Escaped killer who was on the run in Pennsylvania for 2 weeks faces plea hearing

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A convicted killer captured last year after two weeks on the run in southeastern Pennsylvania’s rolling farmlands is due in court Friday for a potential plea on the escape charges.

Danilo Cavalcante, 35, a native of Brazil, escaped from a Chester County lockup while waiting to be transferred to state prison to serve a life sentence for killing his ex-girlfriend. He escaped by crab-walking up a wall in a jail exercise yard, then climbing over razor wire and jumping from a roof.

His lawyer, Lonny Fish, declined to comment on the case Thursday or say if a plea deal had been reached. Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips said he would not know until the hearing if an agreement had been finalized.

Cavalcante had been convicted of killing ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao to stop her from telling police about charges against him in connection with a 2017 slaying in Brazil.

While on the run, he stole a truck from a dairy farm after finding the keys inside, and survived by stealing food, clothing and other items from people’s homes.

With residents of Chester County increasingly on edge, one homeowner found the fugitive in his open garage stealing a rifle and fired several shots at him with a pistol. But they seemingly missed Cavalcante, who remained on the run for two more days before he was captured early one morning by searchers using a plane’s thermal imaging from above and K-9 search dogs on the ground.

Cavalcante is already serving a life sentence without the chance for parole. Any sentence on the new charges -- which include escape, burglary and trespass -- could be run concurrent with his life sentence or consecutive to it if the life sentence is overturned.

The scheduled Friday afternoon hearing comes nearly a year after his Aug. 31, 2023, escape from the Chester County Prison.