Danilo Cavalcante pleads guilty to burglary and escape charges in Chester County

Nearly a year after Danilo Cavalcante scaled a wall of the Chester County Prison and broke free amid international infamy, he pleaded guilty Friday to escaping from the facility and stealing food, a van, and a rifle during his 14 days on the run.

Cavalcante, 35, entered the plea to escape, burglary, and firearms violations during a hearing before Judge Allison Bell Royer, who then sentenced him to 15 to 30 years in state prison, on top of the life sentence he is serving for killing his ex-girlfriend.

His face partially obscured by a curtain of his curled hair, Cavalcante showed no emotion when the sentence was handed down and said nothing as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

Cavalcante, who was born in Brazil and illegally immigrated to the United States, escaped from the Chester County Prison on Aug. 31, 2023, one week after being sentenced to life in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in front of her children on the front lawn of her home in Schuylkill Township.

A week after Cavalcante was sentenced in that case, and was awaiting transport to state prison, he shimmied up a wall in one of the jail’s exercise yards, imitating an escape method used months earlier by another inmate, Igor Bolte.

» READ MORE: Two weeks on edge: How law enforcement tracked down an escaped murderer in Chester County

Video of Cavalcante’s “crab walk” quickly went viral, spreading internationally as he continued to elude hundreds of local, state, and federal investigators dispatched to the Kennett Square area to search for him.

After keeping authorities at bay for 14 days, Cavalcante was taken into custody behind a tractor dealership in South Coventry Township.

Royer, in handing down her sentence Friday, told Cavalcante that she was grateful he had decided to take accountability for his action and spare his victims, including Brandao’s family, from the trauma of a trial.

“Usually, closure happens for victims at sentencing, but things didn’t quite go that way in that situation,” she said. “So ultimately for all involved, on a more intimate and personal level, this is now closure day.”

Cavalcante’s attorney, Lonny Fish, told Royer that his client “understands the seriousness of this case,” and hoped the sentence would act as a deterrent against future escape attempts by other inmates.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Fish said Cavalcante “hasn’t shown much affect” to him in terms of being remorseful for fleeing the prison and upending the lives of Chester County residents. The lawyer said his communications with his client have been difficult, given his lack of fluency in English and 4th-grade education.

“He understands ‘I was a convicted murderer, and I left the jail, and I understand that scared people,’” Fish said. “I don’t think that’s lost on him.”

Since the high-profile escape, county officials have taken steps to strengthen security at the jail, county spokesperson Rebecca Brain said.

» READ MORE: A step-by-step look at Danilo Cavalcante’s escape, search, and capture

Officials have installed 18 additional cameras at the jail, with 100 angles of its roof, as well as motion sensors that send alarms to the jail’s control center, she said. Additionally, high-risk inmates now wear specifically colored, high-visibility jumpsuits, and guards are stationed in observation towers and along the jail’s perimeter walls when inmates are in the exercise yards.

Warden Howard Holland said last fall that the county planned to enclose all of the exercise yards with a steel mesh canopy, and the county recently signed a contract with Buchart Horn Architects to begin designing that feature.

The gap in the wall that Cavalcante used last year to climb onto the jail’s roof has since been covered with steel mesh and razor wire.

In the early days after his escape, Cavalcante slept during the day and traveled through dense vegetation at night, investigators said. He drank water from the Brandywine Creek and stole watermelons from a nearby garden.

His pursuers caught glimpses of him when he ventured into nearby homes, like Ryan Drummond’s, for supplies. Drummond, who lives not far from the jail in Pocopson Township, had a close encounter with Cavalcante in his kitchen, from which the fugitive stole vegetables and a steak knife, along with a sleeping bag and a backpack to carry supplies in.

Cavalcante then hid amid the wooded acres of Longwood Gardens, occasionally coming within feet of officers scouring the vegetation in search of him. Days into his flight from justice, Cavalcante stole a van from Baily’s Dairy that had been left unlocked, with the keys still inside, and drove it 20 miles north, to East Nantmeal Township.

Along the way, he visited the homes of two former coworkers, whom he unsuccessfully asked for help. In nearby South Coventry Township, he walked into Horace Hammond’s open garage and came face-to-face with a resident for the second time.

Hammond shot at Cavalcante after he stole a .22-caliber Ruger “varmint rifle” from the garage, but missed, blaming what he described as the small and inaccurate sidearm he had been carrying.

Two days later, Cavalcante was arrested while hiding inside a hollowed-out tree trunk behind Little’s, a farm tractor dealership on Pottstown Pike. Investigators said he had become desperate as the perimeter around him began to tighten, and had planned to use Hamond’s rifle to carjack someone that day to flee the county.

After Friday’s hearing, Cavalcante was returned to the state correctional institution at Greene, where he will serve his sentence under heightened security.