On a Wednesday afternoon in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the life of Adilson Neves, a 36-year-old Black male, was brought to an abrupt and violent end. It was June 2, 2021, when police responded to 911 calls around 3:12 p.m. reporting a shooting on David Street. First responders discovered Neves in the roadway, suffering from a gunshot wound to his back. He was rushed to Saint Luke's Hospital, but his injuries proved fatal, and he was pronounced deceased.
Investigators found Neves outside a grey Toyota Camry which had a shattered driver's side window. At the time of his death, he had $820 in his pocket.
The investigation into the homicide quickly uncovered a plot that began with a planned drug deal. Detectives found a gold iPhone near Neves's body and, upon examining its contents, discovered communications from earlier that day between Neves and a woman named Cheyanne Miranda. The messages revealed that Miranda was arranging to sell Percocet pills to Neves. Surveillance footage from the area showed the Toyota Camry that Neves was driving had followed a silver SUV to David Street. A witness also captured cell phone video of the same silver SUV leaving the scene after the shooting, with Neves’s body left lying in the street. City cameras managed to capture the license plate of the SUV, which was registered to Miranda.
The evidence led investigators to focus on Miranda, 31 at the time, and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Daquan Blanchard. Miranda was arrested just two days after the shooting, on June 4, 2021. During a stop of her SUV, police noticed an empty handgun holster in the center console. She initially denied being on David Street or seeing Neves that day. A later search of the trash outside her Fall River apartment uncovered the owner's manual for the Toyota Camry Neves had been driving. After her arrest, a witness told police that Miranda had confessed the shooting "wasn't supposed to happen that way" and that "it was only supposed to be about the money." Blanchard, identified as the shooter, fled the state. With the help of U.S. Marshals, he was located and arrested in Greenville, North Carolina, on June 15, 2021, where he was found hiding in a closet.
In November 2023, the case came to a close as the Fall River couple pleaded guilty to their roles in the deadly robbery. Daquan Blanchard, then 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed assault with intent to rob. He received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years. Cheyanne Miranda, then 34, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed assault with intent to rob. She was sentenced to serve five to ten years in state prison, bringing a measure of resolution to the senseless killing of Adilson Neves.
