Justice has decided to release military police officer Bruno Carvalho do Prado, one of the defendants accused in the death of medical student Marco Aurélio Cardenas Acosta, 22. The case occurred in November 2024, during a police approach at a hotel in Vila Mariana, in the southern zone of São Paulo.
He had been imprisoned since early August, when a lawyer representing Marco Aurélio's family reported to the court an alleged case of domestic violence committed by Prado.
Prado's defense filed an appeal against the detention. The request was accepted by the state Court of Justice on Wednesday (16), which ordered his release.
Prado was with PM Guilherme Augusto Macedo, the officer who fired the shot that killed the student. Both are defendants for intentional homicide (when there is intent to kill) and are set to face a jury trial. The officers' defense has appealed, but the request has not yet been reviewed.
The decision ordering the release was made during a virtual review of a habeas corpus petition filed by Prado's former defense team.
Reporting judge Mazina Martins stated that Prado was not subject to precautionary measures in the case concerning the student's death.
Regarding the domestic violence case, the judge stated that the protective measures initially decreed by the first instance court had already been denied in April, after the officer's wife denied having been assaulted by him.
For this reason, the judge considered the preventive detention to be disproportionate.
Prado will be required to comply with alternative measures to imprisonment: to appear in court monthly to report and justify his activities; to keep his residential address updated with the court of origin; to have no contact with Marco Aurélio's family members or with witnesses in the case; and to not carry or possess a firearm, either personal or service-issued.
He will also be required to carry out only administrative duties within the Military Police.
"The preventive detention had been ordered on the basis of factual and mistaken premises that, as repeatedly argued by the defense, did not adequately correspond to what was actually contained in the case files," said attorney Reginaldo Coutinho, who acts in Prado's defense.
