'Very jealous' ex-boyfriend told friend 'I killed Bruna' before sending video of her body, court told

Marcella Fonseca a cousin and best friend of the deceased testified today in the trial of 32-year-old Miller Pacheco who pleaded not guilty to the single count that he murdered Bruna Fonseca at Room 3, 5 Liberty Street, Cork, on January 1, 2023, contrary to Common Law.

Translation

Marcella Fonseca was cross-examined by defence senior counsel Ray Boland on her evidence that the accused man said: “I choked her”. 

Mr Boland said the accused spoke in Portuguese to the witness and that the word he used was suffocated and not choked, and that the correct words were: “I think I suffocated Bruna.” 

The witness replied: “It is a similar word.” Mr Boland said that his instructions were that the accused was not smiling and that he was in shock.

Relationship

Marcella said she came to Ireland in 2018, returned home during covid, and came back to Ireland afterwards. She knew Miller from Brazil and that Bruna was her best friend and first cousin.

She said that Miller arrived in Cork and moved in with Bruna, having been in a relationship with her in Brazil, but that the relationship ended after one week. She later agreed it broke up after three days.

She recalled going to Miller’s place at Liberty Street during the day on that New Year’s Eve and that Bruna was there. She said the defendant and the deceased both had red eyes and had been crying. 

Marcella said Bruna gave her a knife, and she noticed that Bruna’s finger was bleeding from a small cut.

The witness agreed with Mr Boland that Bruna broke up with Miller but that he did not want to break up, and that Bruna was worried Miller would kill himself and it was in the context of that worry that Bruna wanted to take the knife away from him and did so. 

Bruna told her that her finger was cut when Miller tried to snatch the knife back but he did not mean to cut her.

New Year's Day

Marcella got a phone call from Miller’s friend in Brazil at around 6am on New Year’s Day, after the friend had been contacted by Miller. She said she was scared when the friend told her that Bruna may have been killed.

She went with her friend Juliana Souza to the house on Liberty Street where Miller had a room. She saw Miller with some white fabric in his hand. 

“I asked if he killed my cousin, he said it was not me. I asked him if you killed my cousin, how you killed my cousin? He said, I choked her,” Marcella Fonseca testified. She said he smiled when he said this.

She said he changed his jumper and she told him to stay here in Ireland… "He said he would like to go Brazil. I said he should stay in Ireland to go to jail here."

She said that Pedro, Miller’s friend in Brazil, sent her the video that Miller sent him.

Juliana Souza testimony

Juliana Souza also testified on Tuesday and spoke of coming to Cork in 2018, becoming friends with Marcela, and later meeting Bruna through her. Early in the afternoon of New Year’s Eve 2022, she was at the accommodation at Liberty Street and witnessed the defendant and the deceased together.

Ms Souza said: “He was asking about her going to the party because he did not want her to go to the party… His body expressed that. She was worried about him, that he might do something to himself.” 

Early on New Year’s Day, Juliana got a phone call from Marcela and had four missed calls. She said Marcela told her that Miller killed Bruna. They went to Liberty Street together.

“Miller was at the door with a white sheet in his hand. I screamed and said, what is that?... We went upstairs to see if Bruna was OK. We went to room 3, knocked at the door. It never answered… 

"We asked Miller 'is Bruna OK, is she alive?' He said, 'it wasn’t me'… He was trying to leave. Marcela said 'no, stay here with the guards',” Juliana said, adding that Marcela stopped him from leaving.

Ray Boland cross-examined the witness and said Miller was very upset after the break-up of the relationship with Bruna and did not accept it. 

The witness said: “I think Miller was very jealous.” Mr Boland said: “He wanted to go to jail in Brazil and not in Ireland.” Juliana agreed.

Cristina Martinescu and her boyfriend Lucas Leon were staying at Liberty Street that night and woke at around 5am to the sound of a woman screaming and it sounded like the mouth was covered. Approximately an hour later they heard voices in Portuguese screaming and arguing.

Lucas Leon, who is from Brazil, said: “I heard a female say, you killed her, you are a murderer.” 

The trial continues on January 14 before Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and a jury of seven women and five men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.