NEW YORK — Renato Seabra, the 21-year-old Portuguese model who admitted to the brutal murder of celebrity journalist Carlos Castro in a New York hotel last month, pleaded “not guilty” in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday.
Seabra admitted to stabbing Castro, 65, with a corkscrew and also cutting off his testicles with the corkscrew, according to a confession contained in court documents.
The two men were reportedly romantically involved. But Seabra has insisted that he was not gay, and told police that he attacked his older companion to rid the gay activist of his “homosexual demons,” according to The New York Daily News.
The ultra-violence dragged on for a full hour, according to court papers. An argument turned physically violent and Seabra grabbed Castro from behind, by the neck, and dragged him to the floor, choking him, the papers revealed.
“He stabbed Carlos with a corkscrew in the groin area and the face,” according to the papers. “(He) cut off Carlos’s testicles with the corkscrew.”
The beating continued as Seabra hit Castro on the head with a computer monitor.
And then with his shoes, he stomped on his victim’s face.
Castro, a gay rights activist, events organizer and journalist whose work has appeared in Portuguese media, was found dead Jan. 7, bludgeoned to death and castrated in the hotel room the couple was sharing.
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Prosecutors have charged Seabra with one count of murder in the second degree.
Seabra has been held at Bellevue Hospital Center, and local media outlets have reported that Sebra had slashed his wrists.
