The mother of convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante is coming to his defense?!
For those who haven’t been keeping up with the situation, the convicted murderer escaped from prison two weeks ago. The 34-year-old was finally recaptured after a two week manhunt, with Pennsylvania State Police announcing Wednesday that authorities finally managed to track down the then-armed killer after some close calls.
Ultimately a dog “subdued” him before he could evade them again. (Is there anything they can’t do?) PSP Lt. Col. George Bivens said he was taken into custody and will be moved to a state correctional facility. Phew! Everyone in the Chester County area must be breathing a sigh of relief now.
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But as the manhunt went on, we learned more about the crime that put this man in prison in the first place — and his mother’s shocking defense of it!
Cavalcante was convicted earlier this summer of stabbing his 33-year-old girlfriend to death in Pennsylvania in 2021. According to the Chester County District Attorney, Deborah Brandão had been outside with her 7-year-old and 4-year-old kids at their home on April 18, 2021, when Danelo suddenly showed up, grabbed her by the hair, and threw her onto the ground. He then brutally “stabbed her 38 times in virtually every vital organ including her heart, kidney, lungs, and liver, causing her to bleed to death.” Just horrific. And the fact that her two young children witnessed everything makes us sick to think about.
As for the motive? The DA explained Deborah had found out her ex-boyfriend had been wanted for another 2017 murder in Brazil, where he grew up. When the victim threatened to turn him in to the police, he decided to carry out this vicious killing to silence her. Danelo was convicted of first-degree murder on August 16 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. But things obviously went awry days following the sentencing. On August 31, he managed to escape from Chester State Prison after crab-walking up a narrow outside corridor, right out of the prison yard!
OMG!
Perhaps even more shocking than the agile vanishing act is what Danelo’s mom, Iracema Cavalcante, has said about his situation. Rather than being disappointed in her son’s horrific actions, she shockingly came to his defense about the slaying! Iracema told The New York Times on Tuesday, before his capture, that he “had no other choice” than to kill Deborah:
“Did it happen? It happened. But it happened because of the stranglehold she put on him, the stance she took with him. It wasn’t femicide. He had to, he had no other choice.”
Um, what?! Is she serious?! There is zero excuse for carrying out a vile murder like this. The fact she appears to be on his side tells us more than we need to know about him…
During the long search, Cavalcante was spotted multiple times. He stole a .22 caliber rifle and ammunition from a resident in Pottstown and later took a van. At one point, a doorbell camera caught him looking completely different as he had new clothes and a shaved face. Iracema told the outlet her son managed to survive while evading the police for two weeks due to his difficult upbringing in Brazil. Instead of attending school, she claimed, her Danelo had to work to make money. He shined shoes at 5 years old before getting a job on a farm when he was 7. Iracema said:
“His training was his suffering. It was going to sleep hungry, it was waking up as I wondered what to feed them. We’re poor. We’re humble. But we’re workers. What we have, we fought to get.”
She sounds almost proud. Of a murderer.
While Iracema first said she didn’t want her son to suffer the same fate as his victims, she ended up backtracking and saying he would be better off dying before going back to prison:
“If I said my son didn’t make a mistake, I’d be lying. I know what my son did was wrong. I know my son should pay for his mistake. But I want my son to pay for his mistake with dignity. Not to pay with his life. If it’s to go to a place to suffer and die in that place, it’s better to die soon. You don’t have to suffer so much. Today, I see my son as dead. In a strange place, trampled, everyone lying about him, saying he’s something that he’s not.”
Something that he’s not? The man is a monster. Yeesh.
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[Image via Chester County District Attorney/Facebook]
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