Daniel Sikkema was convicted Friday in federal court in Manhattan of hiring a hitman to kill his estranged husband, Brent Sikkema, in Brazil. The 55-year-old faces a mandatory life sentence. Brent Sikkema, a prominent New York art dealer, was stabbed to death in his Rio de Janeiro townhouse in January 2024.
Daniel Sikkema, a U.S. and Cuban citizen living in New York, was arrested in April 2024. Prosecutors said he used a burner phone to order the killing amid contentious divorce proceedings and funneled over $10,000 to the alleged hitman, who was later arrested in Brazil and remains jailed there. The jury found him guilty of murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death.
