Popular jury scheduled for defendant in hit-and-run that killed four people in 2017

Archive image - Mateus spent a year on the run and was only arrested after turning himself in — Photo: Camilla Motta

The São Paulo Court appointed the popular jury for the man accused of running over and killing four people on Rodovia Geraldo Scavone (SP-66), in São José dos Campos. The case happened in September 2017.

The accused man is Mateus de Jesus Sousa. He is a defendant for qualified homicide and the popular jury was scheduled for November 17, 2026, at 9 am. The decision was handed down by Judge Milton de Oliveira Sampaio Neto last week.

In the decision, the magistrate rejected the requests made by the technical defense to carry out new steps, such as formulating additional questions for experts and sending letters to the Institute of Criminalistics, Detran and the urban monitoring body.

The Court also ordered the urgent sending of a new letter to the Secretariat of Penitentiary Administration (SAP) to request the transfer of Mateus de Jesus Sousa to a prison in Vale do Paraíba.

g1 activated Mateus' defense and awaits a response.

The case

Four young people died after being run over on the Geraldo Scavone Highway (SP-66), which connects Jacareí to São José dos Campos, in September 2017. One of the victims was a motorcyclist, who fell from the vehicle after a collision.

When he was helped by three men who were walking along the road, a pickup truck ran over the four of them - the motorcyclist and two of the men died at the scene. The fourth pedestrian died at the hospital. The driver fled without providing assistance.

Four died after being run over by a pickup truck after a motorcycle accident in São José, in 2017 — Photo: Reproduction/TV Vanguarda

See more news from Vale do Paraíba and the Bragantina region