A federal jury in Manhattan discovered the estranged husband of a outstanding New York gallerist responsible of ordering a ugly homicide that shook the artwork world.
The husband, Daniel Sikkema, was discovered responsible on Friday within the Southern District of New York of three counts of conspiring to rent and pay successful man who repeatedly stabbed the gallerist, Brent Sikkema, with a kitchen knife in his trip house in Rio de Janeiro in 2024. The couple have been within the midst of a divorce, which included a custody battle over their teenage son.
“Amid contentious divorce proceedings together with his then-husband, Daniel Sikkema used a burner cellphone line to callously order the killing of his husband in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,” Jay Clayton, the U.S. lawyer for the district, mentioned in a information launch. With the decision, he added, “the tragedy of Brent Sikkema’s loss of life now has a significant measure of justice.”
Mr. Sikkema has maintained his innocence. A lawyer for him, Richard Levitt, mentioned on Saturday that Mr. Sikkema would enchantment his conviction.
Mr. Sikkema faces a compulsory sentence of life in jail. It was not clear if a date for a sentence listening to had been set.
Brent Sikkema was 75 years previous when Brazilian authorities found his body with 18 stab wounds in January 2024. By means of his gallery, which is now referred to as Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, he had lengthy championed artists corresponding to Kara Walker, Jeffrey Gibson and Vik Muniz. He was murdered initially of what was to be a victory lap by the artwork world. Mr. Gibson had been chosen to characterize the USA on the 2024 Venice Biennale.
The hit man whom Daniel Sikkema employed to kill his husband, Alejandro Triana Trevezhad labored as a safety guard for the couple. The police in Brazil apprehended him shortly after the homicide at a gasoline station about 600 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro.
Mr. Trevez, a Cuban nationwide, finally confessed and mentioned Mr. Sikkema had promised to pay him for the killing. Mr. Trevez is awaiting trial in Brazil.
Mr. Sikkema’s authorized group didn’t dispute that he had paid Mr. Trevez about $9,000 earlier than and after the homicide, or that he had lied to pals and to the authorities about his relationship with Mr. Trevez. Based on The Wall Road Journal, which reported earlier on the verdictMr. Levitt, the lawyer, instructed jurors that the cash constituted again pay for work that Mr. Trevez had accomplished whereas the couple was in Cuba. Mr. Levitt mentioned Mr. Sikkema had lied “as a result of he was panicking after the homicide.”
The authorities initially arrested Mr. Sikkema in March 2024 on one depend of passport fraud, resulting in issues that he was planning to flee the nation. As information of his husband’s loss of life unfold, he maintained his innocenceposting to social media {a photograph} of a black rose and a observe written in Spanish: “Our son and I cry for you with out tears, we cry for you in the best way that hurts essentially the most.”
Mr. Sikkema was born Daniel García Carrera and raised in Cuba. He spent a interval working as an escort in Spain, an expertise he chronicled in a 2006 autobiography, “Ticket to Paradise.” Extra not too long ago, he posted movies to YouTube wherein he supplied tour-guide info on New York.
Brent Sikkema had been drawn to Rio de Janeiro for a few years, describing his residence there as a true urban “oasis.”
