Published Aug. 31, 2023Updated Sept. 1, 2023, 12:41 p.m. ET
The police were searching early Friday for a Brazilian man they warned was “extremely dangerous” after he escaped from a prison near Philadelphia, days after he was sentenced to life in prison for the fatal stabbing of his former girlfriend.
The inmate, Danelo Cavalcante, escaped from the Chester County Prison on Thursday morning, the local district attorney’s office said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The prison’s acting warden, Howard Holland, declined to comment at a Thursday news conference on how or why the escape had occurred, saying only that it was under investigation.
Deb Ryan, the Chester County district attorney, said at the news conference that Mr. Cavalcante had been last seen walking southbound in the county’s Pocopson Township on Thursday morning wearing a white T-shirt, gray shorts and white sneakers.
Her office said the search extended to all of Chester County and that residents within a six-mile radius of the prison had been notified of the escape. The county lies just west of Philadelphia.
“If you see him, do not approach him,” Ms. Ryan said. “We’re asking you please to contact 911. He is considered extremely dangerous.”
Ms. Ryan’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did the Pennsylvania State Police. Officials at Chester County Prison could not be reached for comment overnight.
Mr. Cavalcante, 34, is a Brazilian national who is wanted for homicide in Brazil, the United States Marshals Service said in a notice.
Last week, Mr. Cavalcante was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of first-degree murder. The district attorney’s office has said that in April 2021, he stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, to death in front of her children, ages 4 and 7. Mr. Cavalcante, who was living in Royersford, Pa., at the time, fled the murder scene and was arrested hours later in Virginia.
Before the attack, Ms. Brandao had learned of Mr. Cavalcante’s open warrant for murder in Brazil and threatened to tell the police, according to the district attorney’s office. “Detectives determined that this was the motive for the murder,” the office said in a Facebook post last week….It said he is 5 feet tall and speaks Portuguese and Spanish.
Mr. Cavalcante is a former gang member who is wanted in Brazil for the 2017 murder of a man who owed him money, Ms. Ryan, the Chester County district attorney, told the Media News Group, according to a report on Thursday in one of the company’s newspapers, The Daily Local News.
The report said Mr. Cavalcante had been held at the Chester County Prison since his arrest two years ago. It said he was being held there for an additional 30 days after his sentencing — before a planned transfer to the state prison system — while he and his lawyers decided whether to appeal his conviction.
The Daily Local News reported in early August that Mr. Holland, the prison’s acting warden, had taken over after the regular warden was placed on administrative leave. The prison “continues to grapple with some level of vacancies among correctional staff,” the newspaper’s report said.
So how does a murderer walk away from Chester County Prison? And what’s going on there with replace-a-warden-on-leave? Why was original warden placed on leave?
PUBLISHED: August 3, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. | UPDATED: August 4, 2023 at 10:50 a.m.
This story has been updated on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.
WEST CHESTER — Officials in Chester County rejected reports that the warden of Chester County Prison had ended his term there unexpectedly, as the facility continues to grapple with some level of vacancies among correctional staff.
County Communications Officer Rebecca Brain said on Thursday that Warden Ronald M. Phillips had been placed on administrative leave and that Howard Holland, the former chief of police in Downingtown and a special liaison to the county Prison Board, had been placed in command at the facility in Pocopson.
Brain declined to discuss details of the move, referring to the county’s policy of not commenting on personnel matters. It was unclear from her comment what the terms of the administrative leave are or why the change was made.
Phillips’ leave reportedly began on Friday.
Reportedly well-liked in the county law enforcement community, Philips has been a fixture at the prison for decades. He began employment there in 1983, and served as deputy warden under former Warden Ed McFadden….
The move comes sometime after the completion of a report on the facility the Prison Board commissioned with the the National Institute for Jail Operations, to conduct an assessment. The organization did produce a report, but the county declined to provide a copy of it to the Media News Group. “Because the contents of the report relate to the operations of a secure facility, it is not public,” Brain said in an e-mail.
The prison holds inmates that have been arrested but cannot post bail prior to their trials; have been sentenced to a minimum period of incarceration less than one years in length; are awaiting a hearing on a probation violation accusation; or are serving a state prison sentence in the county or have been otherwise transferred to the prison from other jurisdictions.
As of June 30, there were 702 inmates at the prison, a slightly higher number than normal but far below the maximum bed capacity of 1,100 inmates.
The prison has for some time struggled with filling vacant positions, although county officials have noted that corrections officer positions regularly have high turnover rates. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a number of staff vacancies in the number of full time employees that are budgeted for in the 2023 county budget….He said that recently the staff had interviews six candidates and that there were five candidates in the prison academy. He estimated there were about 30 openings at the prison for beginning correction officers.
That number conflicts with the vacancies reported by Brain on Thursday, however. She said there are 76 vacancies out of 301 positions and that 55 of those vacancies are corrections officers. Brain said four new corrections officers are expected to start working on Monday, Aug. 7.
Ok so recently it was “warden on leave” now it’s “warden resigned” and as the article above says, it’s somewhat shrouded in mystery and why?
Howard Holland is now the interim or acting warden. Can’t imagine just being appointed and this happens, right? But if this murderer was planning an escape, would it have been in the works for a long time? Warden/Chief Holland has a long career in law enforcement and I think timing is everything, and he came in obviously because there were problems, and well is this escape part of the problems that need fixing? I mean didn’t they say this Cavalcante has been in this prison for a couple of years? I feel for this guy, because he gets to clean up the mess that obviously his predecessor left behind, right?
Investigators are still searching for Danelo Cavalcante, a convicted murderer, who escaped from the prison early Thursday.
by Vinny Vella Published Sep. 1, 2023, 12:33 p.m. ET Updated 2:57 p.m. ET
The prison that a convicted murderer escaped from Thursday in Chester County is being run by an interim warden whose predecessor retired the day before the escape, county officials said Friday.
Danelo Cavalcante, 34, is the subject of a massive manhunt in the county by local, state and federal authorities. Cavalcante was convicted of first-degree murder Aug. 16 for stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death, and was awaiting transfer to a state correctional facility to begin serving his life sentence when he slipped past guards early Thursday, according to District Attorney Deborah Ryan.
“We will not stop until he is in custody,” Ryan said Friday.
Cavalcante also has an active warrant in his native Brazil for a 2017 murder, in which he’s accused of killing a man who owed him money, prosecutors said.
Acting Warden Howard Holland declined Thursday to answer questions about how Cavalcante escaped, saying the matter was being investigated. Holland, the former chief of police in Downingtown, has overseen the jail since July 28, when Ronald Phillips was placed on administrative leave, according to Rebecca Brain, a spokesperson for county commissioners.
Phillips, who served as warden since October 2020 after decades as a deputy warden, filed his retirement paperwork at the county prison board’s regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday afternoon, Brain said.
Brain said she could not comment on why Phillips was placed on leave, nor say if he provided a reason for his retirement, saying both were personnel matters….
The agencies are paying special attention to railroads and the Brandywine Creek, which, they said, could be potential avenues for Cavalcante to leave Chester County.
In an update Friday afternoon, Ryan said that there was no indication that Cavalcante had left the area, but that investigators believe his ultimate goal is to head south. She urged residents to be vigilant during the upcoming Labor Day weekend, and said to especially take stock of cars, bicycles, and other means of transportation at their homes.
Brazilian authorities have been notified of Cavalcante’s escape, but it is up to them to decide if they will pursue their active warrant for his arrest, according to Robert Clark, a supervisory special agent for the U.S. Marshals.
A joint, $10,000 reward is being offered by state police and the marshals for information leading to Cavalcante’s arrest. As they search for the fugitive, they are warning residents to stay away from him and call 9-1-1 if he is spotted. As of Friday afternoon, more than 100 tips had been submitted, investigators said.
Cavalcante, who has a sister and friends living in the Phoenixville area, is likely desperate for help and seeking out those associates, according to Bill Latorre, a retired Pennsylvania State Police sergeant and security consultant who is not involved in the search for Cavalcante.
“In this particular case, if he didn’t have outside help, he’s pretty much winging it,” said Latorre, who worked on similar cases during his tenure with the state police. “He didn’t escape from the prison with a cellphone, so he’s going to need to somehow to borrow or steal means of communication and reach out to whoever can help.”
This Cavalcante would have probably have had to make his move before being transferred to a state prison, right? How many prisoners have escaped from Chester County Prison? Anyway, if you see him, or you think you see him…call 911!
