Rio De Janeiro: A Rio de Janeiro state policeman was convicted and sentenced to 543 years in prison for his part in a shooting spree that killed 29 people and shocked the nation.
Carlos Jorge Carvalho, 32, was the first policeman to stand trial in connection with the so-called Baixada massacre - named for Rio's poor northern outskirts where over the course of two hours on March 31, 2005, police officers drove through two towns shooting pedestrians, bar patrons and a crowd in a public square.
Prosecutors said the killings were a show of force to protest a crackdown on police corruption.
Carvalho had pleaded innocent, claiming he was at home on vacation helping his elderly father during the shootings. Defence lawyers argued that evidence linking Carvalho to the crime had been planted in order to frame him.
Prosecutors said the blood of two of the victims was found in a car that Carvalho borrowed that night, along with three casings from shells fired by one of the murder weapons.
During the trial that began on Monday, four witnesses placed Carvalho at the crime scene and said he had fired his weapon.
Carvalho faced up to 600 years in prison if convicted - a symbolic sentence, because Brazilian law prohibits prison terms longer than 30 years.
Four more officers face homicide charges in connection with the massacre and two others face criminal conspiracy charges.
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