Sentencing · Southern District of New York · November 4, 2026
A federal judge sentenced Daniel Sikkema to life in prison on November 4 for the murder-for-hire of his estranged husband, Manhattan art dealer Brent Sikkema. Brent was killed in Rio de Janeiro on January 14, 2024. The life sentence answers what punishment a New York federal court imposed on Daniel; a separate criminal case in Brazil remains pending, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office sentencing announcement.
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos also imposed five years of supervised release. That is a separate term in the sentence, not a date on which Sikkema is expected to leave prison. In May 2026, a federal jury convicted him after a two-week trial. The verdict announcement identifies three counts: murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country.
What prosecutors said tied the plan to New York
Brent Sikkema ran a gallery in Manhattan and regularly spent time in Rio. The two men were in divorce proceedings. The fact of the divorce explains part of the timeline. The case against Daniel turned on evidence of a plan and its execution, including transactions prosecutors said reached across borders.
Federal prosecutors described eleven payments before the killing. They said Daniel used other people’s identities to conceal the source of transfers, without those people knowing. The prosecution also described calls to a number set up for the plot shortly after Brent was killed and a later payment of $5,000. The sequence matters: the government presented the transfers and communications together as evidence of an agreement, rather than asking jurors to infer one from the divorce alone.
The Associated Press’s May coverage of the verdict supplies contemporary reporting from the trial stage. The November sentencing is a later event in the same prosecution; it did not reopen the jury’s decision or add a new defendant to it.
Two proceedings, two separate records
Brazilian authorities arrested Alejandro Prevez four days after Brent’s death. U.S. prosecutors identified him as the person they say carried out the killing. The November 4 statement says his case remains pending in Brazil. Daniel’s convictions in New York cannot serve as a Brazilian verdict against Prevez, whose case has its own court record and outcome to establish.
Three dates keep the case straight: the killing in January 2024, the U.S. jury verdict in May 2026, and sentencing in November 2026. The latest verified development here is the sentence. A subsequent appeal or ruling would need its own docket check. See more in the Courtroom collection.
Photo credit: File photograph: U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, March 31, 2026. This does not show the sentencing hearing or crime scene. Photo: APK, CC BY 4.0. Source photograph · License. Resized for display; the resized photograph remains under the linked license.
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