Fall River couple plead guilty to 2021 New Bedford homicide

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WLNE) — Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said a Fall River man and his accomplice pled guilty to the murder of 36-year-old Adilson Neves, who was shot to death in New Bedford in June of 2021.

26-year-old Daquan Blanchard pled guilty to second degree murder as well as an indictment charging him with armed assault with intent to rob.

34-year-old Cheyenne Miranda of Fall River also pled guilty to charges of manslaughter and armed assault with intent to rob.

Quinn said that New Bedford police responded to David Street on June 2, 2021 for reports of a shooting.

Neves was found with a gunshot wound in his back and a shattered front driver’s side window in his car, and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Surveillance video obtained by police showed a silver SUV following Neves’ car to the scene of the shooting. The SUV was also seen on phone video taken by a witness as well as other surveillance video of it driving on nearby streets.

A shot of the SUV’s license plate was able to confirm it was registered to Blanchard’s co-defendant and accomplice, Miranda.

Quinn added that police checked Neves’ phone, which showed that he was in contact with Miranda, who agreed to sell him prescription drugs.

He added that police then surveilled Miranda’s home and interviewed her, in which she said that she knew Neves but was not on David Street the day of the shooting, and was instead driving with a friend to pick up her children from daycare.

A search of Miranda’s home and car revealed that she lived there with her three children and her boyfriend Blanchard, as well as an empty handgun holster in the car’s center console and a user manual for a car with the VIN number of Neves’ car written on it in the trashcan.

Quinn said that in an interview with Miranda’s friend, they said that they went to David Street, where the friend heard arguing and gunshots.

Miranda was arrested on June 4, 2021, and a witness said that they were told about the shooting by Miranda, who said it “wasn’t supposed to happen that way,” and it was only “about the money,” as Neves was found with $820 in his pocket.

Blanchard was located and arrested in Greenville, North Carolina on June 15, 2021, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshall’s.

Quinn said that Blanchard’s fingerprints were on the car driven by Neves, and that the car was taken without the owner’s permission from a mechanic in Brockton on June 2, 2021.

Blanchard was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

Miranda was sentenced to serve five to 10 years in state prison.