Related videos:
Daniel García Carrera, known as Daniel Sikkema, appeared in a federal court in Manhattan this Tuesday without displaying any emotion as prosecutors presented photographs of the body of his husband, the prominent art dealer Brent Sikkema, who was stabbed to death in January 2024 in Rio de Janeiro.
According to The New York Post, the accused, a 55-year-old Cuban resident of New York, faces charges of conspiracy and contract murder. The prosecution claims he hired fellow Cuban Alejandro Triana Prevez to infiltrate the apartment of Brent Sikkema, 75, and kill him while the couple was going through a bitter divorce process and a custody dispute over their child.
Assistant prosecutor Nicholas Pavlis described in his opening statement how Triana, the victim's former bodyguard, monitored the residence for 14 hours, entered at 3:43 a.m. on January 14, 2024, and stabbed the gallery owner 18 times in the face, neck, and chest.
"In 2024, Brent Sikkema was brutally murdered. A hitman broke into his house in Brazil, took a knife, and stabbed Brent repeatedly," Pavlis said before the jury.
According to the accusation, after committing the crime, Triana immediately called Daniel Sikkema. "Who did he call? He called that man, Daniel Sikkema, the man who hired him and paid him to kill Brent," the prosecutor stated.
The prosecution claims that the motive was financial. Daniel believed he would receive more money as a widower than through a divorce. "He didn't want a divorce. He wanted Brent dead," Pavlis stated.
To funnel the payments to the hitman, the accused allegedly used a network of intermediaries that included a domestic worker, his daughter, a collaborator, and his own romantic partner. “The accused paid the hitman at every step of the way, payment after payment after payment,” the prosecutor stated.
The prosecutors also presented voice recordings that Daniel Sikkema allegedly sent to friends and family during the separation process. In one of them, he said: "It won't end until this man dies." In another: "I keep fighting with this old bastard who doesn't want to die."
The first witness at the trial, Angela Liriano, a family friend, testified that Daniel constantly complained about money. "He said he felt he wasn't getting enough. 'Six million is not enough, I want eight million,'" Liriano testified.
Liriano also recounted a troubling phone call: "I told him, 'Brent was here. He told me he was going to Brazil.' [Daniel] said he wished [Brent] would die. I was in shock."
Triana was arrested three days after the crime at a gas station in the state of Minas Gerais, carrying $3,000, and confessed to committing the murder. Brazilian justice ordered the arrest of Daniel Sikkema in February 2024 and issued a notice through Interpol.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against Daniel Sikkema in February 2025 in the Southern District of New York.
The defense, led by attorney Florian Miedel, acknowledged that Triana stabbed Brent 18 times, but denied any direct connection to his client. "Daniel did not hire Alejandro to kill Brent. No one is going to come into this room and say that Daniel did it," Miedel argued.
If found guilty, Daniel García Carrera faces mandatory life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Filed under: