Prison for Killing and Dismembering Girlfriend - Updated

(Goiania, Brazil) On Thursday, 21-year-old Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho dos Santos was sentenced by Judge Jessair Coelho de Alcantara to 21 years in prison after being convicted by a jury of the first-degree murder of Cara Marie Burke.

Santos, 21, calmly testified in court earlier that he had been smoking crack for four days when he and 17-year-old Cara Marie Burke argued at his apartment on July 25, 2008. He said Burke threatened to tell his mother he was spending all his money on drugs if he did not give her money, and to have her police officer boyfriend confiscate the drugs and sell them.

As she went into the living room toward a telephone to call the officer, Santos cranked up the volume on his stereo, he testified.

He put one hand over her mouth and started stabbing her with a knife that he had been using to cut up cocaine, Santos testified. She grabbed at the knife, and he bit her arm so she would let go.

"I don't remember where I stabbed," Santos said. "I kept on stabbing away, not knowing where, and when I saw what I had done, she was dead."

Santos said he then took a bath and went to an all-night party. On the way home, Santos testified, he stopped at a supermarket and bought a larger knife so he could cut up her body.

After arriving home, he put her body in a bathtub and severed her limbs and head, putting them in one suitcase and her torso in another, according to his testimony. He disposed of the remains near two rivers in Goiania, a central Brazilian city of about 2 million.

Police found a text message in Santos' cell phone saying "the bitch is in the bag." The message was written in English, accompanied by a smiley face, police said. The cell phone also contained photos of Burke's severed head and torso.

The judge gave him 19 years for the murder and two years for hiding the body. I think he deserves much more.


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Dismembered Girlfriend in Brazil
[Previous 8/1/08 post]
(Goiania, Brazil) A human torso found in a suitcase on the side of the road near a river in this central Brazilian city on Tuesday was identified by tattoos as Cara Maria Burke, 17, of South London, England.

Investigators immediately questioned Burke's boyfriend, 20-year-old Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho dos Santos, who reportedly admitted to murdering her.

According to Goiania Police Major Claudio de Oliveira Silva, Carvalho dos Santos wanted to prevent Burke from revealing his drug use to his family in London. So, he killed her and, for some strange reason, documented his crime on cell phone images.

His mobile telephone allegedly contained images of the girl when she arrived in Brazil by plane, and then later pictures of her cut-up body. One image showed Burke's body with her decapitated head placed on top, Oliveira Silva said.

The secretariat for public security in Goias state said Carvalho dos Santos and Burke were believed to have been living together in Goiania for several months.

"The crime has signs of premeditation: Mohamed Ali called Cara to his apartment, put the music on high volume and killed her with knife blows. He then took her body to the bathroom and then he went off to a party," it said.

"It was only the following day he dismembered the girl's body. He took various photos of the chopped-up body with his cellphone's camera, including photos like those of the Taliban, where the decapitated head is placed on top of the body," it said.

Burke's family in Britain was said to have recognized the victim from television images broadcast late Wednesday that showed the girl's trunk found in the suitcase. They recognized a tattoo on the body, the secretariat said.

Burke's arms, legs and head were stuffed into a bag and tossed in the river, said Carvalho dos Santos. A police search is underway.

Interestingly, one report says that Carvalho dos Santos is Brazilian who was angry at Burke for refusing to marry him so that he could obtain a visa for the UK. Another report says he's a British citizen of Turkish descent who killed Burke to stop her from snitching about his drug dealing and use. Nonetheless, it's also possible that Burke was simply breaking up with Carvalho which enraged him to the point of killing her.

Questions still need to be asked. For example, why would Carvalho dos Santos go to the trouble of dismembering and hiding Burke's remains and then quickly confess to the crime? It doesn't make sense.

On a side note, this is the first I've heard of a young, English-speaking Muslim man in the middle of Portuguese-speaking Brazil involved with the drug trade. Of course, I'm assuming Carvalho dos Santos is Muslim since he's named after the prophet of Islam. None of the media reports I've seen mentioned his religion.

Also: The Jawa Report

Tip: slwlion