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On Friday, a former escort was found guilty of orchestrating the murder of his estranged husband, a wealthy Manhattan art dealer. The victim was brutally stabbed nearly 24 times in a shocking act of violence.
A federal jury, after just two hours of deliberation, convicted Daniel Sikkema of plotting to murder his husband, 77-year-old Brent Sikkema. Daniel allegedly paid thousands to a Cuban national who executed the gruesome assassination at Brent’s vacation home in Brazil, in January 2024.
“With this verdict, Brent Sikkema’s tragic death has found a semblance of justice. A unanimous jury has now held Daniel Sikkema accountable for this senseless and calculated murder,” stated Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Prosecutors presented a case where Daniel, in his mid-50s and financially desperate, devised this chilling murder-for-hire plan amid a contentious divorce and custody battle over their young son.
The jury was told how Daniel hired Alejandro Triana Prevez, a former security guard for the couple. Daniel discreetly transferred about $9,000 to Prevez, who then broke into Brent’s Rio de Janeiro bedroom and inflicted 18 stab wounds to his face, chest, and throat.
Defense attorney Richard Levitt didn’t dispute that Prevez killed the victim, but insisted his client’s payments to the alleged hitman were repaying a debt – and that he would never have wanted the father of their son dead.
“Does that sound like the work of an assassin to you,” Levitt told jurors of the knifing during closing arguments Friday, adding that Prevez “desperately wanted money” to buy a house in Spain for his paramour.
“If anyone had motive to kill Brent (Sikkema) it was Alejandro (Prevez). Alejandro took whatever cash was there.”
He stressed that Prevez allegedly texted his girlfriend that “she’ll be able to buy her dream house” after the killing, and scoffed that the $5,000 Daniel Sikkema transferred before the murder would never amount to payment for “a planned hit.”
Prosecutors argued the suspect’s warped plot was fueled by money woes – he was so broke he borrowed $13,000 from the couple’s housekeeper, whom he allegedly stiffed while quietly paying his alleged hitman.
During the trial, prosecutors quoted a series of voice notes they said Daniel Sikkema sent to friends and relatives during the couple’s divorce.
“It won’t be over until this man passes away,” he said in one of the recordings.
The suspect said in another, “I’m still fighting with this old bastard who won’t die,” according to the prosecutor.
The trial’s first witness, family friend Angela Liriano, testified that Daniel Sikkema repeatedly complained about money during the divorce.
She also recalled a chilling phone conversation she had with him while at work.
“I told him, ‘Brent was just here. He told me he was going to Brazil.’ [Daniel] said he wished [Brent] will die,” Liriano said. “I was in shock.”
The jury found him guilty of murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death, murder-for-hire resulting in death, and conspiracy to murder or maim a person in a foreign country.
He faces life in prison.