By Vinny Vella
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — The state Superior Court has denied an appeal from Danilo Cavalcante’s lawyers to overturn his first-degree murder conviction in the death of his ex-girlfriend, saying he forfeited his appellate rights when he escaped from the Chester County Prison just days after he was sentenced to life in prison.
Cavalcante, 35, was convicted of stabbing Debroah Brandao to death in 2021 in front of her children.
Two weeks later, on August 31, 2023, Cavalcante scaled a wall in a prison exercise yard and fled into the surrounding woods of Pocopson Township. During his 14-day flight from justice, he traveled at night, stealing produce and other supplies from nearby homes.
At one point, he stole a .22 caliber rifle during a violent confrontation with a homeowner, a weapon he later told police he planned to use to carjack a passerby.
The day after Cavalcante’s escape, his attorney, Maria Heller, appealed his sentence to Chester County Court Judge Patrick Carmody, saying, in part, that evidence of earlier domestic violence between Cavalcante and Brandao had been improperly introduced at trial.
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Heller did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Carmody, who had presided over the trial, immediately denied her motion. Heller appealed Carmody’s decision to the Superior Court on Sept. 29, 2023, two weeks after her client was captured by a task force of local, state, and federal law enforcement officers.
However, Cavalcante’s 30-day window for an appellate review of his murder case did not pause while he was hiding from police in Chester County’s lush vegetation, according to the ruling issued Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Timika Lane.
And because of that, Heller’s appeal to Superior Court was filed eight days too late to be considered, Lane said.
Cavalcante is serving a life sentence at the state correctional institute at Greene, about an hour south of Pittsburgh.
He was also ordered to serve an additional 15 to 30 years in state prison after pleading guilty in August to escape, burglary, and firearms violations for stealing from homeowners during his time on the lam last year.
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