Football Mad Husband Jailed For Murdering Wife After Row Over Who Supported The Best Club

A Brazilian businessman has been jailed for more than 13 years for stabbing his wife to death after they had a bitter row about who supported the best football team.

Leonardo Souza Ceschini was sentenced at the Barra Funda Criminal Court in Sao Paulo, south-eastern Brazil, on 31 August.

The jury convicted Ceschini of killing his wife, sales representative Érica Fernandes Alves Ceschini, 34, in a furious rage that left her with eight knife wounds in January 2021.

Jurors found him guilty of femicide and using a cruel method, while also taking into account that the killing happened in the physical presence of the couple's young children.

Ceschini was sentenced to 13 years and 24 days in a closed prison regime.

The court heard that the couple had argued following Palmeiras' 1-0 victory over Santos in the Copa Libertadores final on 30 January 2021.

Érica supported Palmeiras while Ceschini supported their Sao Paulo rivals Corinthians.

The killing took place at the couple's apartment in the São Domingos area of northern Sao Paulo on 31 January.

A psychological report later concluded that their twin sons, then aged about two, witnessed the murder.

Neighbours called police after hearing screams coming from the apartment.

Officers found Érica covered in blood on the kitchen floor.

She had been stabbed three times in the chest, four times in the back and once in the leg.

Ceschini was also injured.

He initially told police that Érica had attacked him with a knife before taking her own life.

Ceschini later admitted killing her, telling investigators that they had disagreements because they supported different football clubs and argued over whose club was the best. He claims he acted in self-defence after the latest row when she attacked him.

The knife was seized by police.

Ceschini was arrested following the killing but released in February 2021 after a court accepted that prosecutors had taken too long to act in the case.

He was charged later that year and ordered to face a jury trial in February 2024.

Érica's sister Aline Oliveira said before the verdict: "As a sister, as a woman, as a mother and as an aunt, I hope that somehow the jury feels our pain and has that same desire for justice for Érica and for so many women who are silenced by violence."

The couple's sons are now in the custody of their maternal grandmother.

Aline added: "The boys are with my mother. She has custody of them. Every day she fights, and we fight, to try to compensate for the sadness they feel at not having their mother with them at every moment."

(Newsflash)