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CA Man Jailed Over 'Dead or Alive' Signs

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on August 03, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

On the outside, Domingos Jose Oliveira may seem like any concerned father - except most parents won't post "Wanted: Dead or Alive" signs about their daughter's boyfriend even if they disapprove of the relationship.

Oliveira, 49, posted signs offering a cash bounty for the capture, dead or alive, of his daughter's boyfriend, 33-year-old Sean Kirk of El Cajon, California.

He was arrested in March and was convicted of solicitation of murder and a hate crime. He has been sentenced to 7 years and 4 months in prison, reports USA Today.

Oliveira had allegedly made his daughter sign a contract with him saying that if she ever dated an African American man, both she and her boyfriend would be killed, USA Today reports.

Oliveira's 20-year-old daughter's boyfriend, Kirk, is African American.

Maybe Oliveira did not realize that when he posted the signs asking for someone to bring in Kirk's body in exchange for the bounty, he was essentially soliciting someone for a crime.

In most states, criminal solicitation is illegal. Solicitation has two elements, that the person request that someone else engages in criminal conduct (in this case, murder), and that the person who is soliciting the crime must intend to engage in criminal conduct.

The crime that was solicited does not need to be committed in order for solicitation to occur. So, just because nobody actually went out and captured Kirk, dead or alive, is not a defense against the crime of solicitation.

Criminal sentences for solicitation of a crime can vary, depending on what crime was solicited.

And, in Domingos Jose Oliveira's case, the "dead or alive" signs indicated that he was soliciting for someone's murder - which is probably why he'll be spending more than half a decade behind bars.

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