Between September 2002 and January 2004, twelve boys aged 8 to 13 were killed in four towns in the north of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. Adriano da Silva, a man from Paraná who had escaped from a prison sentence for robbery resulting in death, confessed to all twelve. He was tried by juries in a series of separate trials that began in August 2006, and they convicted him again and again. By April 2025 the Jornal do Comércio of Porto Alegre put his combined sentence at 264 years and 5 months, the longest in the history of the state's judiciary.
Da Silva came from the state of Paraná, to the north of Rio Grande do Sul. The Ministério Público of Rio Grande do Sul described him in 2006 as a 28-year-old day laborer, and the prosecutor at his first trial told the jury of a robbery-related killing in Paraná for which he was already a fugitive. The Jornal do Comércio reported in 2025 that the Paraná court had sentenced him to 27 years for robbery resulting in death, and that he had escaped and crossed into Rio Grande do Sul using the identity of his brother. The MPRS later added that in Paraná he had also been convicted of criminal association and a related offence. The date of the escape is not on record.
The Tribuna do Paraná, writing in January 2004, said he had earlier been jailed in União da Vitória, in Paraná, over the killing of a man, and that he left Paraná custody as a fugitive.
The Jornal do Comércio named the twelve boys in 2025: Ederson Leite, Alessandro Silveira, Cassiano Rosa, Jefferson Garcia, Douglas Oliveira, João Marcos Godóis, Volnei Siqueira, Jefferson Silveira, Júnior Loureiro, Luciano Rodrigues, Leonardo Dornelles and Daniel Lourenço. It put six of the deaths in Passo Fundo, one in Sananduva, four in Soledade and one in Lagoa Vermelha, between September 2002 and January 2004. The Tribuna do Paraná, in January 2004, reported that he had confessed to killing 14 children in Rio Grande do Sul towns since August 2002; later accounts give twelve.
The prosecution bulletins give a few of the boys more detail than the rest. Alessandro Silveira was 13 and died in Passo Fundo in March 2003. Volnei Siqueira dos Santos was 12 and died in Passo Fundo; the prosecution dated his death to July 9, 2003, though one bulletin from 2011 gives June 9 in one place and July 9 in another. Daniel Bernardi Lourenço died in Sananduva. Two other Passo Fundo boys, Júnior Reis Loureiro and Luciano Rodrigues, and Leonardo Dornelles dos Santos, are named in the bulletins as victims for whom he was convicted or tried.
In September 2003, the Tribuna do Paraná reported, police in Passo Fundo stopped and held him, and he gave his brother's identity. He was released for lack of evidence. The newspaper explained that the Rio Grande do Sul police were not yet connected to the national criminal database, Infoseg, and that Paraná had cleared its own records of him in May 2003 because of inconsistent information. Rio Grande do Sul police identified him in November 2003 after consulting União da Vitória.
By early January 2004 he was in police custody and had confessed to the killings. The prosecutor and the lawyer who heard his statements, the Tribuna do Paraná said, were struck by his lack of emotion. The report added that he had told them that he and "the person inside him" had killed the children. He was sent to the Charqueadas maximum-security prison in January 2004, according to the MPRS, and has remained in that institution.
His first jury trial took place in the Passo Fundo courthouse on August 15 and 16, 2006, for the death of Alessandro Silveira. Judge Sebastião Francisco da Rosa Marinho presided; the prosecutor was Fabiano Dallazen, helped by assistant prosecutor Jabs Paim Bandeira, and the defense was led by a public defender, Artur Costa. Seven jurors were chosen from 21 citizens. He was charged with doubly qualified homicide and a related offence.
At the trial da Silva said he was innocent of the Alessandro case. The MPRS reported that he told the court that his earlier confessions to other killings had been made under coercion and threats; the prosecution noted that he had admitted only the Sananduva death at the hearing. The defender argued for acquittal on the ground that he was not the author.
An evaluation by the state forensic psychiatric institute, the IPF, found him semi-imputable, meaning partly responsible for his acts, a finding that could have reduced a sentence by between one and two thirds. The same report diagnosed antisocial personality disorder. The prosecutor asked the jury to disregard the semi-imputability finding, and the report itself stated that he knew what he was doing and that the prognosis favored permanent confinement in a maximum-security prison.
The trial lasted 16 hours. Shortly after one o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, August 16, 2006, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the prosecution and rejected the IPF finding by seven votes to none. Judge Marinho sentenced him to 21 years and 5 months: 19 years and 6 months for the homicide and 1 year and 11 months for the related offence, to be served first in a closed regime at the Charqueadas prison. The prosecutor said he would appeal for a regime that would be closed for the whole sentence.
By October 17, 2006, the MPRS reported that da Silva had been convicted a second time, with a sentence of 29 years in September, along with the 21 years given in August. On that date a new jury trial in Passo Fundo, for the death of a boy named Leonardo, ended without a verdict: a juror fell ill and the jury was dissolved. The prosecutor, Álvaro Poglia, said the Ministério Público was waiting for a date for a new trial. The bulletin recorded that da Silva maintained his innocence at the hearing though he had confessed to the crime three times. It also said he stood accused of eight crimes in all.
In July 2007 a jury convicted him of the death of Daniel Bernardi Lourenço in Sananduva, for triple-qualified homicide and a further offense named in the verdict. The sentence was 32 years in total, 24 for the homicide and 8 for the other offense, in a closed regime to begin. The MPRS said that his sentences to that point exceeded 126 years, and that he had been convicted for the deaths of Alessandro Silveira, Júnior Reis Loureiro, Leonardo Dornelles dos Santos and Luciano Rodrigues, all of Passo Fundo. The bulletin headed "For the fifth time in the dock in Passo Fundo" announced the next trial.
That trial, for the death of Volnei Siqueira dos Santos, was held at the Passo Fundo courthouse on August 14, 2007. Prosecutor Diego Mendes de Lima represented the state. The jury convicted him, and he received 32 years and 2 months. The MPRS stated that his sentences together then exceeded 158 years. Cases in Lagoa Vermelha and Soledade were still pending at that stage.
A prosecution bulletin dated October 13, 2011, reported a jury trial on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, again for the death of Volnei Siqueira dos Santos, who is given as 12 years old. Judge Márcio César Sfredo presided and Diego Mendes de Lima prosecuted. The jury found da Silva guilty of qualified homicide and other offenses, and the sentence was 32 years, 2 months and 15 days, in a closed regime to begin. The bulletin described him at 32 and said he had been convicted of nine other homicides in Passo Fundo, Lagoa Vermelha, Sananduva and Soledade. How this trial related to the one of August 2007 for the same boy is not on record.
The Jornal do Comércio reported in April 2025 that five juries had convicted him, that Álvaro Poglia had prosecuted two of those cases, and that three of the killings attributed to him had never gone to trial for lack of evidence, although he had confessed to some of them. It gave his total sentence as 264 years and 5 months, said to be the largest in the state's history, and noted that under Brazilian law at the time of the offenses the longest time that can be served is 30 years. He was held in the Charqueadas maximum-security penitentiary, where his defense is handled by the public defender's office, which declined to comment. The newspaper said his release was expected in 2034, when he would be 56.
Several figures do not agree. The Tribuna do Paraná gave 14 children and August 2002 as the start in January 2004; the Jornal do Comércio gave 12 and September 2002 in 2025. The MPRS counted him as charged in eight cases in 2006 and as convicted in at least seven separate trials by 2011, while the Jornal do Comércio spoke of five juries. Whether the 2011 trial was a retrial of the 2007 case is not on record. The three untried deaths are not named, and the trials in Soledade and Lagoa Vermelha are not on record. Da Silva's own account at trial, that his confessions were forced, was not accepted by any jury on record.
September 2002 to January 2004: twelve boys killed in Passo Fundo, Sananduva, Soledade and Lagoa Vermelha (Jornal do Comércio).
March 2003: death of Alessandro Silveira, 13, in Passo Fundo.
July 9, 2003: death of Volnei Siqueira dos Santos, 12, in Passo Fundo, according to the prosecution.
September 2003: held in Passo Fundo under his brother's name and released.
November 2003: identified by Rio Grande do Sul police.
January 2004: confessions reported; sent to the Charqueadas prison.
August 16, 2006: first jury conviction in Passo Fundo, 21 years and 5 months.
September 2006: second conviction, 29 years.
October 17, 2006: jury dissolved after a juror fell ill.
July 2007: conviction in the Sananduva case, 32 years.
August 14, 2007: conviction in the Volnei Siqueira dos Santos case, 32 years and 2 months.
October 11, 2011: jury again convicts in the same boy's case, 32 years, 2 months and 15 days.
April 2025: total sentence reported as 264 years and 5 months; held at Charqueadas, release expected in 2034.