Who else ordered the killing of Gleydson Carvalho?

By Bob Fernandes

The radio show “Revista Regional” – which should have started at noon on radio station Liberdade FM 90.3 –, was 25 minutes late. The audio operator, Ricardo Rodrigues, turned off the microphone and was uploading a recording when the studio door opened. Ricard has seen the scene again in slow motion “every day.”

A man, who would later be named as Israel Marques Carneiro was standing at the entrance to the studio. Rodrigues saw the silver barrel of .38 caliber revolver. He raised his arms in an automatic reaction and pleaded:

“Please don’t kill me!”

On the other side of the table, seconds before Rodrigues’ reaction, Gleydson Cardoso de Carvalho – then 36 years old, radio broadcaster and anchor of “Revista Regional” – was startled.

Immediately, he jumped when he saw through the glass window a figure passing and the door to the studio being opened. The first shot hit Carvalho in the head.
Inside the studio, before firing two more shots, hitman Carneiro turned to the operator Rodrigues and shouted, “Get down.”

Trembling, crouching under the table, Rodrigues heard two more shots, which hit Carvalho’s chest.

Liberdade FM radio station was then located at Rua Antonio Zeferino Veras, on the coastal and tranquil city of Camocim, a municipality of 62,700 inhabitants 380 kilometers north of the capital city of the state of Ceara, Fortaleza.

The radio was founded in the village of Martinopole, 55 kilometers away. After the killing, Liberdade FM was transferred to Granja, a municipality halfway between Camocim and Martinopole.

Martinopole, a city of 11,000 inhabitants, is a stronghold of central characters in yet another story of a murdered journalist – as you will read here.

Shortly after 12.20 pm on August 6, 2015, secretary Francisca Nataline “Nat” Pedrosa de Oliveira opened the radio door for hitman Carneiro to enter. Thiago Lemos da Silva, then 22 years old, came in together and held Nataline:

“Stay quiet, or I’ll kill you!”

Nat, 19 years old at the time, had forgotten Carvalho’s daily recommendation, stressed shortly before by the radio host’s wife, Maria Alderly Teles de Alencar.

“His wife had just called me and, as always, asked not to forget to put the lock on the door (…) I forgot, but it wouldn’t do any good, they showed a paper as if they were going to place an ad…”

During the month that followed the murder, Nat “did not sleep well, did not eat well, did not bathe properly, nor did go to the bathroom alone…”.

Nat hasn’t forgotten. Moreover, she still doesn’t understand why the hitman – who kept her under the sight of a black barrel .38 revolver – smiled when he heard the shots.

On August 2, 2017, at the request of the prosecutor Evanio Pereira de Matos Filho in his “final allegations”, Judge Saulo Gonçalves Santos, a judge for four years and head of the District of Camocim, Ceara, decreed:

“… the preventive arrests of Valdir Arruda Lopes and Francisco Pereira da Silva.”
Silva or “Dentist Chico” is the uncle of James Martins Pereira Barros, known as James Bell, mayor of Martinopole at the time of the murder.

Valdir Arruda Lopes, according to information – confirmed by the prosecution – worked for a mineral water company owned by James Bell. Also in Martinopole.

Valdir Arruda Lopes is under arrest. Francisco “Dentist Chico” Silva fled, and prosecutor Evanio Matos suspects that there was a leak of the arrest warrant.

The prosecution concluded that those responsible for the crime are “Dentist Chico” and his brother, Joao Batista Pereira da Silva, 43, or “Dentist Batista”. Both are mayor James Bell’s uncles.

There is also a parallel investigation to investigate other possible people involved in financial support and order for execution.

Hitmen Silva, or “Baixinho”, and Carneiro, or “Jefferson” are currently fugitives. Charged of conspiracy, their girlfriends – Regina Rocha Lopes and Gisele de Souza do Nascimento – are under arrest. They are awaiting trial, as the others are too.

The State Public Prosecutor’s Office also charged for involvement in the criminal organization Francisco “Dudu” Antonio Carneiro Portela, nephew of hitman Carneiro, and Daniel Lennon Almada Silva, former treasurer of the City of Martinopole and cousin of the then-mayor James Bell.

Due to a lack of evidence, the public prosecutor asked that trials for Francisco Portela and Daniel Lennon should not be carried out, and the judge agreed.

Prosecutor Evanio Matos said:

“There is no doubt about the executors and the first tier of those who had hired them. The criminal suit is being processed. There are public and confidential parts. Nine people were indicted. So far, evidence of involvement has been collected from seven of them.”

According to the prosecutor, victim Carvalho and mayor James Bell were “adversaries.” Apart from other testimonies following the same line, the Martinopole Single Court holds one evidence of hostility.

The court has a record of a lawsuit filed by the then-mayor of Martinopole, James Bell, against Gleydson Carvalho.

The case number is 258-31.2015.8.06.0199/0. The lawsuit of origin is a police investigation date July 20, 17 days before Carvalho’s murder.
Prosecutor Matos said:

“It started a very great rivalry between them. This has been well documented. James Bell accused him of extortion, said the radio station wanted [city of] Martinopole’s [paid] institutional publicity to avoid criticism. For his part, Gleydson Carvalho claimed that the city created obstacles to release the business license. Then they would have set a prohibitive fee, ‘which made it impossible for the radio to stay there’”.

For this reason, the radio station moved from Martinopole to Camocim.

Witnesses told the prosecution that the real owner of Liberdade FM would be Romeu Aldigueri, former mayor, and current attorney general of the city of Granja.

“On paper, other names are listed. About a week after Carvalho’s death, he (Aldigueri) was here in my office, concerned about his safety, and reported that his wife no longer wanted to live in Granja, she wanted to go to Fortaleza in an armored car,” said prosecutor Evanio Matos.

In court, the radio secretary, Nat, and audio operator Ricardo Rodrigues said that Gleydson Carvalho, a member of the opposition PT party, was joking about becoming a candidate for mayor of Martinopole and having the election campaign funded by Aldigueri, from PTB party.
Two years after the murder, Carvalho’s family was still trying to get the financial support they would be entitled to get.

The reporter and photographer of this documentary searched for Romeu Aldigueri in Granja. They heard that the prosecutor was at his lunch break and would return. At 2 pm, by appointment, we were back in his office.

The prosecutor’s secretary then said that Aldigueri had suddenly left for Fortaleza. We gave her our phone numbers for further contact. But none has been made so far.

Anchorman of “Revista Regional,” a radio show on local politics and crime, Gleydson Carvalho used to make acid comments about the Martinopole government.

There are records of his comments. Directly or indirectly, Carvalho referred to James Bell as “a mayor here in the region,” “emperor,” “dictator,” “full of himself,” and even “naughty” and “a dog.”

He explicitly said:

“He keeps pissing [us on] the radio… Just riding in a luxury car at the expense of the people. Mayor, get off your [Toyota] Hilux, go back to the villages. People are hungry while you burp wealth…”

Carvalho’s triumphant tagline in the region in criticizing nepotism in the city hall of Martinopole was: “It’s the whole family living off the government teat”.

The reactions were immediate. “I was the one receiving the threats over the phone. It was common. Everyday. I couldn’t see the [phone] number. It was usually a man’s voice. He said to take Gleydson [Carvalho] off the air, or he would wake up with his mouth full of ants,” said secretary Nataline.

Marcos Coelho is a former deputy mayor of Camocim for the and today a city councilor. Also a prosecution assistant in the case, he said:
“Carvalho was competent and extremely combative; he had one of the most heard shows in mainland Ceara (…) He was killed because he accused the James Bell administration severely (…) If this is the motivation of the crime, I think it’s more than fair to hear the former mayor [side]…

On the other hand, the prosecutor said: “The opposition of one city was allied with the situation of one other neighboring city.” He explains why James Bell was not heard at the time:

“While he was the mayor he had a jurisdictional prerogative, he could only be investigated and prosecuted in the Court of Justice. I was the only one who forward [the case] to the attorney general. Since he lost the re-election in 2016, he lost his jurisdictional prerogative status…”

The objective of the crime seems evident to the State Prosecution Office:

“They counted on the silence and fear of opponents so that the re-election of their family group would not encounter any greater resistance.”

The only interview given by James Bell was to website 180, in March 2016. Romulo Rocha, accompanied by German journalist Grit Eggrichs, of the German National Radio, listened to the then-mayor. He said:

“I’m not involved. I may have been investigated [in the beginning], but … if they had [something against me], they would have already involved me. (…) The right person for you to speak to is Herbert [chief of police] and the prosecutor [Evanio].”

James Bell then said he did “not remember” the last time he met his uncle, “Dentist Batista,” and that he had no contact with him. Furthermore, he protested against the use of the expression “mayor James Bell’s uncle.” He also said he “abhors violence.”

At the Camocim jail, close to the Court, we talked to Gisele de Souza do Nascimento, the ex-girlfriend of hitman Carneiro, who had been in prison for more than two years.

In the overcrowded prison cell, women huddle on the floor. One of them moans nonstop, and Nascimento explained:

“There are 21 women in the cell, and there are sick people, people who have been bleeding since I arrived, and there is no medicine, no doctor…”

Nascimento said that she was living with Carneiro, or “Baixinho,” in Uropoles, in the state of Para. And that “Dentist Batista” was the one who called the hitman several times, hiring “a service in Ceara.”

She does not know who referred the hitman’s services to “Dentist Batista.” After being arrested with his girlfriend, Regina Rocha Lopes, in the city of Senador Canedo, state of Goias, the other hitman, Thiago Silva, referred to the intermediary as someone named “Roberto.”

In June 2017, Silva fled a prison located in the metropolitan area of the city of Fortaleza.

According to girlfriend Nascimento, Carneiro had already done many “services” in partnership with the same Silva. They would be the killers of a drug dealer in Triangulo do Marco, also in the state of Ceara.

After being hired, the two hitmen checked in with their girlfriends in an inn in front of the radio station, just one week before the crime. Once they surveyed the area, they stayed on a farm owned by “Dentist Batista” in the municipality of Senador Sa, 80 km away from the radio station.

Fearing to attract the attention of the neighbors, Batista arranged for the quartet to rent a property in the town of Serrota, in the same city. The owner, Tubias Ferreira de Carvalho, would later confirm the fact.

On the eve of the execution, Antonio “Dudu” Carneiro Portela, nephew of hitman Carneiro, joined the group. His role was helping disguise the action. Lopes, the girlfriend of hitman Silva, traveled and stayed away from the scene until the crime was consummated.

Also indicted for the crime, Daniel Lennon had spent the night at the farm of his uncle “Dentist Batista.” He would later find it difficult to explain to the police why was his motorcycle abandoned on the same escape route as the executioners. His answer? Because it was a theft.
Broadcaster Gleydson Carvalho’s widow, Maria Alderly Teles de Alencar, told in her deposition that days before, at a red traffic signal, two men on a motorcycle stopped sharply beside the car where she and her husband were. Subsequently, they took off at speed.

On Thursday, August 6, the murder should have occurred earlier. But Valdir Arruda Lopes did not want his Toyota Corolla to be seen near the crime scene.

The two hitmen left Lopes’ car and returned later to kill Carvalho on a motorcycle that would later be abandoned.

During the investigation, Silva – still in prison at the time – said that after the crime, he and Carneiro fled to the countryside, where they were rescued by Valdir Arruda Lopes and left in the rented property.

Nascimento, Carneiro’s ex-girlfriend, recalled: “When the two came back, very late at night, they said we were leaving at dawn. Some forty minutes later, the police arrived. They ran away, Dudu and I got down, the police started shooting.”

The regional police chief of Camocim, Herbert Ponte e Silva, received a call and went to the city of Senador Sa with three officers:

“We heard that there were five people in the house. There was a dead-lock about invading [the property]. We broke the door and entered. Thiago [Silva] and Israel [Carneiro] fled from the back, leaving behind the two .38 used in the crime, as well as real and fake documents. Gisele [Nascimento] and ‘Dudu’ were arrested.”

Thiago Silva and Regina Lopes escaped but would be arrested in the state of Goias the following month, on September 24, 2015.

Radio host Andre Ferreira Martins – who has replaced Carvalho in one of the shows, said: “The most sensitive part of the journalist’s work is related to politics. Gleydson Carvalho aired demands from the population of several municipalities and questioned the malfunctioning of the public service. He aroused the ire of unscrupulous people who did not like criticism. We have a regional reach, reaching five or six cities, and therefore receiving calls from several municipalities, but the body of evidence [in the crime] points to Martinopole.”

Gleydson Carvalho, who was survived by Maria Alderly and their two daughters, had a history of work in community broadcasters and at Radio Jangadeiro. His style was the same.

Minutes before Carvalho entered the studio and was murdered, broadcaster Marcilio Marques talked to his colleague. He remembered the details.

“He was crystal clear in the show, he always tried to bring the truth to the community, and the truth hurts many people. We always told him: ‘Take it easy.’ We knew about the threats over the phone; only he never took them seriously.”

Married and father of a boy, Andre Ferreira Martins rethought his role and career after the murder. He said:

“I ease criticism a lot. It doesn’t mean backing down… I have analyzed the real danger of being seated in the chair where a radio host was murdered.”

After two years, Ricardo Rodrigues – the audio operator who witnessed the terrifying scene of a journalist being murdered inside the studio – said:

“Radio is a truly perilous thing. Not much should be said, especially about politics.”

Miqueias Isidoro dos Santos was hired by Radio Liberdade FM just over a month after Carvalho’s murder.

Santos said that he had not even dreamed of being a radio broadcaster until October 12, 1995.

Santos had a brother, Roberto Rivelino, who had left Ceara for Boa Vista, the capital city of the state of Roraima, in search of opportunities.

In Roraima, Roberto Rivelino became a policeman and broadcaster. He made accusations on the radio station where he worked. He was killed for political reasons when he left the station.

“We knew where everything came from, who the killer was, but, out of nowhere, everyone disappeared. The suspect of being the crime mastermind – one of the leading names in Roraima’s politics – died of cancer.”

Santos decided to become a broadcaster to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Turned a broadcaster in memory of the murdered broadcaster brother, Santos now works in the same studio where broadcaster Gleydson Carvalho was murdered.

Radio’s secretary Nataline “Nat” hasn’t forgotten. And she still did not understand why the hitman who kept her under the sight of the .38 with a black barrel smiled when he heard the shots fired by fellow hitman Carneiro.

In fact, she would understand if she knew who Carneiro is. Or if she listened to what the hitman’s ex-girlfriend, Gisele Nascimento, had revealed in jail.

She said she did not abandon the hitman when she found out that he was a “killer” because he threatened her: “I kill your mother and your daughter who lives with her.” Nascimento had her daughter when she was 17 years old.

The ex-girlfriend described the hitman and his origin:

“Israel [Carneiro] is a psychopath, is a real psychopath, when he didn’t kill people he got mad, disturbed, saying was crazy to kill people, cutting himself and – he said that to me – cutting himself and offering the blood to the ‘enemy’… He said that his father taught him to kill. His father taught him to kill. When he was a little boy, his father killed people in front of him…”

Inside her cell, Nascimento says: for the “service,” Carneiro and Silva would receive 9,000 reais. Actually, there was only time enough to get the down payment.

When the police entered the rented house in Senador Sa, shooting, the two gunmen fled.

They left behind the portion of the payment already paid in advance in exchange for Carvalho’s life: 1,800 reais.

Another 200 reais had already been spent.