A mum has been sentenced to almost 30 years behind bars for stabbing her three-year-old son to death in an apparent bid to “get revenge” on her ex-husband.
Millena Iris Santos da Paixão, 27, killed her son Marcos Paulo Vieirato on December 11 2019, in the Brazilian town of Medicilandia.
Neighbours told reporters that they heard an argument between Paixão and her ex-husband shortly before the tragic incident.
Paixão claimed to have been in the grip of a psychotic episode when she committed the crime and reportedly attempted suicide by stabbing herself with the same knife shortly after killing her son.
Friends say that after killing the boy, she uploaded a photo of her wounds to social media with the caption: “Love your wife. Marriage is serious.”
She was taken to hospital in Altamira, where she was treated for her serious injuries, before later being charged with the murder.
She later wrote a note begging for forgiveness because she had “not helped her son”.
In court, prosecutor Rafael Trevisan, a representative of the Public Ministry, rejected the defendant’s claim that she had committed the crime under the effect of “use of controlled medications, and added that there was no evidence that she suffered from depression”.
Mitigating, defence counsel, Wilson Martins, said the root cause of the crime had been “domestic violence against women.”
After Paixão’s was sentenced to 30 years in jail, her attorney described the sentence as “very high” and announced his intention to launch an appeal immediately.
