- Police, what's your emergency? - Oh my goodness!
There's a burglar in the building! He's thrown a child from up there!
From which address... I mean, height?
From the sixth floor. Jesus Christ! They've thrown a child.
There's a burglar in the building. Oh my God!
Dear Lord.
- For the love of God! - I'm logging the incident.
- Can you hear me? - Yes, I can. Help is on the way.
The girl was found on the lawn.
The safety net of Isabella's bedroom window
was cut with a knife and scissors.
We used to think, "That's the love of our life."
"They've thrown the love of our life through a window."
We're expecting to hear statements from the father and stepmother.
They were at the apartment.
The police are certain of that.
People saw their own loved ones in that victim.
JUSTICE BE DONE
I had never seen a case that moved public opinion this much.
- They made a spectacle out of it. - What the fuck!
Justice!
So they know everything.
Except that's not true in Isabella's case.
We don't know everything.
It was atypical, unlike anything that the police had encountered before.
The mom left the girl there alive and picked her up dead.
They fabricated a version of the facts to calm down society.
What happened to materiality?
Who killed Isabella Nardoni?
The perfect crime doesn't exist even if it's premeditated.
Lies have a tendency to surface.
Excuse us, guys!
Our legal system wasn't ready for a case with such importance.
Then, the police started to investigate, the news started to come out...
WHY KILL THESE SMILES?
...and it was one surprise after another, one shocking fact after another.
A LIFE TOO SHORT: THE ISABELLA NARDONI CASE
- This is beautiful. - So many photos of you.
- Look, Gi. Both of you. - St. John's festival.
I'm Isabella's cousin. Four months older than she was.
ISABELLA'S COUSIN
There we go.
We used to be joined at the hip.
Our parents had us when they were very young,
so we basically just had each other.
I was much calmer than her.
She had a stronger personality.
She was more...
- Agitated. - Yeah, exactly.
I was more laid back, I was calmer.
She fought for what she wanted, so to speak, while you...
I had an easier time taking a "no" for an answer.
I was 17 when I got pregnant. I was still in school.
ISABELLA'S MOTHER
We were taken aback.
- My brother, who's her father... - My dad.
...had gotten his partner pregnant a few months prior.
I was so happy to have a granddaughter. Or a grandson, I didn't know then.
ISABELLA'S GRANDMOTHER
That's when we heard about Carolina.
That was different, because Carolina was only 17.
ISABELLA'S FATHER
We got divorced when she was eleven months old.
Over the following four years, we had our ups and downs.
In the beginning, our relationship
was typical of divorced parents.
We got along, but that got harder after he met Jatobá.
ISABELLA'S STEPMOTHER
We wouldn't talk much,
but I noticed she grew more mature after she had her own kids.
Isabella loved her siblings so much.
She enjoyed hanging out with them.
For a mom who lets her kid spend the weekend at her dad's,
it's comforting to know that they like their siblings.
I wanted her to be part of that.
They were a part of her life, so she had to experience that.
My last memory of her...
On that Friday, she went to her dad's.
MARCH 29TH, 2008 NORTH OF SÃO PAULO
The day of the accident
had been an otherwise pretty regular day.
It was a Saturday. I was hanging out with some friends.
We were at a barbecue party, and my phone rang.
"Mom, Isa was in an accident."
"What do you mean?" "She fell off the building."
"Where?" "She's at Alexandre's."
"She fell, she fell."
There was a mist that night. Everything was quiet.
That's when we started to hear a ruckus in the apartment next door.
NEIGHBOR
When we went to bed, we heard a couple fighting.
It was a quick argument, about 15 to 20 minutes,
and then the silence was restored.
NEIGHBOR
Right after that,
we heard someone on the ground floor.
They were yelling,
"They tossed Isabella! Help! They tossed Isabella!"
I said, "Let's go downstairs and see if we can help."
I went towards Isabella. She was lying there on the grass.
The heavily-tinted glass entrance door was right behind us.
When I crouched to see if she had a pulse,
Alexandre Nardoni came out through that door.
He said, "There's a guy in my apartment. He threw her out of the window."
He said someone in his apartment had thrown the kid through the window.
And he said that this person was wearing a black shirt.
The doorman was wearing black.
We changed out of our pajamas and left.
It seemed it took forever for us to get there.
We were a five-minute drive away, but it felt like five hours.
ISABELLA'S GRANDFATHER
We were praying on our way there,
because we couldn't even imagine what happened.
We didn't know what had happened.
Upon arriving, it was a whole mess. Lots of cops and stuff.
My husband tried to go in by car, but the police didn't let us.
So I got out of the car and ran down the street.
I remember I got out of the car while it was still moving,
I opened the door and ran in.
When I got there, she was on the ground.
She was breathing very slowly.
I wasn't even worried about questioning what, why or how it had happened.
All I wanted was for her to get help as soon as possible.
So, I didn't leave her side, not even for a second.
I was somewhat relieved because she was still breathing.
Alexandre Alves, 29 years old, arrived home with Isabella,
his current wife, a three-year-old, and an eleven-month-old baby.
They went in through this garage gate. It was cold that night.
Right after he parked, according to our sources,
he took the six-year-old to their apartment,
on the sixth floor of this building.
The brand-new building is safe and has safety nets on every window.
A few moments after that, according to these sources,
he came downstairs to pick up the other children,
and the girl was found right here, on the lawn.
I remember I tried to get in the ambulance
to stay by her side, but they didn't let me go in the back,
so I went in the front.
I remember being inside the ambulance
and leaving the scene.
As far as we knew, when we got to hospital,
it was just an accident.
I was hugging my daughter
when the doctor came talk to us.
It wasn't long
before they came out to tell us that she hadn't made it,
and that we could go into the bedroom.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long.
At all.
Then we all fell apart.
Carolina slid down the walls to the floor.
So I went to my daughter and held her.
She looked at me and said, "Mom, why did this happen to me?"
I had no words. What would I even say to my daughter?
She'd just lost her daughter.
After a while, I could only say, "Sweetie, we need to let her go,
so she can move on."
When I finally realized she hadn't made it,
the only thing I could whisper into her ear was,
"You go in peace."
"I'll take care of everything on this end."
These were my last words to her.
Then, the police started to investigate,
the news and many developments started to come out,
and it was one surprise after another, one shocking fact after another.
POLICE
Here at São Paulo PD's 9th Precinct, throughout the afternoon and the evening
there's been a lot of movement.
Lots of reporters wait in expectation
to hear Alexandre's and Carolina's statements.
I was on call
when we received the news that a child had fallen from their parents' apartment.
That's all the information we had.
JOURNALIST AND WRITER
At first, everyone was unsure if it had been a crime,
a homicide, something of the sort,
or if it had been an accidental fall.
Back then, there was so much news
of children who, when left alone, had fatally fallen from windows.
ANOTHER CHILD FALLS OUT A WINDOW
CHILD FALLS OUT A WINDOW AND SUFFERS HEAD TRAUMA
CHILD FALLS OUT A WINDOW OF A BUILDING IN PERDIZES
They asked me to go to the ninth precinct station,
and I got information,
during a press conference with Mr. Calixto Calil Filho,
that there was a suspicion, including the family,
of a homicide.
A five-year-old child...
HEAD POLICE CHIEF, 9TH DISTRICT
...around 11:30 p.m. last night,
was thrown from the sixth floor of a building.
It wasn't an accident.
Somebody cut the window's safety net
and threw her from there.
It's impossible for a five-year-old to cut a net and jump out
at that time of night.
Especially when, according to the dad, she was asleep when he brought her up.
She had already slept on his lap.
So, there's the possibility of homicide,
because someone cut the safety net and threw her out of the window.
The truth is, at that point,
I thought it had been an accident, whatever it was that happened.
But then, they told us we had to go to the police station.
What was I supposed to do at the police station?
What do you mean, the police station? Come on!
So we still have to go through all this? It was an accident!
It was an accident.
9TH PRECINCT
I was on call that Saturday night.
My shift had started at 8:00 p.m. and, just after midnight,
a Military Police officer came in and reported the incident.
At first, he said, "There was a burglary in a building...
POLICE CHIEF
...and, during the break-in, a child was thrown from the sixth floor."
The police will request a deposition from the father and the stepmother.
INSTITUTE OF CRIMINALISTICS
The police asked them
if they'd ever received any threats, if they had enemies,
if someone wanted to hurt them or the child.
JOURNALIST
They kept talking about the doorman,
so I started looking into his entire life,
researching his background, finding out who he was.
Especially because of how suspicious the couple was towards him.
I immediately called the building manager, one of the building's first residents.
DOORMAN
I told him a girl had fallen.
At first, I thought she had fallen off a balcony.
I didn't know back then.
And I told him to call an ambulance and the police.
He did what anyone would've done in that situation.
He called the building manager.
The building manager went there and confirmed it was true.
When I got to the scene, it was very crowded,
there were lots of civilians and police officers.
I went up to assess the apartment.
Right off the bat, there were no signs of break-in.
Then I walked into the living room, and I noticed some drops of blood,
so I had already found my first answer.
Something had happened in that apartment.
Prior to the victim being thrown out the window,
something had happened inside the apartment.
At that point, I couldn't be sure the blood was Isabella's.
I hadn't even seen her body, so I still didn't know who bled or why.
Our duty is to perform a meticulous survey of the scene,
looking for other blood spills,
or any other residues compatible to our forensic assessment.
The apartment was messy,
but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
Nothing was broken,
nothing was out of its place like we typically see in homicides.
FORENSIC OFFICER
It wasn't like a typical homicide or break-in mess.
It was just a regular messy home.
That evidence suggested
that it wasn't a break-in, but a homicide.
There was blood on the scene, and there was no evidence of burglary.
The place wasn't turned upside down, and there was no evidence of a fight,
of someone trying to escape, or even of a fight between the couple.
We were informed this man is the child's father.
He's giving his statement...
ISABELLA'S FATHER
...and we're bringing you this exclusive footage.
As they were making their statement, I would ask them,
"Does that make sense?"
"Why would a burglar throw a child out the window?"
I'd ask them these questions,
so we could reach together a more plausible hypothesis
of what could've happened.
You are watching this exclusive footage.
Anna Carolina, the stepmother, a young woman.
ISABELLA'S STEPMOTHER
She seems to be scared. Her face is rather tense.
At first, it was just an ordinary case.
FATHER LEFT THE GIRL IN THE BEDROOM TO GO GET HIS OTHER TWO CHILDREN
On the very first day, the newspapers didn't really highlight it that much.
It gained attention over time.
I was leaving for the funeral, on Sunday,
when some TV channel called me.
For an average family like mine, tragedies like this only happen on TV.
Suddenly I was on TV. It was my family on TV.
MARCH 30TH, 2008
...knowing that my daughter won't have the chance to read, to write, to study...
to turn 15,
to have dreams, to go to college.
She just won't.
We gotta be there for each other.
Sometimes we can't help but feel the blow, but we try to remain there for each other.
FOREVER OUR LITTLE STAR
We're talking about a crime against a child,
and that kind of crime moves people.
It happened to a middle-class family.
The context of the crime caught people's eyes.
JOURNALIST - SBT TV
- Thank you. - We studied together, fourth grade.
So we're all hoping that it's...
I couldn't leave my house.
Because TV reporters, radio reporters, or newspaper journalists
were camping outside my house,
day and night.
Sorry, I understand it's your job, but I'd rather be left alone.
They said the girl fell,
but you, as an experienced policeman, are not buying it. Right, Mr. Calil?
We're facing a complex case here.
We're being extremely cautious.
We're checking every single piece of information,
anyone who's mentioned,
anyone who was seen by someone doing something in the building.
The on-call forensic officer got there first.
When he noticed something was off, he reached out to me.
FORENSIC OFFICER
I was informed it was a robbery with homicide.
In other words, property crime. I go to the scene.
"Wait, what's the story?"
The parents left her sleeping in the apartment
and went to get the other kids, who were in the car.
When they came back, she was there.
She has been defenestrated
and was found lying next to the security booth.
"Was she harmed?" "No, they said she wasn't."
Okay, but if she wasn't harmed, why is there blood
by the apartment's front door?
That bloodstain was right at the doorstep,
which indicates that it had been produced from the outside in.
That's the first interesting thing that caught my attention.
The girl was hurt outside of the apartment.
There was a lot of laundry to be done in the laundry sink
and on the washing machine,
but I couldn't help but notice a bucket
with a cloth inside that looked like a cloth nappy.
It was soaking in a water solution.
I said, "There's so much stuff here, and just this one bucket?"
So we took it in.
And, as it turns out, there was blood on that cloth.
FORENSIC POLICE
The first contact we had with the case happened early in the morning.
FORENSIC MEDICINE, SÃO PAULO
The morgue's front desk called
telling us a police officer wanted to ask us some questions about a case.
About a fresh case.
And, um...
CORONER
He wanted to know if there were any wounds of the body
that could possibly have bled enough
to cause the blood spills found on the scene.
In fact, she did have a wound on her forehead
caused by a pointy object of some sort.
It left a small wound on her forehead.
There was facial and nail cyanosis,
alongside discernible neck injuries consistent with strangulation.
The evidence strongly pointed towards asphyxia.
INSTITUTE OF FORENSIC MEDICINE
The cause of death was determined to be polytrauma
and mechanical asphyxia due to strangulation.
When she fell, she didn't immediately die. She remained alive for a period of time.
She was already injured and undergoing severe asphyxia
that would inevitably lead to her death.
She exhibited multiple signs on her body
indicating that she had been strangled prior to being defenestrated.
CASE PROSECUTOR
POLICE
When Alexandre talked to me, he started by asking,
"Did you catch the burglar?"
Over 30 officers were called to duty that night...
FORENSICS
...because a burglar had broken into the apartment
and thrown the girl out of the window.
Naturally, the police set the perimeter on the block
and canvassed the surroundings to find the supposed aggressor.
There was nothing missing, no evidence of a break-in,
and no report of any other person being seen going down the elevator.
When we got to the hospital,
Alexandre came to talk to me.
He said, "Ms. Rosa, she was so happy...
The burglar just tossed her from up there."
"What are you talking about?"
"When I got there, the door was broken down."
"What do you mean? Why would he toss her from up there?"
He was acting like a caged lion, pacing up and down.
"I saw the burglar. He was wearing black t-shirt."
"He broke the door down, I saw it."
I was like, "Well, why didn't you fight him, damn it?"
"Why didn't you fight him?" Then he changed subjects.
POLICE
They had the same train of thought.
It was like they rehearsed it.
She noticed that the story the couple was telling
was pretty odd,
because the sequence of facts they were telling
did not match the witnesses' accounts.
He was more worried about adding someone to the crime scene
and blaming this person for his daughter's death
than actually solving the crime.
He didn't have questions,
all he had was information he tried to convince me of.
I thought it was odd.
She just noticed the press is here. Her attorney is trying to hide her face.
Now, she's leaving the room.
But we've already gotten some images.
What happened? Did they all get there together?
That's up to the police to determine. The police are doing their job.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY
We're here to assist during interrogations.
We don't know who did this.
The couple first went to the police station
with a team of attorneys, right off the bat.
They had already prepared a power of attorney document
to defend the couple.
It caught our attention at the time.
Whenever there's a highly publicized case that attracts a large number of reporters,
behind them and the cameras there's typically a crowd yelling,
"Murderer! Justice!"
And I remember hearing a female voice.
"Murderer! Murderer!"
I looked around and said, "Civilians? This late?"
But it wasn't a civilian, it was the chief on call
that was yelling at them.
At no point did I see this chief saying that,
and I didn't have the time
to keep tabs on whatever happened outside of the investigation.
We've got movement. Alexandre and Anna Carolina are coming.
Lots of people. No pushing, please.
- Out of the way! - Big ruckus.
Don't block the car door! Get out!
Some serious commotion.
Don't push me. Get a shot of the car.
Check this out. The front of the car.
Alexandre and Anna Carolina are on their way out.
They came back! Here!
They are coming out. It's Alexandre.
At first, Ana Carolina de Oliveira didn't point fingers at anybody.
MOTHER AND GRANDFATHER DEFEND FATHER AND STEPMOTHER
I had no reason to doubt them.
My family didn't even consider it.
Neither did I.
People would tell us, "He did it!"
And we'd say, "No."
"He can be cold sometimes or whatever,
but he would never murder his little girl."
"Because he loved Isa, and Isa loved him."
If I were the girl's mother,
the girl's grandmother,
I'd be praying for it to be another person.
CRIMINOLOGIST
I wouldn't even imagine
that the girl's father could be involved in such a story.
The deputy chief arrived with the couple's attorneys.
She didn't disclose what was discussed,
but assured us it wasn't an official statement.
I can't disclose anything.
- Is it confidential? - Yes, it's confidential.
Investigating a crime in which the suspect is close to the victim is a delicate task.
It takes three times as much responsibility.
There's no room for mistakes.
You can't mistakenly charge a father,
or a mother, or anyone who's close to the victim.
If that person turns out to be innocent, they're a victim too, they are hurting.
We can't make the mistake of accusing a father
of killing his own daughter without being absolutely sure.
What I can reveal is that...
APRIL 2ND, 2008
...after having gathered all the evidence,
we can visualize about 70% of what happened that day.
After two or three days of investigation, I had enough evidence
that they were lying.
And someone who throws his own daughter out of the window
is capable of running away, of anything.
POLICE
Please understand this is a very serious crime
involving truly arduous work.
Chief Renata is fully dedicated to this case.
She barely even slept these past three days,
so we won't take on the demand of closing the case
earlier than the 30 days determined by law.
When everything happened, I called Chief Renata.
POLICE CHIEF
And she said, "Sir, I'm sure of it."
"The couple did it."
The police request the temporary arrest of Isabella's father and stepmother.
People are screaming, "Murderer." He's scared, but he's leaving now.
There's Alexandre.
Alexandre, are you innocent?
I'm innocent.
Why is this happening, Alexandre?
Stand back!
Alexandre says he's innocent.
The officers are protecting him.
People are still yelling, "Murderer."
Alexandre is being protected by police officers.
He's trying to get in the building.
It's wild here.
People are chasing him, he's running around the precinct.
Here... He's going in.
I'd say the case went down a very risky path.
If they never found enough technical evidence
that could confirm the suspicion that the police had since the beginning,
then it would turn into a scandal.
Sometimes, right from the start of an investigation,
the desired outcome is already established.
You must assess all elements
gathered by the police chief
during the whole course of the investigation to reach a conclusion.
PRESIDENT OF INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE OF THE RIGHT TO DEFENSE
You can't abandon this premise to build an investigation.
The press needs to be fast, swift. It operates within tight timeframes.
So, when a crime occurs,
it wants to present a culprit right away.
When Justice, be that during the investigation,
be that during the trial,
tries to keep up with the press to give answers,
things get messy.
I must abide by Brazilian law.
It establishes how the parties may gather evidence
and, so far, the evidence incriminates the defendants.
During the first interview I gave,
a few days after the crime,
the reporter asked me what prison sentence I'd be seeking for the defendants.
And I said, "Sir, the investigation is still underway."
"We don't know if we'll press charges,
if there will be a trial, a jury, let alone if they'll be convicted,
but you're already asking me how long their sentences will be?"
TO THE POLICE, THERE ARE NO DOUBTS: THEY DID IT
A weekly magazine proclaimed on its cover, "They did it."
"They did it" is basically a condemnatory sentence.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY
...the Nardoni case. And she's so competent.
- Alexandre Nardoni... - Alexandre and Anna Carolina will testify...
The mom, after all she went through during the investigation...
People would talk about the crime all the time.
At the grocery store, at bars... People were always talking about it.
Justice! Justice!
Isabella was thrown from the sixth floor.
Justice. They can't get away with it.
People were watching it as if it was a soap opera.
Ladies at home, do you really think that a scared five-year-old
would have the patience to go find a pair of scissors
to cut the safety net and hop out?
What the fuck!
My life turned upside down.
With every new revelation, I kept asking myself,
"What is going on in my life?"
Exclusive footage.
This supermarket's CCTV captured Isabella's last moments alive.
You'll see everything that happened inside the store.
This is never-seen-before footage.
LOUSY ACTORS
MONSTER PARENTS
Murderers! Murderers!
The public is eager...
PRIVATE EXPERT
...for tragedy
ever since Greece.
Could Anna Carolina Jatobá and Alexandre Nardoni flee the country?
Justice! Justice!
Justice!
Who killed Isabella?
The whole thing just blew out of proportion.
It was on TV 24/7.
I was on TV all the time.
Over the weekend, three witnesses who live in the building where the crime occurred
gave their deposition regarding Isabella's death.
I talked to a nurse,
who mentioned hearing noises coming from a construction site
that could serve as the perfect escape route.
I talked to
the construction workers, and I asked if they had seen anything odd.
They said, "I didn't, but someone sleeps here during the week,
so maybe they could know something."
The foreman confirmed the information on the phone
with the first worker to arrive on Sunday.
Hi, Gabriel.
FOREMAN
Listen, was there a break-in here last Sunday?
Oh, so it was open?
No one took anything, but they opened the place?
It was open.
He told me that, when he got there in the morning,
on Sunday,
he noticed that the gate had been broken into.
This wood panel was broken.
It was supposed to be nailed like the other ones.
They are all nailed together,
but this one was broken so someone could pass through.
Nothing was taken,
but the foreman shows us how easy it is to access the building.
He said, "I could tell someone went through our stuff."
"I knew that someone had broken in."
- Were you there that night, Gabriel? - No, I wasn't.
CONSTRUCTION WORKER
I'm not there on weekends.
So what did the police do?
That article had just been published,
and the police were about to decide whether to release the couple or not.
So they took that construction worker to the police station.
He arrived at the station, met the police officers,
and chances are he was pressured to change his story.
CONSTRUCTION WORKER DENIES BREAK-IN UPSETS DEFENSE ATTORNEYS
Then they took him to the reporters, and he said, "I didn't say anything."
"The gate wasn't broken. It never happened."
I know nothing. I know nothing about a break-in.
- Did a burglar break in? - No.
- Did you give an interview? - No.
- No? - No.
What did you say?
Nothing was stolen and nobody broke in.
- So nobody was there? - No.
The problem was that the police did not investigate this lead.
If they had investigated, they'd have found the person who broke in.
It was Sgt. Messias along with two other police officers.
Over 30 police officers drove over to the scene,
and they conducted a perimeter sweep as customary.
Why didn't the police have the information
that they broke into that site that night?
Because this sergeant didn't include it in his report.
So what's the easy way out?
You pressure an illiterate, scared person, and say,
"Look, from now on, you deny it until the end."
And so he did.
JUSTICE TO DECIDE TODAY ON RELEASE OF FATHER AND STEPMOTHER
APPELLATE JUDGE WILL MAKE A RULING ON THE DEFENSE'S HABEAS CORPUS MOTION
JUDGE SAYS DETENTION CANNOT BE BASED ON SUSPICIONS ALONE
At 2:30 p.m.,
after a week, Alexandre gets out of jail.
Thank God.
Special Ops was called to escort the couple to the Medical Legal Institute,
where they'd be released.
That was where I first met them.
What surprised me was that they started laughing.
CHIEF OF SPECIAL OPS
They started talking as if nothing had happened.
I even asked the man,
"Why are you laughing? Your daughter is dead."
The couple will be escorted to a safe place.
We understand they pose no risk or danger.
APRIL 18TH, 2008
The day the couple was brought in to give their statements at the station,
the place was completely surrounded
by reporters, camera operators,
photographers, and helicopters.
They also did something I had never seen before.
They scheduled the couple's interrogation on April 18th,
which would have been the victim's sixth birthday.
Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you
I scheduled the interrogation on that date
purely by coincidence.
Whoever thinks it was intentional
is mistaken, because it wasn't.
It was a strategy, I assume...
CHIEF OF SPECIAL OPS
...to mess with their emotions. It's an interrogation technique.
Very common stuff.
Have you heard of "Good cop, bad cop"?
Even kids know this stuff exists.
It wasn't something done under wraps.
They released this information.
They even installed portable toilets in front of the station
so that the crowd could somehow take part
in putting pressure on the couple for them to confess.
They were in there for over 20 hours,
and they didn't confess.
During the interrogation, Alexandre Nardoni and Anna Carolina Jatobá
denied their involvement in Isabella's death.
The sequence of events reported by the couple
and the details of their arrival to the building
on the night of March 29th do not align with the details
presented by witnesses and forensic evidence.
Alexandre Jatobá, father of Anna, who's Isabella's stepmother,
has no doubt about the couple's innocence.
She said, "I can't believe this is happening."
I told her, "Be strong."
ANNA'S FATHER
"Everyone goes through hardship in life, but we need to prove your innocence."
- What's your greatest fear? - None. I'm very confident.
I'm sure they didn't do it and we're going to prove so.
ALEXANDRE'S FATHER
- What if the police prove otherwise? - I don't know what they'll say.
Every day someone says there'll be a new decision,
but we have to wait.
It's no use speculating.
The arrogant demeanor of Alexandre's father
and his family's persistent efforts to be in the spotlight
was perhaps interpreted as, "They are powerful,
so they'll get away with it."
I'd hear that a lot from other people.
"Will they be arrested with all the money they have?"
The father and grandfather is also the defense attorney.
Always calm and composed,
the tax attorney Antonio Nardoni seems to call all the shots.
There was something about Alexandre,
the way he kept his head up, the perhaps arrogant look in his eyes.
I had the impression that he was always thinking,
"Do whatever you like. My dad will fix this.
I'm safe, my dad's got my back."
Despite his age, he didn't act as an adult.
His dad handled everything,
all his matters, conflicts, the couple's fights.
Even the apartment he lived in.
Nothing was bought with his own money,
because he couldn't afford it.
Even the decoration choices were made by the father.
Nothing was his. Everything was his family's.
He could treat himself to all of it as long as he behaved.
Alexandre knew absolutely nothing about Isabella's daily routine.
He didn't know her teacher's name, her pediatrician's name.
He paid child support because the court ordered it.
So when you look at this child's father, Alexandre Nardoni,
he has a whole history of failed attempts
at being the perfect son for that family.
He had a history of aggression,
even towards his wife, and even towards Isabella's mother.
He got more aggressive over time.
Talk to us!
Talk to the press.
Alexandre?
Alexandre? How are your kids? Alexandre?
The only thing I recall is an old police report
Ana Carolina Oliveira made against him
claiming he had threatened her when Isabella was 16 months old
because Ana had enrolled Isabella at a nursery school without his consent.
We had to file a complaint, because he kept threatening me.
He wanted to kill me.
Yeah. He said he was gonna kill me.
DRIVER'S LICENSE NAME: ALEXANDRE ALVES NARDONI
He may have spanked their children,
but nothing out of the ordinary.
Especially with Isabella. He never did anything.
Her mother confirms this.
What does the media coverage lack?
The couple's version of the facts.
Who can forget the famous interview of the Nardonis on Fantástico?
It used to be the most-watched show on Brazilian television.
We approached Antonio Nardoni.
"Mr. Antonio, we'd like to interview the couple."
At night, he called us and said,
"Okay, we're in. They'll do it."
That was a blast, a huge scoop.
APRIL 20TH, 2008
You're being accused of a serious crime. What is it like to handle this?
It was just disastrous.
They got themselves into a mess because they began to babble
and had no speaking skills whatsoever.
And the reporter took advantage of that.
How do you feel after Isabella's tragic death?
We're hurting so much.
With what people are saying about us,
with their judgment of us, and because they sentenced us
even though we're innocent.
I see.
What can I say? My wife and I...
How do I put this? We are a family like any other.
We're all very attached to one another.
We're a very united family, you know?
After that interview, we put our doubts to rest.
We were absolutely sure.
Her cry was childish and ridiculous.
She was pretending to cry. It's not even childish, I mean.
She didn't shed a tear.
"We were a family."
So what? I've got a family, too.
Many families sit at the same table
and, one fine day, one stabs the other.
There was another thing that caught people's attention,
those who watched the interview.
Whenever Alexandre tried to speak,
the stepmother would talk over him
before he could finish his sentence.
They don't know who we really are. I mean...
They know us through what they see in the media, which is mostly...
Most of what they're saying about us was made up. There's no...
Nobody knows our family for real. Nobody knows who we truly are.
After that interview on Fantástico, many people hastily drew the conclusion
that Jatobá was the leader of the couple.
But this thesis does not hold under deeper assessment.
She was the one being abused.
She talks more, she's more nervous, more anxious... She's not in charge.
Another important detail on Anna Carolina Jatobá's history
is that she was clearly struggling with depression.
Postpartum depression.
She was seriously depressed. Her boy was eleven months old.
That mess represents her mental state.
Her house is like a picture of her mind.
She's not okay.
She was hurting, she was suffering.
Who said that she was happy?
'Cause they held hands at the supermarket? So what?
She was isolated from her friends.
She never hung out with any friends, never got any calls.
We couldn't find a single friend of hers.
Let's consider the hypothesis that we're dealing with a normal couple,
who aren't violent, cruel people.
At some point, someone lost their temper and assaulted the child.
Let's assume for a second that this assault wasn't meant to kill
but that nonetheless that's the effect it ended up having.
This is not just about the mistakes that were made anymore,
this is about a wicked person who committed a crime and tried to hide it.
I don't know what really happened in there.
At this crime scene, what immediately called my attention
were the bloodstains.
For two reasons. First, because of their morphology.
I also noticed that they tried to remove them,
to clean the stains.
But they were perfectly visible.
The bloodstains marked a path from the door
to the couch.
The bloodstains by the front door
revealed a projection trajectory that suggested that Isabella
was being carried upon arrival.
She didn't come in walking by herself.
The drops matched the stride of an adult.
The bloodstains exhibit cast-off patterns consistent with the father's height.
Let's assume Anna, making a huge effort, was carrying the girl.
The bloodstains would have had another morphology,
that of a shorter height.
Here, right by the couch,
there were several other bloodstains,
other than those I'd seen coming from the door.
Following the path drawn by the bloodstains,
you would be led straight into the bedroom where the other children used to sleep.
The bed and sheets were a bit messed up.
There were blood drops here as well.
And the last bloodstain we found in this apartment
was on the windowsill.
The sink was filled with dirty dishes,
but I still noticed a pair of scissors.
And I thought, "This object
could very well have been used to cut the safety net."
We found, trapped within the scissors,
a part of the safety net.
There were many toys on her bed.
Plus, the bed had been made and was untouched.
And, on top of it all,
there was a drawing by Isabella lying on the bed.
Therefore, there's no way the father placed her on that bed.
That's a claim that deeply bothered me.
Why was the father lying?
FORENSIC POLICE
The defendants were subpoenaed
and invited to take part in the crime scene reconstruction
that took place on a Sunday morning, April 27th, 2008.
SCIENCE IN THE SERVICE OF JUSTICE
The forensic team was going to reconstruct to a T
the version that the defendants thought benefited them.
Except they refused to go.
They said they wouldn't produce evidence against themselves.
APRIL 27TH, 2008
The police chief formally requested that Judge Maurício
prohibited any aircrafts from flying...
FORENSICS
...within a 1,2-mile perimeter.
But the press came up with a workaround.
They rented the balconies of the surrounding apartments
and placed their reporters and commentators there,
with powerful cameras, so they could film the reconstruction.
For almost three hours, a team of ten professionals
has been in the building where the crime took place on March 29th.
With the reconstruction, we established the timing of the events.
We drew out a timeline,
which was extremely important.
We went through all the information that, up until that point,
since the beginning of the investigation, hadn't been verified.
For instance, the car had a GPS device.
We were able to pinpoint the exact moment the car was turned off.
Everything happened after 11:36 p.m. that night.
They went upstairs. They got into the apartment.
Everything happened within that 15-minute window.
At 11:49 p.m.,
the doorman hears a car crash-like noise.
He goes out immediately and calls the building manager.
The manager desperately calls the police.
Dispatch receives the call precisely at 11:50 p.m.
We have the recording of the manager's talk with the dispatch.
There's a burglar in the building! He's thrown a child from up there!
We were able to use that recording to identify the exact moment
in which the defendant arrives to check the body.
It happened at 11:50 p.m. and a few seconds.
That means that one minute after Isabella had been thrown from up there,
the defendant was right next to her body.
All the while, Anna is in the apartment making calls.
The first person Anna called was her father.
The call was super fast, it took seconds.
Then, after another six seconds, she calls her father-in-law.
It was also a quick talk.
While she was on the phone, Isabella was already down there.
She was on the phone with her father and then her father-in-law
during the exact timeframe that Mr. Lucio was on the phone with the police.
And she was upstairs. On the phone.
I mean, if there were a third person, then that person would be with them.
They said they went back to the car.
The girl was asleep,
so they went back to the car to get the other children,
and only upon entering the apartment did they realize Isabella was missing.
The account provided by the defendant would suggest
that he reached the ground floor after midnight.
So the reconstruction was key to establish the timeline.
It can't be.
Alexandre Nardoni and Anna Carolina Jatobá are handcuffed.
Their preventive arrest was ordered this Wednesday.
Right now, at 10:33 p.m.,
the couple will be taken to the 9th Precinct.
There's Alexandre Nardoni...
...he's in the back of this car.
There's Alexandre... He's being taken in this car.
Anna Carolina Jatobá is being taken in that Special Ops car.
We got an order to go to the building,
we took them into custody, and the crowd applauded it.
Our job was basically escorting them so they weren't lynched.
Their arrival at the police station was also hectic.
Aside from the many reporters,
a crowd of onlookers wanted to see the couple.
Through the back.
The judge's ruling
was promptly communicated to the media outlets.
The officers who apprehended the couple
removed the window tint from the rear part of the car,
where the prisoners are transported.
It was all intentional, of course.
The cops even told the reporters and the camera crew,
"Look, we got you a little gift."
To top it all off,
after they got to the police station, they were forced to wait inside the car
with the door wide open, so everyone could take photos,
as if they were a couple of awards, a couple hunting prizes
the police had put on display.
I'm recording.
- Sir... - Say something, damn it!
Stop it. Enough.
Excuse us, everyone.
Careful!
The police cannot stop the press from doing their jobs.
The truth is, there was no point in rushing any of it.
They were arrested, they were safe.
We were there to protect them.
I wasn't gonna rush it just to keep the press from filming it.
If they filmed them, that's their business.
COUPLE SURRENDERS BEFORE ENRAGED CROWD
THE JUDGE ACCEPTED THE CHARGES AND ISSUED AN ARREST WARRANT AROUND 6 P.M.
The press seeks the scoop.
And sometimes, in the heat of the moment,
in the rush to break the story and be ahead with the information,
they may inadvertently turn a situation into a spectacle.
Is it exploitation?
I can't say for sure if it's exploitation.
All I know is it's a case that moved the entire country.
It was almost like society went through a catharsis over this case.
This case, without a doubt, symbolizes the complex relationship
between the media and Criminal Justice.
It goes way back.
During the Inquisition, crowds would gather at squares
to witness public executions.
There was a sense of satisfaction among people,
driven by a perceived notion of justice, regardless of who was being accused
or what evidence led to those executions.
People have shown great interest for Criminal Justice
throughout history.
This crime happened within the middle-class,
which greatly influences public opinion.
So, in a way, the middle-class audience,
which is the great public,
can picture themselves, one way or another,
in that same situation.
I see myself in that apartment.
For some reason, I covet that case.
I want to know more about it.
So it's a recipe for high ratings, really.
Some of the media really crossed the line.
They completely lost sight of their responsibility.
How could they do an indirect test, through sound,
without actually testing those people?
To produce a news story using a lie detector...
I don't agree with that.
CALIBRATING
FANTÁSTICO'S SECOND STORY
...with what people are saying about us,
with their judgment of us, and because they sentenced us
even though we're innocent.
LIE
I didn't produce that story,
and I wouldn't have produced it.
I don't agree with that.
SUPER POP WITH LUCIANA GIMENEZ
Francisco Cembranelli, thank you so much for this interview.
Thank you, it's my pleasure to be here.
Cembranelli was considered a national hero.
- How are you? - Hi.
Which do you prefer? Francisco, Chico or Cembranelli?
CASE PROSECUTOR
- I usually go by Cembranelli. - Cembranelli, right?
Let's start from the beginning, hey?
DA Francisco Cembranelli became famous after working on some cases
that moved public opinion.
You became a superstar during the Nardoni case.
Did that affect you personally?
Were you harassed? Your family, your children?
What harassment did you go through?
People talk to me on the streets.
I don't know how to handle it, because I'm shy.
I'm not a celebrity.
I'm still doing my same old job in the same place as always.
But I see that as...
If I'm being completely honest, I was ready to form a jury.
In 2008, three months after the fact.
I used to say that to any journalists who asked me,
"What will it take for the prosecution to take this to a jury?"
I'd answer, "Nothing. The judge just needs to order it,
and we'll call in a jury with the evidence collected."
"It's enough to convict them."
The prosecution wants to take advantage of all the clamoring.
Because it's easier to get the result they're after
while the clamoring is affecting
the pace of the trial and the investigation.
People would send their pictures attached to their letters,
heartfelt messages.
I would notice the magnitude of this whole thing
when I received these moving letters
that described how people interpreted and embraced the story.
Some people named their daughters "Isabella" because of it.
Anyway, these letters really moved me.
Look.
"You don't know me. I'm Rosana, I'm forty-seven years old
and I'm a mother of three."
"Since 3-29-2008,
we inadvertently became friends."
"When I heard about Isabella's tragedy,
I couldn't help but put myself in your shoes."
"Since that sad day, I've had several sleepless nights,
thinking about you and your sweet daughter."
"I could only imagine your heartache."
"But I'm aware that I'll never begin to fathom it."
"I kept thinking what I could do to help you,
so, on April 18th,
on mine and Isabella's birthday,
I made a protest banner against impunity."
"Since then, I've been to several protests,
including the one on the day of the trial."
"I stood in front of the court until their sentence was given."
ISABELLA FOREVER
We were anxious about it until the very end, you know?
Because every day, every week, every month,
we would get more news.
We wanted to know how the investigation was going.
We suffered for two whole years.
The eve of the trial was...
the worst eve I've ever lived.
Time stood still, the day wouldn't come.
MARCH 22ND, 2010
Today marks the beginning of the trial
of Alexandre Nardoni and Anna Carolina Jatobá...
COURTHOUSE
...who are charged with the death of Isabella in March of 2008.
Few times in the history of Brazil has a trial garnered as much attention
as that of the Nardoni couple.
There's a significant buzz
surrounding this widely televised trial.
The trial was insane.
A sidewalk in front of the court was totally occupied by the crowd.
I was frightened of that crowd.
There were so many people there, so many press crews.
I was hesitant to go through all those people.
I kept thinking, "What am I doing here?"
THE NARDONIS CHANGE THEIR ATTORNEY AT THE EVE OF THE JURY TRIAL
Trust is paramount in any attorney-client relationship.
In cases involving felonies against life, like this homicide,
clients require someone exceptional, a specialist in the field.
And Roberto Podval has a lot of experience.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY
He's one of the most brilliant attorneys in the country,
so I guess they felt safe in his hands.
Roberto Podval, 44, and Francisco Cembranelli, 49,
both graduated from the same university in São Paulo
and are at the peak of their careers.
Podval has worked on some controversial cases,
and won 13 of the 15 cases he worked on before Isabella's.
Clearly, it was a lost cause.
But should I not accept the case
because I was worried it was a lost cause?
DEFENSE ATTORNEY
They are being unjustly judged, by the way.
But they do have the right to defend themselves.
Before walking in the court,
the attorney, Roberto Podval, was booed by the crowd
who were waiting to watch the trial.
Podval was physically assaulted in front of the court.
That's insane. The attorney doesn't defend the crime.
People were regrettably cheering for a verdict in front of the court.
Their sentiments were fueled by the daily media coverage
that consistently featured the case in the news.
This law student brought water and food.
She woke up early to be the first in line.
André, where did you come from?
Ponte Nova, about five hundred miles from here.
It's in the north of Minas Gerais.
They have to go to jail. They are murderers.
They are guilty.
I think they are guilty until proven otherwise.
There's no evidence of a third person at the crime scene. They're guilty.
They need to go to jail. They're monsters.
As I know God exists, I know they did it.
Society is sentencing them.
Then, there are the jurors, who are laymen
representing society in judging someone else.
When those individuals entered the court to pass judgment to the couple,
it's very hard to imagine that they'd be unbiased.
JUDICIARY POWER REGIONAL COURT
It's kind of like winning the lottery.
Being a part of the jury for a case such as the Nardoni's.
JUROR
First, you need to be registered as a jury member on that court.
Then, if you're lucky to be amongst the pre-selected jurors,
you're just one out of 25 potential jurors.
And, from those 25 jurors, only seven will be selected.
JUDGE
Cembranelli, the prosecutor,
looks at the jury, who was already carrying all that weight,
that huge burden of public opinion, and says,
"You are responsible
for the result, and you'll answer for it
before society."
Is that what someone who seeks justice would say?
The defense requested that the Supreme Court invalidate the jury
due to the jurors' lack of impartiality
resulting from the public commotion generated during the trial.
The only way to get an impartial trial would be to hold it on Mars.
Because everyone in Brazil knew about it. Of course the jury had been influenced.
I got there, I waited,
and then I was the first person to give a deposition.
I chose four witnesses.
The first was Isabella's mom, Ana Carolina.
She could describe that family's history.
She could discuss her relationship with her daughter,
with her ex-husband,
with the stepmother.
She could describe her relationship with Alexandre while they were married,
how it was after the divorce,
or even when the crime happened.
It was an important statement with emotional weight.
When I walked into the court to give my statement,
I remember I was facing the judge
and the couple was sitting towards my right-hand side.
I didn't make any eye contact with them.
I didn't want to look at them.
I tried to focus on what I had to do right then and there.
I tried not to care about them being there.
This Monday, the reporter Sandro Barbosa
watched the deposition given by Isabella's mother,
Ana Carolina de Oliveira.
Sandro, what was the most moving moment, so to speak,
of Ana Carolina's deposition?
Every time she remembered her daughter,
when she was questioned about their mother-daughter relationship,
she'd get emotional.
At one point, she was talking about how her daughter had this desire
to learn how to read and write.
Then she started crying, as she remembered her daughter.
WITNESS: ISABELLA'S BIGGEST DREAM WAS TO LEARN TO READ
SHE SAID THAT ONCE SHE LEARNED TO WRITE...
(AT THAT MOMENT, THE WITNESS STARTS TO CRY AGAIN)
I gave my deposition.
I was talking for hours
about my memories,
about all that warmth, about all those emotions...
After the deposition, the judge is obligated to inquire
whether the parties agree to dismiss the witness.
The witness may remain secluded in the premises
but cannot be dismissed unless all parties agree.
When the judge asked, "Can she be dismissed?"
I agreed to it.
The defense disagreed to it.
The confrontation is done to contradict their points,
the accused and the mother.
I'm very interested in doing it.
I did that just to be safe.
I did not want the mother to watch the trial.
And I took a lot of heat back then because of that.
I had prepared myself for that situation, for the trial.
I was prepared to face the reality of those problems again.
But I wasn't prepared to be in isolation.
The judge Maurício Fossen confirmed that Isabella's mother must stay
until the last deposition is finished.
Emotionally, with the defense's request to keep the mother isolated...
JUDGE
...she'd have to stay there for days.
The witnesses have to be isolated.
She was emotionally shaken,
so it was a very delicate situation.
They killed my granddaughter.
They keep killing her every day, and now they want to kill my daughter.
She needs her family's support.
It's the bare minimum she needs right now. The support of her family.
We're right here for her,
but they denied her the right of suffering, of screaming.
They wanted her to be as far away from the jury as possible.
She suffered so much being alone in that room,
without me, without her father...
She didn't have anyone, really, to comfort her,
to support her.
Even those who brought her food
couldn't talk to her.
They are isolated from the jurors.
She couldn't leave the premises and go to a hotel.
Everything happened in there.
We'd step out of the courtroom into the hallway and,
on the other side of the hallway, there was a room
which was adapted to be a dorm.
She also had to spend a few nights at the court.
And her room was sort of wall-to-wall with our room.
I never saw her,
but we could hear her crying several times.
She was very emotional because of her daughter.
That moment really stuck with me.
So I had to spend four days there,
alone in a room.
I couldn't stand that any longer.
After all, it was my daughter's trial.
It was the unraveling of the story of my life.
And I couldn't even watch it.
At a certain point, he gave up, for some reason,
and agreed to have Ana Carolina be dismissed.
And she didn't even watch the trial.
She was so emotionally weakened, she decided to go home.
I just got to a point where I couldn't be there anymore.
It was really tough
not being able to talk to anyone.
Things were happening out here, and I couldn't know about it.
I couldn't see or talk to anyone.
He left me trapped in there during my time of greatest need.
That mother couldn't watch
her daughter's murderers' trial.
That's rough.
She was kept from taking part
in what perhaps could help her heal
and understand what happened.
If I were the attorney for the Nardoni couple,
I would've tried to refute each piece of evidence.
I would've tried to disprove every piece of evidence
by analyzing each of them individually.
Podval is an amazing lawyer,
I have the utmost respect for him,
but his defense argument wasn't the best.
I mean, after all, it was a difficult job.
They were definitely getting a sentence, you know?
I think the defense did a poor job handling a few details
about the forensic report.
The defense is hindered? Why?
Listen, I cannot and will not assert that the defense is being hindered.
However, what I can say is that, from the moment we entered this place,
we faced a number of challenges.
I heard about the Nardoni case right from the beginning,
because the couple's attorneys came to me
and asked me to join the team.
But I told Alexandre's father,
"Look, keep your money, because your son is guilty."
"He'll be convicted."
Even though I didn't agree with a bunch of stuff in the report.
REPORT: HOMICIDE
VICTIM: ISABELLA NARDONI
SUBMITTER: RENATA PONTES
The police, the forensics, the public ministry...
No one had the so-called smoking gun.
That evidence no one can refute.
So what did they do?
PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICE
A little 3D video
in which they depicted how the crime supposedly went about.
They tried to describe what had happened that night.
That was their smoking gun.
But, deep down, that's nothing.
Someone created that.
VICTIM IMMOBILIZATION SITE
That video captured what happened according to people's minds.
But the trial goes way beyond that.
The animation was created
using the evidence found at the crime scene
and the reconstruction they refused to attend.
We had sufficient elements to establish a timeline.
Is it the truth? It's the forensics' truth.
They put in the work, compiled a report, and reconstructed the crime
based on their understanding of what could've left those marks.
It's like a syndrome I see a lot in police reports.
BLOOD REVEALED BY REAGENT
I call it Sherlock-ism.
The professionals think they need to explain everything.
They found, if I'm correct, 13 bloodstains or droplets.
So they came up with a backstory. "She went from here to there,
then she got up and went to her siblings' bedroom..."
The prosecution needs to take a detailed narrative to the trial.
Like a little movie. With a structure, developments...
That leads the jurors to believe the prosecution knows everything.
But that's not true in Isabella's case.
We don't know everything.
On the victim's bedroom door,
there was a bloodstain in the shape of a child's hand.
The attorneys asked,
"Why doesn't the child touch the door on your video?"
The forensic team answered, "It didn't fit our timeline."
So I ask,
"Which other elements were found by the CSIs
but didn't fit the 'timeline' presented by the video?"
Are some of the facts a bit inaccurate?
Sure.
For instance, the moment she supposedly hits Isabella hard in the head
with deliberate intent.
This is not how it happened.
That's where Isabella was.
She has a wound on her head, as shown in the picture.
This wound bled inside the car.
They applied a reagent to the car and it tested positive for blood.
It's a reagent that allows us
to see a bloodstain even after it's been cleaned.
I used the reagent to see them.
I imagined other stains could be around,
and in fact there were.
I also confirmed that it was human blood.
BLOOD (VICTIM'S GENETIC PROFILE CONFIRMED)
They claimed there was an assault and proceeded to check the car for blood.
And, as it turns out,
the blood they found in the car couldn't be confirmed as Isabella's.
They conducted a DNA test
which wasn't conclusive,
but it did indicate the presence of male blood.
So what did this bloodstain determine?
That she was attacked? No!
It wasn't her blood.
IMPOSSIBLE TO EXTRACT THE DNA DUE TO THE EXIGUITY OF THE SAMPLE
We couldn't establish that the blood belonged to Isabella
as it was mixed with the genetic profile of another family member,
one of the boys.
It was mixed with their blood.
Given its location on the infant car seat, it was likely the baby's blood.
They were trying to tie it all together, you know?
"Well, he wrapped her head in a cloth nappy."
BLOOD REVEALED BY REAGENT
Where's the proof?
"We found a bloody cloth nappy."
"Did you run a DNA test?" "No."
So it's not proof.
SUBSEQUENTLY, ANNA JATOBÁ SQUEEZES THE VICTIM'S NECK
And then there's the strangling. The victim's neck injuries are real.
The morgue was able to find nail marks.
LESIONS CHARACTERISTIC OF ASPHYXIA DUE TO STRANGULATION
They can't prove that it was her who strangled the girl.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY
We observed distinct signs of asphyxiation.
In this particular case, though, it would be extremely difficult
to determine whose hand was responsible
for causing those marks.
If you intend on sentencing two people
for a child's death,
you have to be able to point out what each of them did.
Who threw her? Who killed her? Who hit her?
Who did what?
What's there to prove who did what?
Nothing.
It's tempting to buy into that classic trope
of an evil stepmother who leaves those marks,
then works it out with Alexandre,
as though everything was akin to a horror movie about that child.
I asked the forensic officer,
"Why did you show, in the video, that the stepmother
asphyxiated, strangled the victim
if the doctor says it can't be confirmed?"
It was an observation, as simple as that.
Alexandre Nardoni bites his nails all the way to the base.
Anna, on the other hand, had normal-length nails
that could leave those marks.
Of course, some people question it, they make sure to pinpoint every mistake,
but every investigation in the world has flaws.
Then I said to the jury,
"This report was done by the Institute of Forensic Medicine of São Paulo,
one of the most respected in the country, and by Hospital das Clínicas."
"But Mr. Podval, who has never attended a medical school,
no one in his team understands forensic medicine,
yet they tell you this is a lie."
"Who would you rather trust here?"
Some parents think it's okay to spank their children.
Let's say one of those parents slap their child, the child falls,
hit their head on an edge and die.
Considering this hypothesis,
let's say this father thought,
"Holy fucking shit! What do I do now?"
Then, he tries to fake an accident.
Suddenly, his mind stops working,
he's unable to make use of critical thinking,
unable to think about consequences,
so he acts instinctively, aggressively.
There's a French term for this.
Folie à deux.
The insanity of a couple.
It's very characteristic of the Nardoni couple, and others.
So they're not psychopaths. They don't fit that profile.
People are so much more than the crime they commit.
The thing is, we can prove
that both of them took equal parts in it.
They are equally responsible for her death.
And, no matter how people spin this,
they can't remove the couple
from the crime scene at the time of the fall.
No matter how we look at it,
they can't be placed elsewhere at the time of the fall.
The trial reaches its fifth and last day with no scheduled time to end.
After watching defense and prosecution battle,
the jury will gather at the secret room with the judge, prosecutor, and attorneys.
The crowd who waited outside of the courthouse...
NARDONIS, YOU MAY HAVE MONEY BUT WE HAVE GOD!
...and expected to listen to the judge casting the sentence on the microphone
wouldn't take well a not-guilty verdict.
The judge had...
the nerve
to place several loudspeakers out on the street
just to read out loud a sentence
which was aggressive, to say the least, hostile against those human beings.
He's a judge!
We're expecting the jury's decision
to be announced through a sound system,
so that the crowd standing here outside the courthouse
may hear the sentence in real time,
as Judge Maurício Fossen is reading it inside the courtroom.
Would the media read my sentence live or present their own version of it?
Each outlet could come up with a different version of what I said.
All of that was taken into consideration.
It's remarkable how people refuse to leave.
People were emotionally involved in this whole thing.
The whole of Brazil and I were waiting for that decision.
Then, during the last few moments,
I was with my husband.
I was holding his arm, we were holding hands
while we waited for the sentence.
The silence was nerve-racking.
When Judge Fossen announced that they were found guilty,
I'm not sure how I didn't break my husband's hand.
I hereby sentence them as follows,
Alexandre Alves Nardoni
is sentenced to 31 years, one month, and ten days of incarceration
for the crime of homicide against a person under the age of 14,
with three aggravating factors,
further aggravated by the fact that the victim was a descendant,
plus eight months of detention for the crime of tampering with evidence.
I sentence the defendant Anna Carolina Trotta Peixoto Jatobá
to 26 years and eight months of imprisonment
for the crime of homicide against a person under the age of 14,
with three aggravating factors...
I cried, and I cried, and I cried,
because that was...
the justice I had sought for so long.
The murderers' conviction,
announced by Judge Maurício Fossen at Santana Courthouse,
brought relief and tranquility
to an outraged population
that was thirsty for justice.
I watched the sentence on TV.
They broadcasted it live.
It felt like a World Cup final.
Isabella!
No! It wasn't a moment to celebrate.
I just wanted justice to be served. And it was.
The sentence of 31 years for him,
and 26 years for her pleased those who watched the trial.
It inspires hope in all of us Brazilians. Hope and trust in our justice system.
It's least they could do for the mother.
I love it! My soul is at peace.
Justice!
Murderers!
While the crowd was screaming out there,
the sad silence inside the courtroom was absolutely deafening.
The atmosphere was heavy.
It was hard to breathe, because who had really won here?
Nobody celebrated. Nobody.
Nobody smiled. Not on the inside.
Their sentence was given two years ago.
Do you believe an appeal can overturn the decision?
It's hard to believe in anything in this country.
But I'll keep on believing.
So we have this couple who has three children,
two of their own and one just the father's.
They have a peaceful life.
There are videos of them strolling through parks and whatnot.
Then one day, they arrive home, they go upstairs,
they fight, they hit one of the kids,
they use a pair of scissors to cut a hole in the safety net,
and they throw their daughter out of the window.
That was considered an absolutely plausible story.
They convicted a couple to over 30 years of prison for him,
and 26 for her,
but they can't determine who did what.
There is no doubt in my mind
that the story we heard did not actually happen.
No shadow of a doubt.
I'm going to say this today, and you may call me out in a few years.
That was the first and only trial for the Isabella Nardoni case.
There won't be a second trial.
SINCE 2008, ALEXANDRE NARDONI AND ANNA CAROLINA JATOBÁ REMAIN IN PRISON
THEY DENY THEY COMMITTED THE CRIME
If they were keeping a lie up to this point,
one can't help but wonder if the husband and the wife
had some sort of agreement
that allowed them
to endure their arrest
and the ensuing impact on their entire family
while still maintaining their allegations of innocence towards the crime.
I suppose people expected that eventually
either the father or the stepmother
would confess and describe what had actually happened.
They want
the shortest sentence they can get.
They're a young couple.
They'll still have a life to live once they're out.
What's left of that man?
When he leaves jail, he'll take a look in the mirror and say, "Am I a murderer?"
"Did I kill my daughter?"
How can he look his son in the eye and say,
"Your dad killed your sister"?
Maybe the least dramatic way to go about it
is to consider yourself a victim of a huge...
a huge tragedy, of a legal mistake.
Like you're paying for something you didn't do.
Then you give yourself strength to move forward,
without looking back, you know?
If, in fact, they are guilty, as the sentence shows,
it's understandable that they would refrain from confessing,
because confessing would mean losing any remaining sympathy they might have.
The doubt, you know? That perhaps they were victims of an injustice.
They are both guilty,
even if their guilt lies in their silence.
It is highly unlikely for such a crime to have occurred without their collusion.
The whole story suggests their complicity.
Never, in the history of criminology, have I ever heard
of a couple who was convicted, then thrown in jail for over ten years,
and not only kept maintaining their innocence,
but remained together.
Obviously, both him and her
have had the opportunity to be released
if they had turned on the other.
We're left with a question.
Would the stepmother accept paying for something she didn't do?
I ran into Jatobá, Anna's father,
at the courthouse.
I ran into him in the hall and I said,
"Mr. Jatobá, tell her to confess."
"Tell her to confess."
He said, "Mrs. Rosa, I told her,
but they won't let her."
"They won't let her."
He told me that, I heard it with this very ear.
Financial abuse is a significant aspect in this case.
It's not something you hear about often, but it does exist.
This woman's decisions are subject to financial control,
where even purchasing sanitary pads requires asking for money.
It's incredibly degrading for any woman to lack independence for such things.
Without receiving financial support,
she wouldn't even have the means to afford a private attorney
or to provide for her children's welfare.
The decision to remain together as a couple involves multiple factors.
Nobody is naive enough to think that after 14 years,
they're still living in a romantic fairy tale.
IN JUNE 2023, ANNA CAROLINA JATOBÁ WAS GRANTED PROBATION AND LEFT PRISON
TO SERVE THE REST OF HER SENTENCE IN AN OPEN REGIME.
SINCE 2019, ALEXANDRE CONTINUES TO SERVE HIS SENTENCE ON PAROLE
WITH THE BENEFIT OF OCCASIONAL FURLOUGHS.
Well, after...
Isabella passed away, and after the trial...
I really needed a fresh start to my life.
I thank God for giving me the chance to meet my current husband,
who's a fantastic man.
He embraced my story.
He got into a relationship with me
knowing it wouldn't be easy.
And I rebuilt my life with him.
With him,
I experienced the joy of becoming a mother once more.
It was a dream of mine.
I've always wanted to become a mother again.
It was a goal of mine that I was able to achieve.
It was an emotionally challenging pregnancy.
As soon as I got pregnant,
everything started to come back.
Being pregnant with Maria Fernanda was a little easier
after having given birth to Miguel.
Today, I'm not
the kind of mother
who puts her children in a bubble.
I'm not putting on their shoulders
the burden of being siblings
of someone who has suffered so much.
For a long time, I'd go to bed,
and I kept thinking to myself, "I want...
to be able to meet you again, in this world or elsewhere."
"I promised you something, and I delivered it."
"Now it's time to start anew."
THE NARDONI AND JATOBÁ FAMILIES REFUSED TO GIVE AN INTERVIEW FOR THIS DOCUMENTARY
BASED ON THE BOOKS BY ILANA CASOY AND ROGÉRIO PAGNAN
Subtitle translation by: Othelo Sabbag