Jury selection in the case of Renato Seabra, the young Portuguese model accused of brutally murdering and castrating his older lover at the Times Square InterContinental last January, begins next week. Which means it is time for new, grotesque, details to come out. If you ever wanted to know why a man would cut off another man's balls with a corkscrew, well, you don't need to wonder anymore.
At a brief pretrial hearing today Seabra's confession was allowed into evidence by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus, which allowed a few details about why the 21-year-old man allegedly killed his older companion, 65-year-old Carlos Castro. "The world is a better place now," the model reportedly told hospital officials.
According to the confession Seabra had agreed to go on the trip to New York with his lover, but began to "second guess" his homosexuality and wanted to go home. At first Castro had appeared to understand and offered to cut their trip short, but then he didn't. And Seabra reportedly lost it:
"He states he was enraged and could not control the virus of the spread of homosexuality to the world," he added.
Seabra told cops that Castro was on the floor gasping after being bludgeoned and choked when Seabra bashed him in the head with a wine bottle, the detective said.
Then he reached for the corkscrew.
"He said they were the demons, and he needed to cut it out," the detective testified. "Cutting off his testicles -- that would make everything in the world right."
Seabra's lawyers are hoping that they can persuade a jury that he was insane at the time of the murder and did not know what he was doing.
