Rio de Janeiro court acquits filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho's son of father's murder charges.
The Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice (TJ-RJ) has ruled that Daniel de Oliveira Coutinho is not criminally responsible in the case of his father's death, filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho; the judge has subjected Daniel, who is a defendant in the case, to a security measure of internment in an official facility for people with mental illness. The minimum term is three years; on February 2, 2014, Daniel killed his father with knife blows and injured his mother, Maria das Dores de Oliveira Coutinho; she managed to escape by locking herself in a room in the house.
Cristina Indio do Brasil - Reporter for Agência Brasil
Judge Fábio Uchôa Montenegro, of the 1st Criminal Court of the Capital, of the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro (TJRJ), considered Daniel de Oliveira Coutinho not criminally responsible in the case of the death of his father, filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho. The magistrate subjected Daniel, who is a defendant in the case, to the security measure of internment in an official facility for people with mental illness. The term is at least three years.
On February 2, 2014, Daniel killed his father with knife blows and injured his mother, Maria das Dores de Oliveira Coutinho. She managed to escape by locking herself in a room in the house.
In the ruling, the judge explained that the defendant was deemed not criminally responsible based on the expert report for the mental health examination to which Daniel was subjected, which indicated that he has schizotypal disorder. "Since he was not, at the time of the act, entirely capable of understanding the illicit nature of the act, and was entirely incapable of acting in accordance with this understanding, as concluded by the learned expert in the Mental Health Examination of the Defendant," he pointed out.
Fábio Uchôa Montenegro also clarified that the security measure of hospitalization aims to guarantee the safety of society and the defendant himself. “Indeed, the defendant meets the conditions of Article 26 of the Penal Code, thus justifying the imposition of a security measure of hospitalization for a period of three years, given the severity of his mental illness, as indicated by forensic and private expert reports, the potential danger he represents to society and to himself, emphasizing that the private expert report also points to the possibility of a serious risk of suicide if there is no proper curative treatment, such as hospitalization,” the judge stated in his decision.