Renato Seabra has confessed to killing
Portuguese gay journalist Carlos Castro, the New York Post
first reported.
Castro was traveling in New York City
over the New Year holiday with Seabra, a 20-year-old fashion model.
The 65-year-old Castro was found dead
by hotel workers at the Inter-Continental New York Times Square Hotel
late on Friday. Castro suffered serious head trauma and had been
castrated.
Seabra was arrested hours after he fled
the scene to seek medical care at a nearby hospital.
On Monday, police announced that
Seabra, who remains at Bellevue Hospital Center for psychiatric
evaluation, had been charged with one count of second-degree murder.
Seabra admitted to investigators that
he tortured Castro for more than an hour before knocking him
unconscious with a computer monitor and then, using a wine corkscrew,
he gouged out an eye and castrated his boyfriend.
He allegedly screamed at Castro, “I'm
not gay anymore!”
According to The New York Daily
News, Seabra denied he was gay before embarking on the trip.
“He told people back home, before the
trip, that he wasn't gay,” a police source told the paper. “He
got [Castro] to pay his way to New York and wanted him to boost his
career, buy him things.”
Seabra earned fame last year on the
Portuguese reality talent contest A Procura Do Sonho, or
Pursuit of a Dream. He didn't win the contest but was signed
to a modeling contract.
Seabra and Castro quarreled over sex
and money. Seabra became bitter when a promised shopping trip failed
to materialize, while Castro was jealous of Seabra's flirtations with
girls.
Castro had written articles and books
about fashion and was a vocal gay rights advocate.
Friends say the two men had been dating
for several months.
Officials described the crime scene as
“a mess.”