Danelo Cavalcante pleads guilty to charges related to escape, two-week manhunt in Chester County

Danelo Cavalcante, a convicted killer captured last year after two weeks on the run in Chester County, Pennsylvania, has pleaded guilty to escape and burglary charges.

He was sentenced immediately afterward to serve 15 to 30 years in addition to his life sentence without parole for killing his ex-girlfriend. He chose not to speak in court.

Cavalcante, 35, a native of Brazil, escaped from a Chester County lockup while waiting to be transferred to state prison to his life sentence.

He escaped by clambering up between two walls in a jail exercise yard, then climbing over razor wire and jumping from a roof.

Cavalcante had been convicted of killing ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao to stop her from telling police about charges against him in connection with a 2017 slaying in Brazil.

While on the run, he stole a truck from a dairy farm after finding the keys inside, and survived by stealing food, clothing and other items from people's homes.

With residents of Chester County increasingly on edge, one homeowner found the fugitive in his open garage stealing a rifle and fired several shots at him with a pistol.

But they seemingly missed Cavalcante, who remained on the run for two more days before he was captured early one morning by searchers using a plane's thermal imaging from above and K-9 search dogs on the ground.

Cavalcante, a native of Brazil speaking through a Portuguese interpreter, told the judge his education had stopped in the fourth grade.

"You're still a young man," County Judge Allison Bell Royer told Cavalcante, as she advised him to figure out a way to make something of his life even in prison.

"Maybe someday be a mentor to somebody for a purpose that's good, It is never too late," she said.

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The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office is prosecuting the case.

"We believe this sentence, 15 to 30 years, is the right balance between justice for the people of Chester County and needs of the community itself," Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips.

Phillips said prosecutors took into account the expense of a trial and feel the plea shows there are consequences.

Defense attorney Lonny Fish is representing Cavalcante.

"The deal of 15 to 30, in a vacuum, is good. If he went to trial and lost he's looking at at least 20 years," Fish said.

Fish is not a public defender but would not comment on who is paying for Cavalcante's defense.

His plea came a day before the one-year anniversary of his escape, which left many people across the Philadelphia region in fear, especially as Cavalcante entered at least two homes in search of provisions.