Murder of Isabella Nardoni

On the night of 29 March 2008, five-year-old Isabella de Oliveira Nardoni died after falling from the sixth floor of Edifício London, an apartment building in Vila Guilherme, north São Paulo, where her father Alexandre Alves Nardoni lived with his wife Anna Carolina Trotta Peixoto Jatobá and their two young sons. Isabella was found in the building's front garden in cardiac arrest; rescue workers attempted resuscitation for 34 minutes without success, and she died on the way to the hospital.

Isabella was born on 18 April 2002 to Nardoni and Ana Carolina Cunha de Oliveira, who separated after Isabella's birth. Isabella lived primarily with her mother, visiting her father's home on alternating weekends. Nardoni had begun a relationship with Jatobá, a former law-school classmate, while Oliveira was still pregnant with Isabella.

Nardoni told police he had carried a sleeping Isabella to a guest room, locked the door, and returned downstairs to bring Jatobá and their sons inside. He said that when he returned, Isabella was missing from the room and he found a hole in the window's protective safety net, through which he then saw her body on the ground below.

Investigators reported finding Isabella's blood in Nardoni's car and apartment, on a towel and a diaper, and vomit on his T-shirt, along with footprints matching his flip-flops on a bed near the window and nylon fibers from the safety net on his shirt; fragments of the net were also found on a pair of scissors in the apartment. Medical examiners from the Instituto Médico Legal found that Isabella's injuries were not fully consistent with a fall — only her wrists were broken — and that she had been punched and asphyxiated before being thrown from the window. On 18 April 2008, both Nardoni and Jatobá were indicted by the São Paulo Civil Police; both denied involvement.

The trial began on 22 March 2010. Isabella's mother testified about tensions between Jatobá and herself and about a prior threat by Nardoni. Nardoni and Jatobá each testified on 25 March 2010, denying involvement in Isabella's death; their accounts of their relationship and the events of that night contained inconsistencies. Jatobá acknowledged she had exaggerated some statements made to police during the investigation, including a claim that she had been beaten by her father.

In the early hours of 27 March 2010, following a five-day trial, Nardoni was sentenced to 31 years, 1 month, and 10 days in prison, and Jatobá was sentenced to 26 years and 8 months, both for intentional homicide; both were also convicted of procedural fraud for attempting to clean the crime scene, adding eight months to their sentences, to be served concurrently under Brazilian law. Aggravating factors cited included Isabella's age and Nardoni's status as her father. The case drew extensive Brazilian media coverage, with surveys indicating over 98% public awareness of Isabella's death.