{"id":311630,"date":"2019-04-29T08:46:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T15:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=311630"},"modified":"2019-04-29T08:46:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T15:46:59","slug":"uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber driver confesses to murder of UFC veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/ufc-veteran-killed-by-uber-driver-after-dispute\/\">Earlier this month<\/a>, UFC veteran Rodrigo de Lima was reportedly hit and killed by an Uber driver in Belem, Brazil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The driver, Jefferson Roger Maciel Barata, has now confessed to this crime. He has been arrested and will reportedly be charged with murder (via <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"MMA Fighting (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2019\/4\/28\/18519581\/uber-driver-arrested-killing-former-ufc-fighter-rodrigo-de-lima\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Fighting<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his police statement, Barata claimed that he had been an argument with De Lima and his fellow passengers. He claims that he had asked the passengers \u2014 one of which was current UFC fighter Michel Prazeres \u2014 to keep it down. De Lima allegedly responded by punching him. Barata claims he later returned with his car with the intention of frightening De Lima, but no intention of hurting or killing him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always thought of a way to raise my family and not let my children grow up without a father,\u201d Barata said (via <a href=\"https:\/\/esporte.uol.com.br\/mma\/ultimas-noticias\/2019\/04\/26\/queria-dar-um-susto-diz-motorista-que-atropelou-e-matou-lutador-ex-ufc.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"UOL (opens in a new tab)\">UOL<\/a>). \u201cI feel for his family, I regret it, I\u2019ve already asked God for forgiveness. It was one of the things I feared the most: Taking someone\u2019s life. I started working in this job to have more time in the church, I became a director for the youth, teaching music in the church, and this ended up happening.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201dI\u2019ve asked God and his family for forgiveness,\u201d he added. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t my goal to take anyone\u2019s life. I\u2019ve never done anything bad to anyone. Today was going to be my wedding. I was going to start a new life, and this happened. I\u2019ll pay for what I\u2019ve done, and I regret it deeply. I ask his family and friends for forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>De Lima, who was married with two children, last fought in June when he defeated Luiz Fabiano under the Shooto Brazil banner. His next two most recent bouts occurred under the UFC banner, where was came up short in bouts with Ultimate Fighter veterans Efrain Escudero and Neil Magny. He was 9-3-1 as a professional mixed martial artist.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><em>BJPENN.COM<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0on 4\/28\/2019.\u00a0<\/em><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this month, UFC veteran Rodrigo de Lima was reportedly hit and killed by an Uber driver in Belem, Brazil. The driver, Jefferson Roger Maciel Barata, has now confessed to this crime. He has been arrested and will reportedly be charged with murder (via MMA Fighting). In his police statement, Barata claimed that he had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":310615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Uber driver confesses to murder of UFC veteran | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uber driver confesses to murder of UFC veteran | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this month, UFC veteran Rodrigo de Lima was reportedly hit and killed by an Uber driver in Belem, Brazil. The driver, Jefferson Roger Maciel Barata, has now confessed to this crime. He has been arrested and will reportedly be charged with murder (via MMA Fighting). In his police statement, Barata claimed that he had [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-29T15:46:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-29T15:46:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rodrigo-de-Lima-UFC.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Uber driver confesses to murder of UFC veteran\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-29T15:46:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-29T15:46:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/\"},\"wordCount\":343,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/\",\"name\":\"Uber driver confesses to murder of UFC veteran | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-29T15:46:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-29T15:46:59+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/uber-driver-confesses-to-murder-of-ufc-veteran\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Uber driver confesses to murder of UFC veteran\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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