Anderson Pereira Found Guilty Of First-Degree Murder Of Manchester Man

MANCHESTER, NH — Jurors listened to more than three weeks of testimony in the first-degree murder trial of Anderson Pereira, and on the third day of deliberation, found him guilty.

Pereira was convicted for killing Zakhia (Zak) Zakhia Charabaty, 52, of Manchester.

Charabaty went missing on March 13, 2020, but his wife never reported him missing — it was Charabaty's family who eventually notified authorities. He lived with his wife, Flavia Deoliveira, in a quiet neighborhood on Pasture Drive, near the Bedford town line.

Charabaty worked for a food distribution company and serviced grocery stores. When he didn’t show up for deliveries, the company notified a relative who occasionally filled in and that was when the search began for the victim.

Family members distributed missing-person posters on social media and began searching for him. The family used GPS from Charabaty’s Apple Watch and eventually located his work truck in Lawrence, Massachusetts. When the truck was found, it was near a body of water, which would subsequently be searched.

Several law enforcement agencies from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked on the case. Evidence eventually brought authorities to Methuen, MA, four months after Charabaty went missing, to an area nearby where Pereira worked.

The F.B.I. evidence Response Team searched using excavators to remove a large amount of soil and eventually found the victim’s body wrapped in the bedding used to remove his body from his Pasture Drive home.

Investigators learned Pereira and Charabaty’s wife had a prior relationship and had reconnected with him before the murder.

About three months before his murder, Charabaty married Deoliveira. Pereira's lawyers portrayed the marriage as one of convenience — Deoliveira was in the country illegally from Brazil. She was arrested in Salem for shoplifting cosmetics, which brought attention to immigration authorities, shortly after she married Charabaty in an effort to stay in the United States.

Jurors were presented with hundreds of evidence items including photos, electronic information, and hours of testimony including Deoliveira testifying.

Prosecutors pointed to a plethora of electronic evidence that the killer left behind, creating an electronic record that showed the neighborhood where the murder occurred.

In court, prosecutors said Pereira took a taxi from Methuen, MA, to Donald Street and Pasture Drive. Doorbell cameras provided evidence of a person walking up the street to the victim’s house and a short time later, a video showed Charabaty’s work truck leaving the neighborhood.

New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinkley said Pereira took the wrong turn on Donald Street and became lost. He pulled over at the Market Basket in Bedford, where he turned on his cell phone to use GPS. When the cell phone was turned on, it gave investigators his location, and Charabaty’s cell phone and Apple Watch were all in the same place.

Evidence showed the suspect then drove to Massachusetts and parked at a Home Depot parking lot. After putting gloves on he is seen on video entering Home Depot and purchasing a shovel with cash. He returns to the truck and is eventually tracked to the site where the victim’s body was found. He then drove the truck to Lawrence, MA.

Defense attorney’s tried to convince the jury there was possibly a paid “hit man” and Pereira was framed with the electronics. They also pointed to the fact investigators never found any DNA from Pereira in the house where the victim was killed. They raised the possibility of a plot by Deoliveira and her adult son, Gabriel Baronto, to kill the victim.

Prosecutors pointed to electronic evidence showing Deoliveira was in Methuen, MA, and not in Manchester at the time of the murder. Deoliveira and her son were watching “Stranger Things” on Netflix and electronic records confirmed that. A picture taken in the Methuen, MA, apartment showed Deoliveira and her son in the reflection of the television and their cell phone GPS locations also confirmed they were there.

Hinkley said, "Circumstantial evidence in a case can be as powerful as a direct evidence case, and this case proved that. It was powerful circumstantial evidence from many different types of sources.” He added, “one can never know what drove Mr. Pereira, but that’s the argument that we made” — that jealousy led to the murder.

“Zak taking her (Flavia) away from him,” Hinckley said.

Pereira, who is now 42, stood next to his attorney and showed no emotion as the verdict to several charges were all read as guilty by the foreperson of the jury. Sentencing was scheduled for April 5, when Judge William Decker will sentence him.

Pereira was found guilty of first-degree murder, carrying a mandatory life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. He was also found guilty of the theft of Charabaty's delivery van and two counts of concealing evidence in the case.

Outside the courtroom, family members and friends of Charabaty talked to reporters.

“At the end of the day, we just wanted justice,” said Marie Charabaty, Charabaty’s sister-in-law. “He was taken away from us and he didn’t deserve it. We’re very happy that the person who did it is held accountable for it. We’re very grateful.”

She and Charabaty’s former wife, Ruth Shiebler, who had texted her ex-husband the same day he disappeared, attended the trial daily for the three weeks it lasted.

“It was very tough to hear, but we wanted to know the truth,” Marie Charabaty said. “It made us feel we had the right person.”

Deoliveira testified under a grant of immunity. Asked what she thought of Flavia’s testimony, Marie Charabaty said, “Flavia is Flavia that is all I can say to that.” She said she was not surprised that Flavia was not present for the verdict.

Asked what she thought of Flavia’s testimony, Marie Charabaty said, “Flavia is Flavia that is all I can say to that.”

She said she was not surprised that Flavia was not present for the verdict. Flavia Deoliveira testified under a grant of immunity.

©Jeffrey Hastings www.frameofmindphoto.com/news