November 16, 2013
PUNTARENAS, Costa Rica (AFP) - Two former bodyguards of Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen and US football star husband Tom Brady were sentenced to five years in prison Friday for opening fire on photographers in Costa Rica.
One of the two photographers who made the complaint works for Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The shooting took place in April 2009 as the celebrity couple celebrated their wedding at a seaside home in Costa Rica.
A court in the tourist resort town of Puntarenas found Costa Rican guard Miguel Solis and Colombian Alexander Rivas guilty of attempted murder, while a third -- Manuel Valverde of Costa Rica -- was acquitted.
The three judges ruled unanimously. The court also ordered the defendants to pay five million colones (about $10,000) in damages to each of the two photographers.
The defendants refused to testify during the proceedings, and prosecutors lacked exculpatory evidence.
Yuri Cortez, a Salvadoran who works for AFP, and Costa Rican colleague Carlos Aviles had been trying to take pictures of the wedding.
The bodyguards confronted them and demanded in vain that the photographers hand over their cameras' memory cards.
As the photographers drove away, at least one of the bodyguards opened fire, according to the complaint against them. Neither of the photographers was hurt.
