Chico Picadinho

Born and raised in Vila Velha, Espírito Santo state, he had a very poor childhood. His father was a coffee exporter and abandoned him as a child, along with his mother. Having to work, she left Francisco with a friend in the city of Cariacica. In interviews, the killer revealed that he had suffered several sexual abuses from the husband of the woman who took care of him, but she never knew, and that he spent weeks without seeing his mother, as she rarely went to visit him. The man who abused de Costa Rosa beat his wife, and in turn she frequently beat da Costa Rosa by when he disobeyed.

One of his childhood hobbies was something very cruel: killing cats. After growing up a little, he returned to live with his mother in Vila Velha, where he witnessed the visit of several men at home, when she told him to go to his room and only leave after dawn. It made him realize that she solicited herself to support them. Knowing this fact, added to the abuse he suffered, was a great trauma for him, which would culminate in an explosion of hatred in the future.

As a teenager, he was thrown out of the house after fights with his mother, when he humiliated her and was aggressive. He started to live off small jobs and some thefts, and soon became addicted to alcohol and other drugs. Open bisexual, he revealed to the psychiatric board, after being arrested for the crimes, that he didn't mind being passive or active; the important thing was to remain a man and have a lot of pleasure. He spent most of his money on gambling and sex workers. He also revealed that he had dismembered the women because he was so angry at the abuse he suffered as a child and because he felt ashamed when he remembered that his mother was a sex worker, like the women he had killed.

Arrested for the first crime on August 5, 1966, Francisco was sentenced to 18 years in prison for first-degree murder, plus another 2 years and 6 months for the destruction of the corpse. Subsequently, his sentence was commuted to 14 years and 4 months of imprisonment. In prison, he studied, worked directly with the prison board, and even got married. In 1974, eight years after the first crime, he was released, and the opinion carried out by the Criminal Biotypology Institute excluded the diagnosis of psychopath personality.[4]

Two years and five months after obtaining his freedom, Francisco committed the second murder, in 1976. At the trial, his defense claimed that his motive for the crime was not vile, noting that Francisco suffered from mental insanity. At that moment, Francisco who was being charged, after being examined, was considered semi-imputable, as he was a bearer of a complex type of psychopath personality. Even so, the Sentencing Council condemned Francisco – for four to three – to 22 years and 6 months of imprisonment.[5]

In 1994, Francisco underwent a detailed psychiatric examination, which culminated in the establishment of a mental health incident and his subsequent removal to the House of Custody and Treatment of Taubaté, in order to obtain medical treatment. The Public Prosecution, in turn, ordered for the decree of interdiction in a closed psychiatric establishment.

The defense lawyer still struggled to obtain freedom, due to the total fulfillment of the sentence, but the Federal Supreme Court, in the judgment of the Ordinary Appeal in Habeas Corpus No. 82.924-4/SP, unanimously dismissed it.[5]

In another attempt, Francisco's defense lawyer tried to obtain the lifting the ban with consequent hospitalization removal, under the argument that, in fact, Chico was being punished with life sentence, which does not exist in Brazil's legal system. However, the request was rejected in the first degree.[5]

In the judgment of the appeal, the São Paulo's Court of Justice, on November 25, 2015, understood that the interdiction of mental patients with a very serious pathology is not equal to life sentence, as it does not aim to punish for the infractions, but rather deprive from social living those who suffer a very serious mental illness. In this case, the judges understood that there would be sure proof of the dissociative personality of the person being interdicted, as well as a serious history of violence, thus maintaining the hospitalization.[5]

On March 1, 2017, he was released by the magistrate Sueli Zeraik de Oliveira Armani, from the 1st Criminal Execution Court of Taubaté. Francisco da Costa Rocha was imprisoned in the House of Custody in Taubaté due to a civil interdiction requested by the Public Prosecution and accepted by the São Paulo's Court on December 14, 1998. Chico had served his sentence in full on November 21, 1998.

In the decision, dated March 1st, 2017, the magistrate Sueli Zeraik de Oliveira Armani highlighted that Chico confirmed his intention to “integrate socially, showing himself to be very secure and determined in this purpose, as well as quite logical in his reasoning developed and coherent in his placements”. According to tests, there is a diagnosis of “nonspecific personality disorder”, but his conduct is classified as “excellent” by the House of Custody's direction.[6]

The magistrate Sueli Zeraik de Oliveira Armani classified Chico's arrestment as “absolutely illegal”, as it is due only to a civil interdiction and exceeds the 30 years prescribed by Brazil's law. The interdiction decision specified that Chico should remain in the prison unit temporarily, however, according to the magistrate, “from the temporary that was deliberated there, it has been twenty years, moving from there to perpetuity”. “Nothing more unfair, illegal and arbitrary,” she wrote in her decision.[6]

For the São Paulo's Public Prosecution, who had asked for his interdiction, Chico has already paid off his debt to the courts. “He has already served the entire sentence imposed on him in terms of quantity and he is only kept in prison due to a civil interdiction. As he doesn't have any living relatives, nor where to go, he ended up staying at the House of Custody”, said prosecutor Luiz Marcelo Negrini.[6]

In May 2017, the court Judge Ricardo Dip, from the Special Chamber of the São Paulo Court of Justice, decided that the prerogative to consider any urgent decision on the case is of the magistrate of the Family Court Jorge Passos Rodrigues' concern. It was Rodrigues who, on the contrary to the decision of the Criminal Execution Court, decided to maintain custody. According to the magistrate, Chico Picadinho, at the time with 75 years old, was serving a sentence for medical purposes, since in the 1970s, in a medical report, he was appointed as a sadistic and psychopathic personality. In the decision, the magistrate affirms that the House of Custody is the "best place to civilly house Francisco, with a record that he is adapted to the daily life, discipline, and timely and effectively receiving psychiatric medication". The decision of Jorge Passos Rodrigues was evaluated by the São Paulo's Court of Justice, where the conflict of jurisdiction was taken, and reaffirmed as a precautionary decision.[7]

As a law student at the time of the crimes, Chico Picadinho is a very lucid man and, to this day, he spends his days practicing painting. In committing his crimes, he acted under the influence of Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, whom he called god in an interview. He is also a big fan of Kafka.