Cecilia Haddad Murder: Ex-Partner Sentenced To 27 Years In Jail

At a court in Brazil, Mario Marcelo Santoro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for murdering his former partner Cecilia Haddad.

He confessed to killing her in 2018 while trying to "shut her up," reported ABC News.

Apart from aggravated homicide, he was convicted of asphyxiation, femicide and concealment of a corpse.

Days after her friends reported her missing, the body of Haddad, a Brazilian national, was found weighted down with her scuba diving weights in Lane Cove River, Sydney in April 2018.

Santoro left Sydney the weekend her body was found, but two months later Rio de Janeiro police charged him with her murder.

According to the Associated Press, overnight, Rio de Janeiro's Federal Court of Justice jailed him after he confessed to murdering her before the jury.

The judge said that he confessed in the jury room, "after extensive evidentiary material had been produced against him."

The judge noted that he did not confess before the cops in Australia when he arrived in Brazil.

While describing what he had done, Santoro was filmed crying. He said that he had returned to the house to get his passport before they got into a fight.

He said that he was trying to make "her shut her up, but unfortunately, that's when the tragedy happened." He grabbed her neck and squeezed really hard, but he "didn't want to do that."

The trial was told by prosecutor Fernando Aguiar that there was a very large amount of evidence "against the defendant, "and the result was what we expected".

In Australia, experts and witnesses gave evidence at the trial of a toxic and complicated relationship.

One Australian detective said that Haddad had delivered an ultimatum to Santoro 10 days before she was murdered. She had requested him to leave the apartment.

Santoro was placed at Haddad's apartment, thanks to cellphone tracking. It also placed him by the river where her body was later found. Vegetation and sand from that area were found in the victim's car as well. Santoro was seen driving that car in photos that were caught by security cameras.

According to The Guardian, before the ruling, Haddad's mother had told reporters that Santoro was "not a human being but a monster." She had also said that he belonged in prison.