Florida

Testimony Continues in Trial Over University of Florida Student Christian Aguilar's Death

The second week of the Pedro Bravo murder trial got underway Monday with the jury, for the first time, watching the defendant in a police interview from 2012 as hundreds were searching for his friend, Christian Aguilar.

After hours of saying he didn’t know what happened to Aguilar, Bravo told detectives that he and Christian had fought before his disappearance.

“I pushed him out of the car and then I kept punching him out of the car and then, I got out of the car and I kept punching him,” Bravo said in the interrogation tapes. “Then, I continued punching him--it wasn’t savage, but he wasn’t going to get up any time soon. Then, got in my car and left.”

Bravo said in the same interview that he became enraged when Aguilar no longer seemed sympathetic to his talk about suicide. Bravo said he and Aguilar had discussed the topic of suicide many times.

Bravo: “We started talking about why I wanted to commit suicide and reasons not to, why.
Cop: “What do you mean? Why?
Bravo: “I am just tired of everything.”
Cop: “Tired you haven’t even experienced life yet!”
Bravo: “That was his argument too.”

Bravo is accused of strangling Aguilar to death in 2012 and then burying his body in a wooded area outside Gainesville. Prosecutors say Bravo killed Aguilar was obsessed with his former girlfriend Erika Friman who was now dating Aguilar.

Bravo, Aguilar, and Friman all attended Doral Preparatory High School together. Friman was on the witness stand for two days last week.

Police said they found blood in Bravo’s SUV and found Aguilar’s backpack hidden inside a suitcase in Bravo’s closet. Bravo also bought a shovel and roll of duct tape days before the disappearance of Aguilar, according to prosecutors.

Police presented the shovel allegedly used to bury Aguilar and other evidence including limestone dirt from the gravesite that prosecutors said was on Bravo’s shoes.

Bravo faces seven charges, including homicide, kidnapping, poisoning, making a false report, obstructing a criminal investigation, destroying evidence and mishandling human remains. 

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