Guilherme de Padua Thomaz is a 51-year-old convicted murderer living in Brazil. On December 28, 1992 Guilherme was working as an actor on the soap opera De Corpo e Alma. His character was romantically involved with another character played by his coworker Daniella Perez. The soap opera was written by Daniella’s mother, Glória Perez. Other staff on set for the “couple’s” scenes noticed something was very off. Guilherme cried after filming the scenes and tried several times to give a note to Daniella, who refused to accept it. Guilherme told people he was nervous he was being written off of the show. In reality, he was worried Daniella would tell her mother he had been sexually harassing her.

After work the two actors took photos with fans in the parking lot at 9pm and left in separate vehicles. Guilherme was observed to be following Daniella and stopped at the gas station where she stopped. He then approached Daniella and began beating her. Witnesses saw Guilherme put Daniella’s unconscious body in his car, which was driven by his ex-wife, Paula. Guilherme then got into Daniella’s car and both vehicles drove off.

The couple drove to a parking lot. They then removed Daniella from the vehicle and stabbed her. She died as a result of 18 stab wounds. Because there were so many witnesses to the crime, Guilherme confessed the next day saying he lied to his wife that he and Daniella were having an affair and goaded her into participating.

Guilherme de Padua Thomaz and Paula Nogueira Peixoto were tried and convicted by a jury. They had a son named Filipe and then divorced, all while in prison. Both served only 6 years for the brutal public murder of Daniella Perez. They were released in 1999.

In 2017, Guilherme de Padua Thomaz became a pastor at one of the largest evangelical megachurches in the world, The Baptist Church of Lagoinha. The church has a television network and a radio station. It has a congregation of over 50,000 people. Sometimes the church has as many as one million people gathered for worship at the conservative Baptist church. “Pastor Guilherme” does not answer questions about his murder conviction.

Guilherme follows a long tradition of men who gravitate towards religion and police work as a means to exert power over others. As the “mindhunter” John Douglas said, it’s not that cops or religious leaders are bad people. It’s that bad people seek out roles where they will have authority over people. And then they will use that authority to search for vulnerable people and prey on them.

• The BTK killer sought out both police work and religious authority.
• Joseph James DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer, stalked some of his victims while he was on duty as a police officer, a connection that was only made due to the diligent sluething of a victim. He is known to have committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and 120 burglaries.
• As a 12-year-old boy Jake Eaton murdered his autistic friend Craig Sorger by beating him to death. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Upon his release, Eaton became a prominent anti-abortion activist in Washington where he argues that “innocent people are being executed” and those who don’t wish to make medical and financial decisions for women will be “held accountable before God for not acting”.
• Josh Duggar has appeared on TV since 2008 as part of the extremely conservative “Christian” (they actually belong to a cult) family the Duggars. He had political aspirations, becoming the executive director of the Family Resource Council’s fundamentalist lobbying organization. The Family Resource Council is known as an LGBT hate group, but to a casual observer it appears to be a normal religious activism group. In 2015 it was revealed that Josh molested several children (most of them his sisters) when he was 14 and 15. In 2021 Josh was arrested by the feds and charged with downloading and possessing child pornography, some of the worst those federal agents have ever seen.
• Kenneth Bianchi, one half of the Hillside Strangler duo, who raped and murdered 10 women, applied for a job with the LAPD, and actually participated in some ride-alongs.

It’s unclear why Guilherme de Padua Thomaz’s fellow pastors are okay with hiring him. The church is large enough that it could attract any talent it wanted. It’s not as if he talks about the murder as part of his sinner past and is now remorseful. Guilherme pretends it never happened. This is not possible for Daniella Perez’s widow and mother. Glória Perez continues to speak out against Guilherme.