SÃO PAULO — A rancher charged with ordering the 2005 slaying of American nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang was sentenced to 30 years in prison for homicide.
Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura had been tried three times before and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, but the Supreme Court annulled Moura’s latest conviction, saying he was not given enough time to prepare his defense during the 2010 trial.
The state prosecutor’s office said Moura, 43, is in the same prison he has been held in since 2010.
Stang’s brother David, who was at the trial, said: ‘‘Justice has been made. I am very happy.’’
Prosecutors contend that Moura and another rancher hired gunmen to kill Stang. The defense said there was not enough evidence linking Moura and planned to appeal.
After beginning Thursday, the lightning-quick trial ended that night in Belem, the capital of violence-wracked Amazonian state of Para. Prosecutors said the trial moved quickly because it was Moura’s fourth and most of the legal processes had been taken care of in previous trials.
Regivaldo Galvao, another rancher also charged with planning Stang’s murder, was sentenced to a 30-year jail term in 2010. Last year, the Supreme Court ordered his release, saying he had the right to remain free pending the outcome of his appeal process.
Stang’s killer, Rayfran das Neves Sales, was released after serving less than nine of the 27 years he was sentenced to.
Stang was born in Dayton, Ohio.