By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Prosecutors must turn over the grisly crime scene photos of a murdered and sexually mutilated victim so the alleged killer's lawyer can prepare a psychiatric defense, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Portuguese model Renato Seabra, is accused of mutilating and murdering Carlos Castro, a well-known journalist, at the InterContinental Hotel in Midtown on Jan. 7.
Prosecutors said Seabra castrated the older man using a cork screw. They were believed to be lovers.
For fear that the photos would be disseminated, the DA's office did not hand over the most gory of of them when they turned over evidence to the defense.
But on Tuesday Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Solomon said the remaining 25 or so photos must be given to Seabra's defense team.
"He is naked. There is mutilation that occurred. There are close ups of particular body parts," Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal said, calling it "sensitivity" issue.
Solomon ordered them under a "protective seal" and instructed Seabra's attorney, David Touger, not to give the photos to anyone.
The judge said the "gruesome and disturbing" nature of these or any crime scene photos is not an exception to normal procedure of giving evidence to the defense in advance of a trial.
Touger, who will argue his client is not guilty of murder because of a mental defect, said it is "patently unfair" for the District Attorney's office to withhold the photos as his own psychiatric expert prepares an evaluation.
Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal agreed to send them over by July 5. About 200 other crime scene photos of a less graphic nature have already been provided to Touger, she said.
She is expected to challenge the impending psychiatric defense claim.
