Brazil: police jailed for 156 years for killing prisoners The prosecution's main witness was the former deputy director of the prison, Moacir dos Santos, who told the court that the military police "executed" the prisoners, many of them in their cells, even those who had surrendered and were naked. "I saw a carpet of bodies," Mr Santos said during the six-day trial. He said police went in machine-gunning inmates and officers outside cheered after the first wave of shootings. Another witness, forensic expert Osvaldo Negrini Neto, said 90 per cent of the shots were fired inside cells. No police officers died. Defence lawyers argued that the police acted in self-defence when attacked by inmates trying to escape from the prison, Brazil's largest and most notorious penitentiary. The infamous Carandiru prison in Sao Paulo was demolished in 2002 (AP) Three of the 26 indicted officers were acquitted. They were originally accused of the killing of 15 prisoners, but two of the deaths were found to have been caused by fellow inmates. Another two trials of dozens more officers involved in the massacre are expected to follow. Most of the officers are retired now. The officer who commanded the operation, Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes, was sentenced to 632 years in jail for his role in the massacre, but the conviction was dropped when a mistrial was declared in 2006. Months later he was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot to the stomach. The Carandiru prison was demolished in 2002.