Escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante pleads guilty (2024)

Update (August 30):

Captured inmate Danelo Cavalcante has pleaded guilty to escape and burglary charges.

Cavalcante escaped from a Chester County, Pennsylvania lockup while waiting to be transferred to a state prison to serve a life sentence for killing his ex-girlfriend.

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ORIGINAL STORY (July 2023):

A law enforcement official says authorities used thermal imaging from aircraft to pinpoint a possible location and then used ground forces to capture escaped inmate Danelo Cavalcante.

The public announcement of Cavalcante’s capture came shortly after he was taken into custody early Wednesday.

Gov. Josh Shapiro says no shots were fired during the capture.

Cavalcante had broken out of the Chester County jail Aug. 31 while awaiting transfer to a state prison to serve a life sentence for fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend in 2021.

State policeannounced Cavalcante’s capture on social mediaon Wednesday, as the search entered its 14th day.

Aerial video footage fromFox 29 Newsshowed a handcuffed man in a gravel lot and wearing a grey, long-sleeve shirt with law enforcement officers holding both arms. Later, the man stands at the back of an armored vehicle while an officer cuts the back of the shirt from neck to waist.

The end to the search for Cavalcante, 34, unfolded just beyond Philadelphia’s heavily populated suburbs, in an area of woods, rolling farmland and a county park. The search forced schools to close right at the start of the academic year, led to warnings for homeowners to lock their doors, and blocked roads over the busy Labor Day weekend.

Overnight into Wednesday, heavily armed law enforcement officers searched for the fugitive through a night of downpours and thunder.

Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County jail in southeastern Pennsylvania on Aug. 31 bycrab-walkingup between two walls that were topped with razor wire, then jumping from the roof and dashing away. He had been awaiting transfer to state prison after being sentenced days earlier for fatally stabbing his girlfriend, and is wanted in connection with another killing in Brazil.

Authorities said over the weekend that Cavalcante had slipped out of the initial search area, shaved and changed his clothing, stole a vehicle to travel miles to seek aid from former co-workers in the northern part of the county, and then abandoned the vehicle, at least in part because it was low on fuel.

Authorities have declined to say how they think Cavalcante slipped out of the first search area, and officials havepushed backagainst questions about whether they blew a chance to catch him.

Then, late Monday, a motorist alerted police to a man matching Cavalcante’s description crouching in the darkness along a line of trees near a road in northern Chester County. Police found footprints and tracked them to the prison shoes identical to those Cavalcante had been wearing. A pair of work boots was reported stolen from a porch nearby.

State police said they believe he was looking for a place to hide when he saw an open garage. There, he stole a .22-caliber rifle and ammunition, and fled when the homeowner who was in the garage drew a pistol and shot at him several times, state police said.

“He didn’t, I believe, recognize that the owner was in there. And I think he was probably looking for a place to hide, ran for that garage, saw the firearm, grabbed that, encountered the homeowner and fled with the firearm,” Lt. Col. George Bivens said Tuesday.

That led hundreds of law enforcement personnel to search an area of about 8 to 10 square miles near South Coventry Township, roughly 30 miles northwest (50 kilometers) of Philadelphia.

Cavalcante’s escape was big news in Brazil, where prosecutors in Tocantins state say he is accused of “double qualified homicide” in the 2017 slaying of Válter Júnior Moreira dos Reis in the municipality of Figueiropolis, which authorities say was over a debt the victim owed him in connection with repair of a vehicle.

Pennsylvania authorities even broadcast a recording of Cavalcante’s mother speaking in Portuguese imploring him to surrender peacefully.

Cavalcante received a life sentence in Pennsylvania in August for killing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in front of her children in 2021. Prosecutors say he murdered her to stop her from telling police he was wanted in the Brazil killing. He had been arrested in Virginia after Brandao’s killing, and authorities say they believe he was trying to return to Brazil.

The prison tower guard on duty when Cavalcante escaped was fired. The escape went undetected for more than an hour until guards took a headcount.

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