STJ decides that toy gun in robbery creates serious threat

Positioning

Decision came after MP’s appeal about crime at post office

The use of a simulated weapon (a toy gun) in robbery crimes poses a serious threat to the victim. This is the tone of a decision by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), released last week.

The trial, on the 13th, carried out by the Third Section, generates consequences for whoever is convicted because it prevents the replacement of prison with an alternative sentence.

The decision came after an appeal by the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro regarding a crime committed at an outsourced Correios agency. The defendant entered with an imitation weapon, immobilized people and took R$250 from the cash register.

He was arrested, but the Rio Court of Justice ruled that the toy gun did not constitute a serious threat. However, for STJ minister Sebastião Reis Junior, the state decision “contradicted the consolidated position of the doctrine and the STJ’s own jurisprudence”, announced the STJ.

The minister clarified that simulating the use of a firearm during the crime constitutes a serious threat because it is enough to intimidate the victim.

“The Fluminense Court of Justice went against not only the doctrinal understanding, but also the consolidated jurisprudence of the STJ that exempts the use of a simulated firearm to commit the crime of robbery from the legal nature of a serious threat, subsuming the provided for in article 44, I, of the Penal Code, making it impossible to replace the custodial sentence with a restriction of rights”, concluded the rapporteur when agreeing with the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s appeal.

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