Place of birth: Timbuí, Fundão municipality, Espírito Santo state Age at death: 48 Marital status: Married since 1961 to Djalma Juarez Magalhães Children: (names, ages at death of mother): Fernanda dos Santos Magalhães de Souza, 27; Milla dos Santos Magalhães, 24; Djalma Juarez Magalhães Filho (Juca), 23; Paloma dos Santos Magalhães, 21, and Melissa Magalhães, 12. Education: High school graduate Profession/title: Gossip columnist and editor of Jornal da Cidade Background in journalism: Worked as a gossip columnist at the Vitória newspaper A Tribuna Leisure activities/hobbies: Travel, organizing parties, writing books about her journeys. She wrote five books. Other activities or roles: Promoted fashion shows and philanthropic activities. Sold advertising. Has an office supplies store and an art gallery that she ran with her daughter Milla. Passionate about Peru, had a Peruvian arts and crafts store. Drugs, coffee and weapons* It is said that Espírito Santo may well be on the cocaine traffic route, the drug being able to be hidden in bags of coffee exported to the United States and European countries. Drug-sniffing dogs used at foreign ports are unable to detect the scent of the cocaine because the smell of the coffee overpowers it. When it reaches its destination, the cocaine is removed from the previously-marked freight and sold at a high price. Another comment is that arms smuggling has increased in Espírito Santo and organized crime figures military equipment that not even the Brazilian Army possesses. How the arms reach them is a mystery, but they might come in containers that a blind eye is turned to due to corruption.
Place of birth: Timbuí, Fundão municipality, Espírito Santo state Age at death: 48 Marital status: Married since 1961 to Djalma Juarez Magalhães Children: (names, ages at death of mother): Fernanda dos Santos Magalhães de Souza, 27; Milla dos Santos Magalhães, 24; Djalma Juarez Magalhães Filho (Juca), 23; Paloma dos Santos Magalhães, 21, and Melissa Magalhães, 12. Education: High school graduate Profession/title: Gossip columnist and editor of Jornal da Cidade Background in journalism: Worked as a gossip columnist at the Vitória newspaper A Tribuna Leisure activities/hobbies: Travel, organizing parties, writing books about her journeys. She wrote five books. Other activities or roles: Promoted fashion shows and philanthropic activities. Sold advertising. Has an office supplies store and an art gallery that she ran with her daughter Milla. Passionate about Peru, had a Peruvian arts and crafts store. Drugs, coffee and weapons* It is said that Espírito Santo may well be on the cocaine traffic route, the drug being able to be hidden in bags of coffee exported to the United States and European countries. Drug-sniffing dogs used at foreign ports are unable to detect the scent of the cocaine because the smell of the coffee overpowers it. When it reaches its destination, the cocaine is removed from the previously-marked freight and sold at a high price. Another comment is that arms smuggling has increased in Espírito Santo and organized crime figures military equipment that not even the Brazilian Army possesses. How the arms reach them is a mystery, but they might come in containers that a blind eye is turned to due to corruption.
HistoryMARIA NILCE MAGALHÃES DOS SANTOS, Brazil
She was 48 and organized fashion and charity events. She owned a gallery of art and Peruvian handicrafts and loved traveling and write about it. The five books she wrote bear this out. She took care of her health and stayed physically fit. Her gym, "Body and Movement." was only three blocks from her home in Vitoria, capital of Espirito Santo, Brazil. Usually she walked there with her second daughter, Milla, but on July 15, 1989, at 6:30 am, the journalist Maria Nilce dos Santos decided to go by car; Milla was driving because she had to go straight to the university where she studied.
When they arrived, a bus was stopped in front of the gym so they stopped the car a few feet away. The reporter opened the door and got out. But just as she stepped down she caught sight of a man nearby pointing a gun at her head. He shot, but the bullet jammed-- amidst Milla's screams as she witnessed the whole scene. Desperate, Maria ran to the bus. The stranger followed her inside the public bus and, to the astonishment of the shocked passengers, let off four shots. Three hit Maria Nilce who was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The cause appears to have been the criticism leveled by the director of Jornal da Cidade (City Journal) in her social column where she sometimes printed the names of people possibly involved in drug trafficking.
The court process was fraught with irregularities. Multiple judges and prosecutors passed through the files and dockets. The justice minister, José Saulo Pereira Ramos, recommended a rigorous inquiry, requested cooperation from the Federal Police and designated Prosecutor Gilberto Fabiano to handle the case. Fabiano's final report accused as suspects José Alayr Andreatta and his friend Romualdo Eustaquio da Luz Faria as go-between with the gunman José Sasso and the policeman César Narcizo da Silva.
Soon after, the suspects were set free. 17 years after the crime, in May 2007, the Espirito Santo Court accused businessman Jose Alayr Andreatta of allegedly masterminding the crime and took him into custody,. Djalma, Maria Nilce's widower, maintained that he was merely a middle man and that his wife was the victim of organized crime – many people from the local high society were interested in her death -- so there should be a more thorough investigation. A committee from the Chamber of Deputies declared that this case of a murdered journalist is just one more example of impunity.
Case SummaryMaria Nilce dos Santos Magalhães (June 23, 1941 – July 5, 1989) Date of murder: July 5, 1989 Place and circumstances of murder: Maria Nilce arrived at the Body and Movement Academy health club on Aleixo Neto Street in the Playa del Canto neighborhood of Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo state, around 7:00 a.m. accompanied by her daughter Milla dos Santos Magalhães. Normally, both walked to the fitness center, located just 400 yards from their home, but on the day of the murder they decided to drive there because Milla was going on afterwards to the university where she was studying. When Maria Nilce got out of the car, which Milla was driving, a man pointed a gun to the back of her head. He pulled the trigger, but the weapon did not fire. Milla screamed and her mother ran off, managing to get on a bus that was at a stop across from the health club. One of the assailants chased her, got on the bus and shot at her. Three of the four shots hit her and she was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Probable cause: Criticisms and threats in the gossip column she wrote in the newspaper Jornal da Cidade, in which she may have mentioned the names of people involved in drug trafficking. Suspects: The Federal Police identified as the mastermind of the murder José Alayr Andreatta, who had hired Romualdo Eustáquio da Luza Faría, who in turn was said to have hired the hitmen and intermediaries. Chronology July 5, 1989 – Maria Nilce is murdered outside the Body and Movement Academy health club in Vitória, Espírito Santo state, between 6:45 and 7:00 a.m. July 5 to September 15, 1989 – Civil Police detective Josino Bragança, chief of the Homicide Division of the Espírito Santo State Public Safety Department, heads the investigation. Civil Police detective Cláudio Guerra is assigned to assist in the investigation. August 1989 – Detective Guerra leaves the investigation. August 1989 – State Attorney Gilberto Fabiano Toscano de Mattos questions the impartiality of the investigation, noting that detective Bragança was himself under investigation in connection with a homicide in Serra township and that detective Guerra had taken statements from suspects at the victim's apartment without the required presence of a district attorney. He says the investigation is full of irregularities and he suggests it be transferred to the Federal Police. District Attorney Marly Saramago Hermann cites personal reasons for withdrawing from the case. September 1989 – Justice Minister José Saulo Pereira Ramos puts detective Romeu Tuma, director general of the Federal Police Department in charge of liaising with the Espírito Santo Attorney General's Office and requests the cooperation of Federal Police to investigate the Maria Nilce case and possible links with organized crime, drug trafficking and car theft. The document signed by the minister urges a full-out investigation. Federal detective Pedro Luiz Berwanger takes on the case and state attorney Gilberto Toscano is assigned to assist in the inquiries. November 1989 – On the basis of the Federal Police investigation, Toscano writes a report in which he says that the person masterminding the murder was José Alayr Andreatta, who was believed to have hired a friend of his, Romualdo Eustáquio da Luz Faría, a.k.a. The Japanese, to kill Maria Nilce. The report says that Eustáquio hired José Sasso to do the job and the latter in turn asked police officer César Narcizo da Silva to carry out the murder. According to the police, it was Sasso who fired the fatal shots. Da Silva was the one assigned to do the shooting, but his gun misfired. Police officer Charles Roberto Lisboa was said to have provided the vehicles and the weapon for the murder. The police report on the investigation was confused concerning the hitmen's getaway. Andreatta is also accused of using the name of Judge Geraldo Correia Lima to hire Marcos Egydio Costa as the pilot of the aircraft to be used to fly the alleged murderers out of state. The police say they have in evidence a confession by José Sasso, taped by military police officer Paulo Jorge dos Santos Ferreira at a military stockade where he is being held in custody. The state attorney sent his report directly to the Superior Court, bypassing lower Judge Joseph Haddad Sobrinho, who had been appointed to handle the investigatory phase of the case – a procedure regarded as out of order but used to strengthen the defense of the accused. November 1989 – A court-ordered inquiry is begun into press reports linking Judge Correia Lima with the Maria Nilce murder. Correia Lima in defense alleges that the Federal Police got involved in all of this in reprisal for a warrant he had issued while on the bench in 1982-83 for the arrest of a number of federal police officers in connection with the death of a worker. He also claimed that state attorney Toscano was also against him because he had come to the defense of Toscano's wife after she accused her husband of domestic violence. It is concluded that there is no evidence to prove that Correia Lima took part in Maria Nilce's death. Witnesses – lawyers, two defendants and suspects – accused Toscano of seeking to incriminate Correia Lima. December 1989 – Suspects in the murder are freed from custody. June 1990 – Superior Court judges decide not to indict Correia Lima and that the investigation should continue. November 1990 – Djalma, Maria Nilce's husband, states that he does not agree with the investigation's findings and calls for the inquiries to continue. He says that Andreatta was merely an intermediary in the crime. December 2000 – The Chamber of Deputies CPI's final report speaks of findings by the Federal Police in the Maria Nilce case, pointing to those behind the murder, those who actually carried it out and others involved. The CPI declares this to be an example of impunity.
News Reports CasesColumnist and editor of Jornal da Cidade, Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil
Los últimos dos de los seis acusados
La fiscal Joana D'Arc Calmon Tristão Guzansky afirma
TJ decreta prisão de empresário condenado pelo assassinato da jornalista Maria Nilce*
Judicial ProceedingsGossip columnist and editor of Jornal da Cidade Vitória, Espírito Santo.
