Bruna Fonseca's injuries 'in keeping with manual strangulation', murder trial told
Assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said Bruna Fonseca's (pictured) injuries were consistent with manual strangulation.
Bruna Fonseca’s injuries were consistent with manual strangulation — with a hand at the front of her neck — the judge and jury were told by the pathologist at a murder trial in Cork.
32-year-old Miller Pacheco pleaded not guilty to the murder of his former girlfriend 28-year-old Bruna Fonseca at his apartment at Liberty Street in Cork on January 1, 2023.
On Monday, assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said: “Cause of death is asphyxia due to manual strangulation.” The pathologist demonstrated in the witness box by placing her hand across her neck — the thumb pressing on one side, fingers pressing on the other.
“Extensive bruising is in keeping with manual strangulation, in keeping with a hand constraining the neck, fingers on the left side, thumb on the right side. It would have been the right hand (of the person doing this).”
Ray Boland, senior counsel, said that by Miller Pacheco’s account he was behind Ms Fonseca and held his arm around her neck to restrain her as he claimed that she was hitting him. Mr Boland asked if the injuries could have been caused in this way.
Dr Bolster said she would have expected a broader type of bruising to show if it had occurred by use of the forearm from behind rather than by hand from the front. As for whether it was possible, she added: “Never say never, but in my view it is much more typical of manual strangulation. In my view this is manual strangulation, from the pattern of injuries.”
Miller told gardaí when interviewed on New Year’s Day, 2023, that she was assaulting him in the room that morning when he asked her not to leave.
The accused said he had a vision of their pet dog D’eagle, back in Brazil, telling him to come home and that there was no salvation for him. Miller told Bruna in the room that morning, "I want to die".
“This is where she got up to go. I told her not to go. I stopped her to tell her not to go. She pushed me and hit me. I defended myself. I never touched her with a finger in six years… When she hit me I got lost in my head. It was as if it was not me. And I am not an aggressive person. I never wanted to harm her.
“Depression and what I saw that night (Bruna kissing a young man when she was dancing at New Year’s party), it brought out rage. I tried to immobilise her. I wanted her to stop fighting.
“I just wanted fighting to be over. I did not want to harm her. In this fraction of seconds I wanted her to stop hitting me. She fell between the bed and the table. I fell on top of her. I got a chance to stop her from fighting. I did something I saw on TV. When I done this move she slowly stopped but still resisted.
“It came to a point where she stopped. I let her go. I had not seen she had stopped for good… I did not mean to kill her,” Miller told gardaí.
He described ringing close friends in Brazil, telling them he wanted to kill himself and in the course of the call, saying:
Questioned by Detective Garda Padraig Harrington about lifting her from the floor to the bed, Miller said: “I did not know whether she was breathing or not when I put her on the bed.”
The detective asked: “Did you think it was more important to tidy the room than call for medical assistance?" Miller replied: “I was not thinking straight.” He gave the same reply when asked why he disposed of a bedsheet from the room in a bin on the street.
Det. Garda Harrington said Miller sent a message to a close Brazilian friend at around 3am that morning, saying among other things, “Forgive me, brother. Forgive me for everything”. Miller replied that at that time he was apologising to his friend for not opening up to him about his depression.
He also said: “I am not this monster. I am not that person who kills someone I love. I am not that person.”
In the course of interviews on January 1, 2023, and the following day, he said he should never have come to Ireland. He said that Bruna should have told him the relationship was over when she was in Cork and he was still in Brazil and he could have managed with the support of his family.
He also said he would have had their pet dog too and that the dog was a great help for him dealing with depression.
Detective Garda Harrington put it to him at interview: “You exploded with rage. Your unhealthy obsession with her led to the death of this girl — it was an attack.” Miller replied: “I did not want to kill her. No one understands depression unless they go through it."
Gardaí investigating the death of Bruna Fonseca in the early of hours of New Year’s Day 2023 initially responded to reports related to a knife and when one of the first gardaí at the scene asked the accused if he stabbed her, he replied: “No, I choke her.”
This evidence was given by Garda Aoife McCarthy to Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and a jury of seven women and five men. The trial went into its second week at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork on Monday.
Through his senior counsel Ray Boland, it was indicated that Miller Pacheco denied saying: “I choke her”.
Garda Aoife McCarthy testified that Mr Pacheco admitted choking Ms Fonseca when she asked him what happened to her.
Garda McCarthy explained that she had been on mobile patrol with Garda Peter Barber when they received a call just before 6am on January 1, 2023, to go a flat at Liberty Street as there had been a report of two females fighting in the building.
She said they went to the building but didn’t see anything and they stayed a few minutes before leaving but they received a second call that there was a male with a knife and a possible fatality at the building, so they returned there at 6.25am.
She said when she and Garda Barber and another colleague, Garda Katie Blanch, arrived back at the premises they saw there were two females and a male outside the building, and when she approached the man, he gave his name as Miller Pacheco and his date of birth.
Garda McCarthy said Mr Pacheco was wearing a dark puffer jacket and rucksack so they asked him to remove the jacket and take off the rucksack before she and her colleagues searched him as they believed that he might have a knife, following the report they had received.
She said she asked Mr Pacheco what had happened and he replied that his documents were in his jacket and that he and Ms Fonseca had been drinking and were very drunk and she had hit him and he was defending himself.
She said they had been joined by colleagues and went upstairs to the room. Miller Pacheco gave gardaí keys.
“She was lying on the bed, her feet towards the headboard — I checked for a pulse, there was no pulse, she was still a little bit warm — her face appeared swollen and her eyes were a little bit bulging,” she said.
Garda McCarthy said that at 6.45am, she formally arrested Mr Pacheco on suspicion of assaulting the woman, thereby causing her harm and she cautioned him that anything he said might be taken down and used in evidence against him.
“He said ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ and I asked him did he stab her and he said, ‘No, I choke her’, and I put my hand to my neck and said ‘Like this?’ and he said, ‘Yes’,” Garda McCarthy testified.
In the witness box she demonstrated her action to the jury by putting her hand to her own neck.
Cross-examined by Mr Pacheco’s counsel, Ray Boland, Garda McCarthy said Mr Pacheco spoke to her in English and while she noted that he had an accent, she was satisfied that he understood her as she spoke very slowly when cautioning him and questioning him.
Mr Boland said on behalf of the accused: “He said he did not say, ‘I choke her’. The guards were talking to him and he did not understand what they were saying.” Garda McCarthy said that at no stage did the defendant say: "No Inglés".
Mr Boland said the defendant was compliant at the scene and did not resist arrest in any way. Garda McCarthy agreed.
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