A true Brazilian-scale crime and passion: ex-MP indicted

Flordelis, 61, and her husband, Pastor Anderson do Carmo, 42, were known for adopting some fifty underprivileged children in Rio de Janeiro and were also an influential couple in the burgeoning evangelical Christian movement in Brazil. Until the pastor in their home in the suburbs of Rio was riddled with about 30 bullets.

In August 2020, prosecutors accused Flordelis of “organizing the murder, inciting (several of her adult children) to participate in the crime, and attempting to disguise it as an armed robbery.”

According to the prosecutors, the alleged motive was to gain control of the couple’s finances, which do Carmo then strictly managed.

Flordelis was easily elected to parliament in 2018 under the banner of the Social Democratic Party. She therefore enjoyed parliamentary immunity, but lost it after she was removed from her posts by an almost unanimous vote of her colleagues in August 2021.

The former MP has also been found guilty of at least six previous attempts to poison her husband, and of forgery and armed criminal association, prosecutors said.

The” mother ” of the slums was born in a favela in Rio. When she was 30, she adopted the then 14-year-old do Carmo. He first began a relationship with her biological daughter, later with her. In 1998 they got married. After Flordelis had four children with Anderson do Carmo, she adopted 50 babies, children or vulnerable young people and founded an evangelical community.

Five children of the couple and a granddaughter were also charged at the trial. Simone dos Santos Rodrigues, the biological daughter of the former MP, was sentenced to 31 years in prison on Sunday, while all others were acquitted.

One of dos Santos ‘ biological sons, who is accused of being the gunman, and another family member who bought the weapon, were convicted a year ago.