Today marks the three-year anniversary of the night that Leandro Lo was killed, and yet the trial of his alleged murderer has been postponed once again. This is just the latest in several setbacks that the trial has experienced, which is why it’s taken so long to come to a conclusion despite the suspect being named immediately. On the night of August 7th, 2022, Lo was shot and killed in a nightclub in Sao Paulo, Brazil after an altercation with off-duty police officer Henrique Otavio Oliveira Velozo. Although details in cases like this are often vague at the beginning, all of this was known to the public by the following morning.
The case progressed at a fairly slow pace right from the start too, as it took several months for the initial hearing to be set. Although cases can often drag out for a wide range of reasons, it initially felt to many like 2025 might be the year that Lo and his family get justice. The trial was initially set for May 22nd but Velozo’s defense attorney requested an injunction at the last minute and it was delayed until August as a result. This time around the delay has been a bit more controversial, as it came about from several disagreements in the courtroom.
It started with the testimony of the first witness and lead detective on the case, chief officer João Eduardo da Silva. He testified that there was no evidence that Lo had consumed marijuana on the day of the murder but Velozo’s defense attorney, Cláudio Dalledone, claimed that Lo had been smoking something that smelled like marijuana and an argument ensued between Dalledone and the prosecutor. Dalledone then showed photos of Lo’s friends and insinuated that their size or strength may have been intimidating, but the judge in the case seemed to believe that this was out of the expertise for the witness.
The judge had dismissed several of Dalledone’s questions and eventually called a mistrial in the case, with a new jury trial set to begin in mid-November. The news will undoubtedly be devastating for Lo’s family and the BJJ community at large, as the fight for justice has already been long and difficult. With the Leandro Lo trial being postponed until the end of 2025, it now seems unlikely that it will conclude before the end of the year. In the meantime, Lo’s influence on the sport is still being felt around the world and Belo Horizonte have even introduced a program to bring Jiu-Jitsu to more children in his honour.
