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Danelo Cavalcante, murderer who escaped Pennsylvania prison for weeks, facing a dozen new charges

Cavalcante broke out of prison in Pennsylvania and eluded capture for two weeks.

November 13, 2023, 2:33 PM

The convicted murderer who escaped from the Chester County Prison in Pennsylvania in August is now facing a dozen additional charges in connection with the two weeks that he spent on the run.

Danelo Cavalcante was charged Monday by Pennsylvania State Police with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including burglary, theft by unlawful taking, criminal trespassing, receiving stolen property, unlawful possession of a firearm and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

He escaped on Aug. 31 by climbing up a prison yard wall and running across the roof. He was captured at gunpoint on Sept. 13 in a rural part of Chester County.

The charges relate to the houses Cavalcante allegedly broke into and the gun, household items and van he is suspected of stealing.

The criminal complaint paints a more detailed picture of how Cavalcante allegedly spent some of his time outside the prison gates.

Danelo Cavalcante is seen apprehended in this photo by the Pennsylvania State Police, Sept. 13, 2023.
Pennsylvania State Police

When Cavalcante was captured, he allegedly still had items he had stolen from a home in Pennsbury Township one day after the escape, including a backpack, button down shirt, paring knife, razor and sleeping bag.

Nine days after the escape, when Cavalcante knocked on the door of a home across the county in Phoenixville, a woman was home alone at the time and saw Cavalcante at the door, causing her to go to the second floor and watch him and his stolen van through the window, the complaint reveals.

The manhunt placed Pennsylvania’s wealthiest county on edge, causing many schools to close at the beginning of the academic year while law enforcement searched for Cavalcante, who had just been convicted of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death. Internal Chester County documents obtained first by ABC News in October revealed that weeks before Cavalcante ultimately broke out of the prison, a correctional officer warned that he was “planning an escape.”

Cavalcante, who was previously charged with an additional murder in Brazil, is now serving a life sentence at State Correctional Institution-Phoenix in neighboring Montgomery County. He is scheduled to appear in district court in Kennett Square on Friday in connection with the original escape charge.

ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

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