Cork murder trial hears from garda who was called to scene 

Gardaí investigating the death of Bruna Fonseca in the early of hours of New Year’s Day 2023 initially responded to reports related to a knife and when one of the first gardaí at the scene asked the accused if he stabbed her, he replied, “No, I choke her.” 

This evidence was given by Garda Aoife McCarthy to Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and a jury of seven women and five men. The trial went into its second week at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork today.

Through his senior counsel Ray Boland, it was indicated that Miller Pacheco denied saying, “I choke her”.

32-year-old Miller Pacheco pleaded not guilty to the murder of his former girlfriend 28-year-old Bruna Fonseca at his apartment at Liberty Street in Cork on January 1st 2023.

Garda Aoife McCarthy testified that Mr Pacheco admitted choking Ms Fonseca when she asked him what happened to her.

Gardaí called to city centre flat in early morning 

Garda McCarthy explained that she had been on mobile patrol with Garda Peter Barber when they received a call just before 6am on January 1 2023 to go a flat at Liberty Street as there had been a report of two females fighting in the building.

She said they went to the building but didn’t see anything and they stayed a few minutes before leaving. But they received a second call that there was a male with a knife and a possible fatality at the building, so they returned there at 6.25am.

She said that when she and Garda Barber and another colleague, Garda Katie Blanch, arrived back at the premises they saw there were two females and a male outside the building, and when she approached the man, he gave his name as Miller Pacheco and his date of birth.

Garda McCarthy said that Mr Pacheco was wearing a dark puffer jacket and rucksack so they asked him to remove the jacket and take off the rucksack and she and her colleagues searched him as they believed that he might have a knife, following the report they had received.

She said that she asked Mr Pacheco what had happened and he replied that his documents were in his jacket and that he and Ms Fonseca had been drinking and were very drunk and she had hit him and he was defending himself.

She said that they had been joined by colleagues and went upstairs to the room. Miller Pacheco gave gardaí keys.

“She was lying on the bed, her feet towards the headboard – I checked for a pulse, there was no pulse, she was still a little bit warm – her face appeared swollen and her eyes were a little bit bulging,” she said.

Garda McCarthy said that at 6.45am, she formally arrested Mr Pacheco on suspicion of assaulting the woman, thereby causing her harm and she cautioned him that anything he said might be taken down and used in evidence against him.

“He said ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ and I asked him did he stab her and he said, ‘No, I choke her’, and I put my hand to my neck and said ‘Like this?’ and he said, ‘Yes’,” Garda McCarthy testified. 

In the witness box she demonstrated her action to the jury by putting her hand to her own neck.

Cross-examined by Mr Pacheco’s counsel, Ray Boland, Garda McCarthy said that Mr Pacheco spoke to her in English and while she noted that he had an accent, she was satisfied that he understood her as she spoke very slowly when cautioning him and questioning him.

Mr Boland said on behalf of the accused, 

“He said he did not say, ‘I choke her’. The guards were talking to him and he did not understand what they were saying.” 

Garda McCarthy said that at no stage did the defendant say, ‘No Inglés’.

Mr Boland said that the defendant was compliant at the scene and did not resist arrest in any way. Garda McCarthy agreed.