The 37th Criminal Court of Rio sentenced Edilson Barbosa dos Santos, known as Orelha, to five years in prison and a 17-day fine. Edilson is the junkyard owner who received, dismantled and discarded the Cobalt car used to commit the double homicide that killed councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, on March 14, 2018. 
The Specialized Action Group to Combat Organized Crime of the state Public Ministry denounced Edilson in August 2023 for obstruction of justice. In the complaint, prosecutors pointed out that the owner of the scrapyard prevented investigations into criminal offenses involving a criminal organization, causing serious damage to the administration of Justice and, consequently, the search for the real truth. According to the Public Ministry, two days after the crime, on March 16, Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Vieira de Queiroz, respectively the shooter and driver of the double homicide, handed over the car to the accused, in a square in the north zone of Rio, after adjustment with Maxwell Simões Correa, known as Suel, also involved in the crimes.
In the decision, handed down on September 26th, the magistrate of the 37th Criminal Court of the District of the Capital highlighted that the destruction of the car hampered the investigations into the homicides, “making it impossible to carry out criminal examination on the vehicle and, thus, contributing to the executioners of crimes only became suspected of having been committed almost a year after the offenses occurred and, therefore, contributing to the fact that those suspected of being the perpetrators only became known in the year 2024, six years after the deaths.”
Prosecutor Fabíola Tardin Costa, representative of the Public Ministry during the entire criminal investigation, highlighted that the conduct practiced by the defendant is not uncommon in the world of the militia. “It should be highlighted that statistics show that approximately 90% of executions in premeditated crimes by the Rio militia are carried out with this modus operandithat is, with the use of a vehicle, be it a motorcycle or car, precisely due to the speed provided by the escape, and it is therefore a fundamental element for the success of the desired result that the car is never located again.”
