Two Brazilian nationals accused of child rape were convicted on Tuesday, April 7 at a Dukes County Superior Court hearing at the Edgartown Courthouse. One defendant, whose child rape charge was dismissed but was convicted on a lesser charge, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as she left the building.
Jair Fernandes Deoliveira Jr., 26, and Ana Beatriz Dasilva Sousa, 25, were both indicted in March 2025 on a total of seven charges, including raping a minor between October and November of 2024 in Oak Bluffs, according to court documents. They were brought before Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Wrenn last week for a change of plea hearing, both pleading guilty to certain charges, while others were dismissed.
At a status review hearing in December last year, Superior Court Judge Maureen Hogan set bail at $20,000 for each defendant because she deemed they were high flight risks. She highlighted that ICE has detainers against them and the two defendants are undocumented individuals in the United States. Deoliveira was held at the Dukes County House of Corrections Facility in Edgartown, and Sousa was at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility after their indictments.
“They are from Brazil not the U.S. They do have family here on Martha’s Vineyard, but they are not from here. I know they don’t have any criminal records here but they were only here for a couple months,” said Hogan at the hearing in December 2025. “Then there is the issue of the third party, the federal government and ICE. ICE has detainers against them because they are here illegally.”
Deoliveira changed his plea to guilty at the hearing on April 7 where he was convicted on four of his seven indictments, including witness, juror, police, or court official intimidation, kidnapping, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, and rape of a child. He was sentenced to a total of two years and one day to be served at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum security prison in Lancaster, Mass. According to court documents, Deoliveira was credited with 454 days of his time served while being held at the correctional facility in Edgartown since his indictment in March, so he will only be held in state prison for around nine months.
Deoliveira has a detainer placed on him by ICE, and local attorneys said the immigration agency is likely waiting for him to finish serving his time in state prison to deport him. Deoliveira also has conditions to serve three years of probation after his release from prison, to register as a sex offender, and stay at least 100 yards away and have no direct contact with the victim.
Sousa, Deoliveira’s co-defendent, also pleaded guilty to one of her charges at the courthouse last week and was convicted for intimidating a witness, juror, police officer, or court official, while her other charges, including aggravated rape of a child, were dismissed. She was sentenced to one year at the Dukes County House of Corrections but was also credited 454 days for her time at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility while her case was ongoing. Although she did not face as severe of a punishment by the courthouse, local court officials confirmed that Sousa was released to ICE custody as she was leaving the courthouse following her hearing on April 7.
It is uncertain where Sousa is currently being held. A representative of ICE was not immediately available for comment.
Whatever people think about ICE in the abstract, this article describes a case where the local court process played out first, and then ICE took custody at release. To me, that is not some random dragnet. That is the federal government doing what a lot of people expect it to do once a criminal case involving illegal presence and very serious charges has run its course in state court.
And just to keep the facts straight, one defendant was convicted of rape of a child, while the co-defendant pleaded guilty to witness intimidation and was then picked up by ICE. Either way, I do not see this as some sympathy case. I see it as a public safety case, and the handoff to ICE looks less like overreach than the system working the way it is supposed to.