The Cork City Centre Criminal Court, in Ireland, on Friday the 23rd, sentenced Brazilian Miller Pacheco, 32, to life imprisonment for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, also Brazilian Bruna Fonseca, on January 1, 2023.
Miller strangled Bruna to death in the apartment where he lived. During the trial, he accepted the sentence and apologized to Bruna’s family, according to the Irish newspaper The Journal. Irish law provides that a homicide conviction automatically results in a life sentence.
Bruna and Miller were natives of Formiga, a city in Minas Gerais, and had dated for five years, until November 2022. Bruna, who was 28 and a librarian, had moved to Ireland in September 2022 with a younger niece. Miller arrived in the European country in November and, a few days later, the relationship between them ended.
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According to Judge Siobhan Lankford, Bruna had recorded a conversation with Miller in which she said she was not a trophy, that she had her own life and that no one other than herself could decide what to do. For Lankford, Bruna was an “exceptional young woman” and a “complete human being”.
The jury took only one hour and two minutes to reach the guilty verdict for Miller. At the end of the hearing, defense attorney Ray Boland said he would not appeal the decision. He stated that his client wished to express remorse for the “devastation” caused to Bruna’s family.
Bruna’s older sisters, Izabel and Fernanda, her cousin Marcel, and her niece Maria were present at the hearing wearing T-shirts bearing the victim’s image.
According to The Journal, Izabel said that the investigation clearly showed that Bruna was not responsible for what happened, with the jury rejecting Miller’s claim that he strangled her to stop her from hitting him. She emphasized that Bruna was not a number, but a person with dreams, plans, laughter and a life ahead.
In police testimony, Miller said that he had immobilized Bruna with a chokehold around the neck, a move he had “seen on TV”. The jury unanimously rejected the explanation.
Bruna had attended a New Year’s Eve party at the Oyster Tavern, in Cork. In a text message, she told Miller she just wanted to “dance and have fun”. Her aim, she said, was to have “peace and quiet” in life.
Miller is said to have followed her around the venue. He also filmed her kissing another man and sent the video to Brazilian friends. At the end of the night, Bruna reportedly agreed to go to his apartment so they could do a video call with relatives in Brazil who were looking after the dog they had when they were still a couple.
The following morning, paramedics and the police were called to attend Bruna around 6:30 a.m. Miller was arrested that same day without bail, with the finding that Bruna had been strangled and beaten. According to the indictment, residents of the building where the defendant lived reported hearing a woman’s screams around 4:15 a.m.
