The Brazilian justice ordered the arrest and preventive detention of the Cuban-AmericanDaniel Sikkema, for himmurder of her ex-husband, the American gallery ownerBrent Sikkema, 75 years old, in Rio de Janeiro last January.
Judge Tula Correa de Mello, head of the Third Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro, ordered thatthe Cuban arrest warrant be sent to the Interpol Dissemination Network, through the competent channel of the Federal Police, because the accused is abroad, reported a statement from the Court of Rio de Janeiro, cited bylocal media.
The court order also decreed preventive detention for the Cuban as well.Alejandro Triana Prevez, arrested on January 18 accused of being the material author of the murder.
Daniel, 53 years old and living in New York, is accused of being the “intellectual author and main interest in the crime.”. The note from the Judiciary also indicates that Daniel hired Triana, 30 years old, with the promise of paying him200,000 dollars for committing the crime.
On the night of January 15, Brent Sikkema, co-owner of the Sikkema Jenkins & Co. gallery in New York, was found dead with stab wounds in an apartment he owned at 15 Rua Abreu Fialho, in the exclusive Jardim Botânico neighborhood. Initially, police treated the crime as a robbery followed by death.
According to authorities, Triana would have traveled from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, where he watched Sikkema's home for 14 hours before committing the crime. With the keys that the gallery owner's ex-partner supposedly sent him from the United States, he entered the residence on January 14 at 3:43 a.m. andstabbed him about 18 times, mainly in the neck and chest, according to a report fromDaily Mail.
The Cuban remained in the apartment for about 15 minutes and, when he left, around 3:57 a.m., he took off some gloves and put them in a pocket, according to security cameras in the area.
The Homicide Police Station of Rio de Janeiro said that images captured by the cameras located outside the Sikkema home facilitated the identification of the suspect, who was arrested with the collaboration of the Federal Highway Police and the Civil Police of São Paulo.
Triana was located at a gas station located between the cities of Uberlândia and Uberaba, in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais, in possession of 3,000 dollars (equivalent to more than 14,000 reais).
According to the Rio Court of Justice, the investigation into the death of the 75-year-old gallery owner remains secret.
The Civil Police reported this Friday that the Homicide Police of the Capital concluded the investigation on Wednesday the 7th and charged the ex-husband, in addition to the suspect of committing the crime.
Brent and Daniel Sikkema were married for 15 years and were going through a complicated divorce process. They have a 14-year-old son.
The American founded the art gallery in 1991 under the nameWooster Gardens, referring to its original location on Wooster Street in SoHo. In 1999 the exhibition space was expanded, moving to its current location, at 530 West 22nd Street, in New York. Sikkema Jenkins & Co. hosts exhibitions of paintings, illustrations, photographs, sculptures and installations.
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