The court opens criminal proceedings against three people for the death of Grazielly.
The accused are José Augusto Cardoso Filho, owner of the jet ski, Thiago Veloso Lins, and Ailton Bispo de Oliveira, owner of a repair shop and mechanic responsible for servicing the jet ski; the penalty for manslaughter ranges from one to three years.
Fernando Porfírio _247 – The Bertioga court has opened criminal proceedings against three people accused of the death of 3-year-old Grazielly Almeida Lames, who was run over by a jet ski in February on Guaratuba Beach, in the coastal municipality of São Paulo state. The accused are: José Augusto Cardoso Filho (godfather of the 13-year-old involved in the accident), Thiago Veloso Lins (owner of the Marina and Jet Ski Riviera mechanic shop), and mechanic Ailton Bispo de Oliveira.
The decision was made by Judge Rodrigo Moura Jacob, of the 1st Court of Bertioga. The three will face charges of manslaughter (without intent to kill) and negligent bodily harm. Jacob, however, rejected the charges against Erivaldo Francisco de Moura, an employee of the teenager's godfather. According to the judge, Erivaldo, the caretaker of Cardoso's property, "simply followed an order to take the vehicle to the beach."
On the 12th, the Public Prosecutor's Office filed charges against four people for involvement in the death of the girl Grazielly. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, Cardoso allegedly allowed an unlicensed teenager and a friend to pilot the jet ski, and one of them ended up starting the vehicle, causing the accident.
The complaint also alleged that Thiago and Ailton had not performed adequate maintenance on the jet ski, which had jammed the throttle, causing the watercraft to accelerate. In other words, they were allegedly negligent in maintaining the vehicle, since the repair shop did not detect any signs of rust on the jet ski – which would have caused the problem of excessive acceleration, responsible for hitting the girl on the beach.
The same defendants had been indicted at the end of March by the Civil Police. At the time, the sectional delegate of Santos, Rony Silva Oliveira, said that the results of the forensic examination carried out by the Institute of Criminalistics were fundamental. Rony Oliveira took over the investigation after the delegate originally responsible for the case, Maurício Barbosa Júnior, from Bertioga, concluded that no one would be indicted.
The penalty for manslaughter ranges from one to three years of imprisonment. The 13-year-old will face charges for a juvenile offense. It will be up to the Juvenile Court judge in Bertioga to decide whether or not he will serve a socio-educational measure.
The Bertioga prosecutor's office also charged the four adults with negligent bodily harm for the injuries caused to another beachgoer, Andréa dos Santos Silva, on the same beach. The penalty for negligent bodily harm ranges from two months to one year in prison. An increase of one-third of the sentence was also requested for the teenager's godfather and the caretaker, for failing to assist the victims.
Similarly, an increase in the sentence for the mechanics was requested because, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, they were hired two days before the accident to perform a check-up on the jet ski. In addition to lubricating the vehicle, they failed to detect the problems identified by the forensic investigation. Both attested that the equipment was in perfect working order.