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PHILADELPHIA — A fugitive who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison just days after being sentenced to life without parole in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend was captured early Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Details on the capture have not yet been revealed. Police have scheduled a press conference for 9:30 a.m.

The end of the 14-day manhunt for 34-year-old Danelo Cavalcante came as a relief to residents of Pocopson Township, Pennsylvania, who had been advised by officials to stay alert. Several schools within the area also briefly canceled classes amid the search for the convicted murderer.

Officials said Tuesday that Cavalcante had stolen a .22-caliber rifle from a person’s home.

Cavalcante, who officials said is also wanted in his native Brazil on homicide charges, escaped from the Chester County Prison in Pocopson Township on Aug. 31.

Cavalcante was noticed missing that morning after inmates returned from the exercise yard at the prison, where he was being held pending transfer to a state correctional institution.

He had scaled a wall to gain access to the roof and pushing through razor wire before jumping down to a less secure area to make his getaway, Howard Holland, the acting warden of the Chester County Prison, told reporters during a recent press briefing.

He followed the same method of escape and route used by an inmate at the Chester County Prison, Holland said. Inmate Igor Vidra Bolte broke out of the prison in Pocopson Township on May 19 by scaling a wall in an exercise yard to gain access to the roof, according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News.

Holland noted “one key difference” between the two escapes was the actions of a tower guard whose primary responsibility was to monitor inmates in the exercise yard.

“In Bolte’s escape, the tower officer observed the subject leaving the yard area and contacted control immediately. That is why Bolte was apprehended within 5 minutes,” Holland said. “In the escape of Cavalcante, the tower officer did not observe nor report the escape. The escape was discovered as part of the inmate counts that occur when the inmates come in from the exercise yard.”

Cavalcante escaped from the prison by “crab walking” up a wall, pushing his way through razor wire installed after Bolte’s escape, running across the prison roof and scaling more razor wire, Holland said.

The corrections officer on duty in the guard tower at the time was terminated on Sept. 7, officials said.

Holland said during the press briefing on Sept. 6 that steps are being taken now to completely enclose the eight exercise yards at the prison, which are now open-air. He said additional security cameras will also be installed and additional officers will be on the ground to help the tower officers monitor the inmates in the exercise yards.

The search for Cavalcante was centered in an area near the Chester County Prison, where he had been spotted multiple times, officials said.

A citizen reported seeing a man matching Cavalcante’s description on Sept. 7 running through the area near Longwood Gardens, a sprawling horticulture attraction located about 5 miles southwest of the prison, said Lt. Col. George Bivens, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police. The search perimeter shifted toward Longwood Gardens, and Calvalcante was spotted two more times in the search area on Sept. 8, state police said.

Bivens said nearly 400 people from multiple agencies were engaged in the manhunt on Sept. 8, adding that they will “keep up this search at whatever tempo is appropriate for as long as we need to. He’s a dangerous individual.”

A Chester County jury on Aug. 16 convicted Cavalcante of first-degree murder in the fatal 2021 stabbing in Schuylkill Township of his former girlfriend, 38-year-old Deborah Brandao. Prosecutors said Brandao was stabbed 38 times in front of her two young children, ages 4 and 7.

The jury took just 15 minutes of deliberations before voting unanimously to convict Cavalcante.

Prosecutors said Brandao was killed after she learned Cavalcante was wanted for murder in Brazil and threatened to expose him to police, Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said in a statement following Cavalcante’s conviction.

Following Brandao’s murder, Cavalcante fled to Virginia, where he was arrested and brought back to Pennsylvania to face justice for Brandao’s killing.

It was the second time in less than two months that a dangerous inmate had escaped from a Pennsylvania lockup. Inmate Michael Burham, who is a suspect in the rape and murder of a 34-year-old woman in Jamestown, New York, escaped from the Warren County Jail in northern Pennsylvania on July 6.

Burham, an Army reserve sergeant who authorities said was a “self-taught survivalist,” was captured on July 15 following a massive manhunt in the northern Pennsylvania woods.

 

 

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(GREENSBURG, La.) — One student died Tuesday, and another was critically injured after a shooting at St. Helena High School in Greensburg, Louisiana.

The incident happened around 3:30 p.m. local time as school was being dismissed, a rep for the St. Helena Parish Sheriff’s Department told ABC News.

A third student was injured. All three were students at the school, the rep said.

The student who was left in critical condition was airlifted to an area hospital. Their condition is currently unknown.

Sheriff’s deputies and the crime lab are on the scene, as well as city police, according to officials.

A suspect was taken into custody, ABC News has confirmed. Authorities told WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge that the suspect is a 14-year-old student.

A message addressing the tragedy was posted on the St. Helena Parish School District’s Facebook page.

“A tragic incident occurred on the campus of St. Helena College and Career Academy,” the statement read. “The scene is still active and we are working closely with authorities at this time.”

School is canceled until Friday, the district said, adding that grief counselors would be available when students returned.

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(NEW YORK) — A 44-year-old inmate who escaped from a New York City-area hospital last month was tracked through New Jersey, Virginia and then back to Queens, where he was recaptured Tuesday morning after authorities found him sleeping on a friend’s couch, authorities said.

The man — Yenchun Chen — injured himself first rappelling and then falling out the fifth-floor window of Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital on Aug. 9. He fled in a car that was tracked to New Jersey, authorities said.

With U.S. Marshals and members of the Fugitive Task Force on his trail, Chen was tracked to Virginia, where he has family and friends, and then back to Queens, where he was recently couch-surfing at different friends’ houses, according to authorities.

He was arrested on Tuesday at 6:15 a.m. ET in a second-floor apartment on 45th Ave, where he was asleep on a friend’s couch, authorities said.

Chen was taken to the hospital following his arrest for injuries to his ribs and legs sustained when he made his August escape. He is believed to have fallen a significant distance from the hospital window, and while still able to walk, he was “banged up,” authorities said.

He is being treated for those injuries at Bellevue Hospital, authorities added, where detectives are waiting to speak to him.

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(NEW YORK) — A 74-year-old man returning home from work on Manhattan’s Upper East Side early Tuesday was randomly shoved onto the subway tracks by an apparent neighborhood homeless man muttering to himself, according to police.

The victim, who works at a parking garage on Fifth Avenue, was accused by the victim of staring at him before he was shoved onto the tracks while waiting for the 6 train by a disheveled man in a dirty tee-shirt who may be suffering from mental health issues, police said.

The victim’s injuries seemed to be minor at first, but doctors later determined he has multiple rib and pelvic injuries as well as a spine fracture, according to the NYPD. His back and neck landed on the tracks, police added.

Detectives recovered video of both the attack and the suspect leaving the station.

While the attack does not match any pattern, there are incidents involving a homeless man in the neighborhood that are under investigation.

“Crime is down 4 ½ percent in the subway system this year versus last year. That 4 ½ percent reduction translates to 70 less crime victims this year compared to last year,” NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper said. “Fortunately, incidents like this are rare. but when they do occur, it is our top priority to apprehend and arrest those individuals that did it.”

Ten people have been pushed onto subway tracks so far this year, almost half of the 19 at this point last year, according to police.

Last November, Mayor Eric Adams issued a directive that would send officers, EMS workers and other city agents to involuntarily take individuals who appear “to be mentally ill” and “a danger to themselves” into custody for psychiatric evaluations. It was a strategy meant to combat homelessness and mental health issues.

“Without that intervention, they remain lost and isolated from society, tormented by delusions and disordered thinking,” Adams said at the time. “They cycle in and out of hospitals and jails, but New Yorkers rightly expect our city to help them and help them we will.”

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(ATLANTA) — Lawyers for attorney Kenneth Chesebro on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him in the Georgia election interference case, arguing that his actions were “justified” because he was acting “within his capacity as a lawyer” for the Trump campaign.

“Mr. Chesebro, being an expert in constitutional law, acted within his capacity as a lawyer in researching and finding precedents in order to form a legal opinion which was then supplied to his client, the Trump Campaign,” the motion said.

Chesebro and 18 others, including former President Donald Trump, have pleaded not guilty to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Chesebro is accused of committing acts “in furtherance of the conspiracy,” according to the indictment.

In their filing, Chesebro’s lawyers acknowledged that their client drafted the legal memos at the center of his alleged conduct — one of which included a strategy to use so-called “alternate electors” to prevent Joe Biden from receiving 270 electoral votes — but that that action was justified since Chesebro was “fulfilling his duty to his client as an attorney.”

Chesebro’s attorneys asserted that criminalizing their client’s conduct would “stymy the long-held practice of attorneys advocating for novel legal positions.”

“If the Court were to permit the State to prosecute individuals for writing a novel, controversial, or even incorrect interpretation of an abstruse law, then student law reviews and law journals everywhere would suddenly find themselves in need of staff,” the motion read.

The effort marks the second time Chesebro has moved to dismiss his case, following a motion to dismiss that he filed on Sept. 5.

Chesebro and former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell are scheduled to go on trial on Oct. 23 after they both requested speedy trials in the case.

Also Tuesday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals gave Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis one day to respond to former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ request for an emergency stay regarding his case.

Meadows on Monday requested the emergency stay after a judge on Friday rejected Meadows’ bid to have his case moved, based on a federal law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings brought in state court to the federal court system when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.

The Eleventh Circuit, responding to Meadows’ emergency motion, ordered Willis to submit a brief responding by noon ET Wednesday.

Additionally, the court ordered both Meadows and Willis to submit briefs addressing whether the federal removal statue permits former federal officers to remove state actions to federal court, or only current federal officers.

The briefings on that question are due Wednesday afternoon for both sides.

Meadows is charged with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act and one count of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, for taking actions “in furtherance of the conspiracy,” according to the DA’s indictment.

His attorney, George Terwilliger, has said, “Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President. One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things.”

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(LONG BEACH, Calif.) — The wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is set to be released from her California halfway house on Wednesday, after being sentenced for helping run the Mexican drug cartel in which her husband was the boss, according to prison records.

Emma Coronel Aispuro was sentenced in November 2021 to 36 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and conspiring to distribute cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana for import into the U.S. She was also ordered to pay almost $1.5 million in fines.

Aispuro was moved from a federal prison in Texas, to a halfway house in Long Beach, California, in June, ahead of her release.

It is typical for inmates who have exhibited good behavior in federal prison to be moved to a halfway house up to six months before their release, according to a Bureau of Prisons official.

She was arrested in February 2021 at Dulles International Airport, just outside the nation’s capital, and convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering charges by a Washington, D.C. jury later that year.

At her sentencing, Aispuro, through an interpreter begged for forgiveness, vowing she will teach her daughters right from wrong.

“I beg you to not allow them to grow up without the presence of a mother,” she said.

Aispuro was also accused of conspiring with others to assist her husband in his July 2015 escape from Altiplano prison, and prosecutors said she also planned with others to arrange another prison escape for the drug kingpin before his extradition to the U.S. in January 2017.

Guzman was found guilty in February 2019 of running an industrial-sized drug trafficking operation, the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s largest, most profitable and most ruthless drug smuggling organizations.

He was sentenced to life in prison, and has since tried to appeal the conviction.

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(ATLANTA) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has declared a state of emergency in response to high inflation, blaming policies coming out of Washington, D.C.

Kemp is temporarily suspending Georgia’s excise tax — taxes enforced on particular goods, services and activities — on motor and locomotive fuel, his office said in a press release on Tuesday.

“From runaway federal spending to policies that hamstring domestic energy production, all Bidenomics has done is take more money out of the pockets of the middle class,” Kemp said in the press release. “While high prices continue to hit family budgets, hardworking Georgians deserve real relief and that’s why I signed an executive order today to deliver it directly to them at the pump.”

He added that his administration will work with Georgia’s General Assembly “to help Georgians weather the economic headwinds caused by this president, his administration, and their allies in Congress.”

Kemp’s executive order goes into effect at Midnight on Wednesday and lasts until Oct. 12.

Consumer prices increased 3.2% in July compared to a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 4.7% in July compared to a year ago, particualrly because price increases for commodities like new vehicles and housing stand above the overall inflation rate.

The U.S. Department of Labor will release the latest inflation numbers on Wednesday.

The governor said Georgia residents will save “31.2 cents per gallon of gasoline and 35 cents per gallon of diesel fuel” under the state of emergency.

In March 2022, Kemp signed legislation suspending the state’s gas tax following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to a spike in gas prices across the country.

During that 10-month suspension, Georgians saved $1.7 billion at the gas pump, Kemp said in Tuesday’s press release.

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(ATLANTA) — The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has given Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis one day to respond to former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ request for an emergency stay regarding his election interference case in Georgia.

Meadows on Monday requested the emergency stay after a judge on Friday rejected Meadows’ bid to have his case moved, based on a federal law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings brought in state court to the federal court system when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.

Meadows and 18 others, including former President Donald Trump, have pleaded not guilty to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. The former president says his actions were not illegal and that the investigation is politically motivated.

The Eleventh Circuit, responding to Meadows’ emergency motion, ordered Willis to submit a brief responding by noon ET Wednesday.

Additionally, the court ordered both Meadows and Willis to submit briefs addressing whether the federal removal statue permits former federal officers to remove state actions to federal court, or only current federal officers.

The briefings on that question are due Wednesday afternoon for both sides.

Meadows is charged with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act and one count of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, for taking actions “in furtherance of the conspiracy,” according to the DA’s indictment.

His attorney, George Terwilliger, has said, “Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President. One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things.”

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(NEW YORK) — A NASA astronaut has broken the record for the longest space mission in U.S. history.

Frank Rubio, 47, who has been aboard the International Space Station since September 2022 — more than 355 days — broke on Monday the previous record held by retired NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

Rubio is not scheduled to return to Earth until Sept. 27, meaning he will be the first American and seventh person overall to spend more than a year in space.

He will have spent a total of 371 days orbiting Earth. The current record for most consecutive days spent in space overall belongs to Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent 437 days in space.

“Frank Rubio’s journey in space embodies the essence of exploration. As he breaks records as the longest serving @NASA US astronaut in space, he also paves the way for future generations of astronauts. Your dedication is truly out of this world, Frank!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In an interview with “Good Morning America” last month, prior to breaking the record, Rubio said he felt honored to hold the title and that he expected the record would be broken again in the future.

“I think this is really significant in the sense that it teaches us that the human body can endure, it can adapt and as we prepare to push back to the moon and then from then onward onto hopefully Mars and further on in the Solar System,” he said. “I think it’s really important that we learn just how the human body learns to adapt and how we can optimize that process so that we can improve our performance as we explore further and further out from Earth.”

When Rubio originally lifted off last September — riding aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin — his mission was only expected to last six months.

However, in December 2022, the day a scheduled spacewalk was planned, an external leak was detected from Soyuz MS-22, later determined to have been caused by a micro-meteorite impact.

Because the spacecraft was unable to perform a crew return, it extended the three astronauts’ stay for an additional six months. MS-22 returned to Earth uncrewed, and MS-23 was launched in February 2023 and docked at the ISS as a replacement. The spacecraft will return the crew to Earth later his month.

During the “GMA” interview, Rubio said that a medical team examines astronauts within 10 minutes of their return to Earth, with many experiencing problems with their equilibrium at first, as well as walking and standing upright.

“I’m not sure how it will be for me,” he said. “I’m preparing for the fact that it might be a challenge, that it might take a couple of days before I’m somewhat normal, but the reality is it’s going to take anywhere from two to six months of really intense rehab to get back to my normal, and that’s just part of the process.”

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(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Five former Memphis police officers have been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr. were indicted on charges relating to the deprivation of rights under color of law, including excessive force and failure to intervene as well as deliberate indifference, and conspiracy to witness-tamper, according to court records.

Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10, three days after a violent confrontation with police following a traffic stop.

“Tyre Nichols should be alive today,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “It is tragic to see a life cut short at 29, with so many milestones unmet, so many words unsaid, so much potential unfulfilled. These federal charges reflect the Justice Department’s unwavering commitment to protecting the constitutional and civil rights of every American and preserving the integrity of the criminal justice system. We stand ready to hold law enforcement officers accountable for their misconduct because no one is above the law in our country.”

All five former officers also face state felony charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, in connection with Nichols’ death. They pleaded not guilty.

Mike Stengel, the attorney for Haley in his state case, confirmed he will also be representing him on the federal charges.

“The indictment is disappointing, but not surprising,” Stengel told ABC News. “He’ll plead not guilty and defend himself in court.”

William Massey, who represents Martin, said, “We have been expecting it and are ready to move forward.” Bean’s attorney, John Perry, said he had no comment.

The indictment outlines in detail what prosecutors allege were efforts by the five officers to brutally assault Nichols, purposely ignore his need for immediate medical care and later seek to cover up their actions.

Each of the defendants, according to the indictment, were involved in beating Nichols during the Jan. 7 traffic stop and none relayed information about their assault to the Memphis police dispatcher, their supervisor or the EMTs and paramedics who were coming to the scene.

The officers allegedly spoke at the scene about how they had struck Nichols, “including hitting Nichols with straight haymakers and taking turns hitting him with so many pieces,” but they also did not relay that information to first responders or their supervisors even as his condition “deteriorated and he became unresponsive,” the indictment alleges.

The indictment also alleges the officers used their body-worn cameras to limit the capture of evidence, with Martin moving his body cam to a location where their assault of Nichols wouldn’t be captured and Haley and Smith only activating their cameras after the group attacked Nichols.

After EMTs arrived, Haley and Mills removed their body-worn cameras and the group allegedly discussed their assault of Nichols making statements like, “Everybody rocking his a**, Pop pop, please fall; and I thought when he wasn’t going to fall, we about to kill this man.”

Afterward. at the police station, the group met and lied to an MPD detective about the arrest for the Incident Report, the indictment alleges, claiming Nichols had actively resisted arrest “by pulling gun belts” and grabbing one officer by his vest. Mills and Smith also falsely told the detective that “Nichols was so strong that he lifted two officers into the air.”

The group further omitted information about how they had punched and kicked Nichols and the eventual incident report falsely stated that, “After several verbal command[s], Detectives were able to get the suspect Tyre Nichols in custody.”

ABC News’ Stephanie Wash contributed to this report.

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