Soldier Marcos de Meira Santos was sentenced to one year in prison in an open regime for the death of 19-year-old student Mara Oliveira de Lima during a police chase in 2021 in the south of São Paulo. However, the sentence was converted into a payment of five minimum wages to the victim's son. Mara Oliveira de Lima was shot at her doorstep on February 7, 2021, while the police officer was pursuing a suspect in the Campo Limpo region of São Paulo. The Civil Police concluded that it was a case of culpable homicide, meaning there was no intention to kill. However, the Public Prosecutor's Office accused the soldier of intentional homicide, arguing that he acted with intent, but the jury judged that the Civil Police's version was more correct. Therefore, Judge Antonio Carlos Pontes de Souza, of the São Paulo State Court, replaced the sentence with pecuniary compensation, meaning a payment of five minimum wages to Mara's seven-year-old son. The decision can be appealed. The officer claimed, at the time, that he fired in self-defense. According to him, the suspect made a threatening gesture as if he was holding a weapon. Witnesses contradict the officer's version. Family members and witnesses say the suspect was only holding a cell phone. The victim's family does not see justice in the decision. Cosme de Jesus Paraguai, Mara's father, expressed outrage with the decision, criticizing the substitution of the sentence for a payment in money, considering it disrespectful. The lawyer Hugo Leonardo criticized the jury's decision, saying it legitimates police violence and classifies the sentence as "irrelevant". The officer's defense argues that there was no intention to kill. The lawyer Alexandre Taveira highlighted that the fatal shot was the result of a ricochet. The police officer was from the 16th Metropolitan Battalion, known as one of the most lethal police battalions in São Paulo, having registered 153 deaths caused by its agents between 2017 and 2024. The Public Security Secretariat informed that the officer is no longer on the streets. The SSP-SP highlighted efforts to reduce cases of deaths resulting from police intervention through training and improved equipment.
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