Eduardo Marcelino, the man who fatally stabbed Francisco Artur in the early hours of the 4th of February last year, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murder. He has also been ordered to pay €177,000 to the victim’s family.
The decision, made by a jury court comprising three judges and four citizens, was announced this afternoon at the Central Criminal Court of Funchal (Building 2000).
The 41-year-old defendant is a drug addict and made a living selling food and drinks at organised camps. The fatal assault happened shortly after 02:00 on the 4th of February 2024, at the end of the Campanário camp. It was at that time that the victim, Francisco Artur, a 36-year-old former military man, who, after helping his father into a refreshment tent, went to another street vending point set up on the site, the so-called ‘sergeant’s tent’, where the defendant Eduardo Marcelino worked.
According to the description that the victim’s girlfriend made to the Police, Francisco Artur, who had been drinking, believed that the theft of agricultural material and other goods stored in a haybarn he owned in the mountains had been committed by the owner of the Sergeants’ Tent. A fight ensued between the owner and Francisco Artur. Eduardo Marcelino, who at the beginning of the dispute had hidden inside the tent, came out in support of his boss but was armed with a “machete” (term used by Judge Teresa de Sousa) with a 30 centimeter blade, with which he struck several deep blows to the victim’s neck and abdomen, causing his death.
The trial began on the 13th of May. Eduardo Marcelino stated that he had been trying to defend his boss, who was being assaulted by Fransico Artur, and that he had had no intention of killing him.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
