, he was the one who asked for it, as it was ‘better supporting’. The reporter asks if the suspect remembers what the employees told her inside the establishment: “I can’t remember. I don’t know if it’s the effect of the medicine I took that day.”

The medicine in question is Zolpidem, a drug used to treat sleep disorders. “Sometimes I took more than I should have,” he claims.

Didn’t notice

“I don’t think that neither I nor many people realized [que ele estava morto], because how do you give a paper to a dead person to sign. If they had noticed something, they wouldn’t have given anything either”, argues Érika.

The hairdresser claims that she only realized when the EMS rescuer confirmed Paulo’s death. The elderly man had been hospitalized for a week and was discharged the day before his death. On the same date, his niece took him to a bank branch, where the loan was authorized, but the withdrawal had to be made elsewhere.

Reported

The Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro charged the hairdresser with the crimes of attempted embezzlement and vilification of a corpse. According to the prosecution, she had “contempt and disrespect” for the elderly man when she took him to the dead bank to withdraw the money.

“The accused consciously and voluntarily vilified the corpse of Paulo Roberto Braga, her uncle and the person she was caring for, by taking him to the aforementioned bank branch and remaining there, even after his death, for the purpose of withdrawing the order of payment mentioned above, thus demonstrating total contempt and disrespect towards him”, says an excerpt from the complaint.

However, Érika claims that the loan was her uncle’s wish, to carry out work on the lower part of the house where she lived with her family. Eight months ago, he had entered a government social assistance program, which pays the beneficiary a minimum wage.

“He didn’t have the benefit either, he only had a few months. My family, we helped him”, he says, saying that his uncle did some ‘odd jobs’, but had no fixed income.

On Thursday, the 2nd, judge Luciana Mocco, who heads the 2nd Criminal Court of Bangu, accepted the complaint presented by the MP and Érika became a defendant in the process. However, the magistrate responded to a request from her niece’s defense and revoked the preventive detention, allowing Érika to wait for the process to unfold in freedom.

Regarding the arrest, the niece states that they were ‘horrible days’. “Away from my family, I lost moments of my life that will never come back. What I experienced was very difficult. It was horrible. I didn’t realize that my uncle was dead, I didn’t see it. I didn’t know. He was alive, he held me at the car door, she was alive. I’m not the person they’re saying I am. I’m not that monster”, he says crying.

Once released, she must comply with precautionary measures, such as appearing in court monthly and justifying her activities or change of address. If any mental health hospitalization is necessary, the Court must be notified. She is also prohibited from leaving Rio de Janeiro without authorization.

The police also opened another investigation and are investigating whether she committed culpable homicide, when there is no intention to kill.