Brazil Crime Update: Cyclist’s Killers Sentenced, PM Removed Over Assault, Penal Director Suspected in Girlfriend’s Death

Overview

• Judge Marcus Alexandre Manhães Bastos sentenced Erik Benedito Veríssimo to 28 years and Jeferson de Souza Jesus to 22 years, 2 months and 20 days in the 2025 latrocínio of cyclist Vitor Felisberto Medrado, with both to serve in a closed regime and pay R$200,000 each in damages.
• The São Paulo Security Secretariat opened a military inquiry and removed from duty the PM filmed kicking a woman experiencing a psychotic episode in São Vicente, with body‑camera footage under review and the case recorded by police as desacato against the officer.
• Tiago Sóstenes Miranda de Matos, director of the Conjunto Penal de Paulo Afonso, is under investigation as the suspect in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, Flávia Barros, in an Aracaju hotel; he attempted suicide, is hospitalized in serious condition, and had formalized the relationship days earlier, according to friends.
• Police reported separate femicides on March 22 in Sergipe—one by gunfire in Aracaju and another by stabbing in Capela—as well as cases in Paraíba and Pará, with suspects either arrested, hospitalized under custody or still being sought.
• Other violent incidents under investigation include the severe beating of a 59‑year‑old homeless man in Salvador reported by his attackers’ mother, a penal officer in Betim who shot a businessman and claims self‑defense as civil and administrative probes proceed, and the arrest of a woman and her girlfriend for the stabbing death of her 86‑year‑old father in Guzolândia.