Ricardo Krause Esteves Najjar is accused of killing his daughter Sophia, aged 4, who was found dead with a plastic bag over her head in an apartment in Jabaquara, in 2015. After an annulled conviction and a jury that downgraded the crime to manslaughter, he was brought back to trial and was convicted.
Cook Ricardo Krause Esteves Najjar was sentenced on Friday (14) to 24 years, 10 months and 20 days in prison for the death of his daughter.
This was the third jury in the case. The Public Prosecutor's Office appealed previous decisions after technical challenges and contradictions from jurors.
The crime occurred in December 2015, in the South Zone. The 4-year-old victim was found asphyxiated with a plastic bag over her head.
The defense claimed a domestic accident, but tests showed injuries to the child's body. Experts found that only father and daughter were at the scene.
Cook Ricardo Krause Esteves Najjar was sentenced on Friday (14) to 24 years, 10 months and 20 days in prison for the murder of his daughter, Sophia Kissajikian Cancio Najjar, aged 4, who died of asphyxiation in 2015, in the South Zone of São Paulo. The decision was made by the Sentencing Council after three days of trial.
According to the Public Ministry of São Paulo (MP-SP), the conviction was obtained by prosecutor Luciana André Jordão. The defendant returned to the Jury Court after a long legal dispute that reached the Superior Court of Justice (STJ).
This was the third time that the case was analyzed by a popular jury. In 2018, Ricardo Krause had been sentenced to 24 years and 10 months in prison for qualified intentional homicide for the death of his daughter. However, in 2020, the São Paulo Court of Justice annulled the trial after recognizing contradictions in the answers given by the jurors to the questions presented.
In the second trial, held in 2023, the jurors disqualified the crime from manslaughter, when there is no intention to kill. The penalty imposed was one year, six months and 20 days in prison, but the punishment was extinguished due to the statute of limitations.
The Public Prosecutor's Office appealed the decision, arguing that it contradicted the technical evidence produced in the process, especially the child's autopsy report. According to prosecutors, the examination showed injuries that were incompatible with the version of a domestic accident presented by the defense and indicated intentional human action.
The appeal was accepted by the São Paulo Court of Justice, which ordered a new trial to be held. The defense tried to reverse the decision in the STJ, but was unsuccessful. With that, the defendant was submitted again to the Jury Court.
The crime was recorded in December 2015, in Jabaquara, South Zone. The child was found asphyxiated with a plastic bag over her head. At the time, the father's defense claimed it was a "domestic accident", as the child was playing with the bag.
The report was unable to contact Ricardo's defense until the last update.
Ricardo Krause is accused of killing his daughter, Sophia (in detail, on the left) — Photo: Reproduction/TV Globo
Remember the case
The crime was recorded in December 2015, in Jabaquara, South Zone. The child was found asphyxiated with a plastic bag over her head. At the time, the father's defense claimed it was a "domestic accident", as the child was playing with the bag.
Ricardo was arrested at the girl's wake and spent a year in prison. He was released before trial for “excessive temporary detention”. He was arrested again in March 2017.
In 2018, Ricardo was tried and sentenced to 24 years and 10 months in prison for intentional homicide, when there is intent to kill, double qualified. He was also convicted by jurors of procedural fraud, for allegedly altering the crime scene. At the time, the cook was imprisoned in the Tremembé Penitentiary, in Vale do Paraíba.
In September 2020, however, the São Paulo Court of Justice announced that it had annulled the jury that convicted the freelancer.
Self-employed Ricardo Krause Esteves Najjar was convicted of killing his daughter — Photo: Reproduction TV Globo
The judges who were part of the 12th Criminal Chamber of São Paulo understood, by unanimous decision, that the trial that condemned Krause in 2018 was null due to the "contradiction of the jurors' questions". The magistrates ordered the defendant's provisional release.
Krause's defense, lawyer Antonio Ruiz Filho, celebrated the decision at the time, saying it was "fair", after "he waited so long in prison for the trial" and due to the inconsistency in the jurors' response regarding the classification of the crime through cruel execution, with the use of asphyxiation, since one of the jurors, according to the lawyer, changed his opinion during the trial of the questions.
The judges understood that, as he waited in prison for the trial, he should be released to await the new jury.
The second jury was rescheduled several times due to the pandemic and also at the request of the defense.
Girl Sophia died of asphyxiation in SP; father is accused of the crime — Photo: Reproduction/TV Globo
The crime
The girl lived with her mother, but spent some periods with her father. It was in Krause's apartment, in the South Zone of São Paulo, that she died of asphyxiation with a plastic bag over her head.
Experts and investigators searched the apartment twice, on the first floor of a building, in Jabaquara, and found no sign that there was anyone else in the place besides the girl and her father on the day of the crime. There were no signs of forced entry.
Ricardo's girlfriend and her sister, who also lived in the apartment, told the police that they were not home on the day of the crime. Ricardo was arrested two days later at his daughter's wake.
Exams by the Legal Medical Institute concluded that the child had purple spots on his body, a ruptured eardrum and a lesion on the inside of his mouth. Sophia's father always said he was innocent and told the police that he was taking a shower and, when he came out, he found his daughter with a bag over her head and not breathing.
A year after Ricardo's arrest, in December 2016, Minister Marco Aurélio, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), ordered his release. In his decision, he considered that there was an “excessive period of time” in the temporary detention – ordered before sentencing to preserve investigations or prevent new crimes.
