December 1, 2012
NEW YORK (AFP) - A young male model was found guilty Friday in New York of castrating and murdering his older male lover, a well known Portuguese fashion journalist, in a Times Square hotel last year.
A jury found Renato Seabra, 23, guilty of killing Carlos Castro, who was 65 at the time. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison when he reappears before the court December 21. Seabra is also from Portugal.
"This was a brutal and sadistic crime, where Renato Seabra bludgeoned, choked, and mutilated his victim before murdering him," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. "Carlos Castro was not only betrayed by his spurned lover, but met a very painful and violent end far from his home."
During the trial, the court heard that Seabra argued with the older man during a vacation to New York and embarked on a gory assault in their upscale Hotel InterContinental room.
He beat his former lover with a computer monitor, a wine bottle and his feet, then used a corkscrew to castrate him, Vance said.
Lawyers for Seabra, who pleaded not guilty, argued that he was insane and not in control of his actions. Seabra, who has appeared modeling underwear, explained his final action during the frenzy on January 7, 2011, saying "the power of the monster was in the balls."
