New York Man Sentenced to Life for Murder-for-Hire of Art Gallerist Husband in Brazil: Daniel Sikkema Paid for the Stabbing
A federal court in New York has sentenced Daniel Sikkema, 56, of New York, New York, to life in prison for the January 14, 2024, murder of his husband, Brent Sikkema, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald for the Southern District of New York and FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. announced. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos imposed the sentence. Sikkema was convicted on May 22, 2026, following a two-week trial on charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country.
According to the superseding indictment, public court filings, and the evidence presented at trial, Sikkema and Brent Sikkema were then engaged in contentious divorce proceedings. Brent Sikkema, the owner of a well-known art gallery in Manhattan, regularly stayed at a residence he owned in Rio de Janeiro. Beginning in 2023, Daniel Sikkema, a U.S. and Cuban citizen, agreed to pay Alejandro Prevez to kill Brent Sikkema, and sent eleven payments to Prevez and Prevez's romantic interest in Cuba, concealing the source of each payment by using the identities of unwitting friends, employees, and family members.
On January 14, 2024, Prevez murdered Brent Sikkema at his Rio de Janeiro residence by stabbing him 18 times. Minutes after the murder, Prevez called Sikkema multiple times on a secret phone number the two had arranged for the plot. Shortly afterward, Sikkema secretly sent Prevez a $5,000 payment for the murder, with the promise of additional payments to come. On January 18, 2024, Prevez was arrested by Brazilian law enforcement; his criminal case remains pending in Brazilian courts.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said the life sentence holds Daniel Sikkema accountable for a cold, calculated murder-for-hire plot driven by greed, in which he manipulated friends, family, and employees for months. FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said the FBI and its partners will continue to use every tool available so that those who perpetrate the cruelest crimes have no way out.
In addition to the life prison term, Sikkema was sentenced to five years of supervised release. The case was handled by the Southern District of New York's General Crimes Unit and investigated by the FBI New York Field Office, with assistance from the FBI Legal Attache Office in Brazil, Department of Justice Criminal Division components, and law enforcement in Brazil and Spain. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：联邦调查局总部胡佛大楼，本案由联邦调查局纽约外勤办公室主查。Ajay Suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: FBI Headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building; the FBI New York Field Office led the investigation. By Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
