Erica Pereira da Silveira Vicente killed Everton Amaro da Silva (Image: Newsflash)
A mother who hacked off her boyfriend’s testicles and set him on fire after catching him sexually abusing her 11-year-old daughter has been dramatically cleared of murder. Erica Pereira da Silveira Vicente, 42, had faced charges of aggravated homicide, destruction of a corpse and corruption of a minor, following the killing of Everton Amaro da Silva, 47, in the early hours of March 11, 2025 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
But after a day-long trial, the jury at the city’s Second Criminal Tribunal voted by majority to acquit her of every charge, sending her home free after almost a year behind bars. Vicente told the court she had known Amaro da Silva since childhood and that he was a regular visitor to the family home — a trust he grotesquely betrayed. Two weeks before the killing, she discovered he was sending sexually explicit messages to her daughter via a messaging app, sparking a furious row.
Erica Pereira da Silveira Vicente at the moment of her arrest (Image: Newsflash)
On the night he died, she was woken by her daughter screaming.
Racing to the child’s bedroom, she found Amaro da Silva on top of the girl in her bed, with his trousers pulled down and his hand clamped over the child’s mouth.
In her interrogation, Vicente described dragging him from the bedroom into the hallway, seizing a kitchen knife and stabbing him repeatedly.
She then beat him around the head with a wooden club. With the help of a teenager who heard the commotion and came into the house, they hauled the body to nearby scrubland.
There, Amaro da Silva’s genitals were severed and the corpse was set alight.
Horrified neighbours called police after spotting the pair dragging the body through the street. Officers arrived to find the still-smouldering remains and followed a trail of blood back to Vicente’s apartment.
She confessed on the spot, handing over the knife, and was arrested immediately.
Chief police investigator Franz Cesarino told local media at the time: « Amaro da Silva had been found in the room with the suspect’s daughter in a situation that appeared to be rape. It is hard to tell exactly what happened because they were all either high on drugs or alcohol. »
Prosecutors argued Vicente had acted not in blind rage but with cold premeditation, claiming she had spiked Amaro da Silva’s drink with the sedative clonazepam, waited for him to lose consciousness and attacked him while he lay helpless.
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They said her actions showed an « elevated degree of coldness » and that the mutilation and burning of the body revealed « an act that was premeditated, cruel and incompatible » with any claim to leniency.
The charge sheet listed aggravated homicide on grounds of cruelty, premeditation and the victim’s inability to defend himself, alongside destruction of a corpse and corruption of a minor for involving a teenage boy in the disposal of the body.
Vicente denied spiking his drink. Her defence team from the Public Defender’s Office argued she had acted in legitimate defence of her child, or at the very least in a state of violent emotional disturbance upon witnessing the abuse.
The jury agreed, acquitting her of every charge by majority vote on Tuesday, March 24.
Judge Maria Beatriz Fonseca Biasutti, presiding over the verdict, ruled there was no basis to sustain any of the charges and formally cleared Vicente of all wrongdoing.
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