More than ten years ago, Florida State University law professor Dan Markel was shot and killed in his garage.
Now, the woman accused of planning and funding the murder-for-hire plot is finally on trial.
Donna Adelson, 75, the victim’s former mother-in-law, now faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation to commit murder.
 |
| Donna Adelson |
According to prosecutors, trouble started in 2013 after Dan Markel divorced Wendi Adelson, Donna’s daughter, which led to a bitter custody battle.
After the divorce, Wendi wanted to move their two young sons to South Florida, away from their father in Tallahassee, but the judge denied her request.
Prosecutors say Donna Adelson, who lived in South Florida and wanted her grandsons nearby, then became determined to remove the obstacle—her son-in-law.
According to CNN, Donna Adelson even suggested to her daughter that they pay Dan Markel $1 million to agree to the move, but that proposal was never officially made.
About four months before the murder, tensions grew when Markel filed a motion to stop Donna from having unsupervised visits with his children.
He claimed that she made negative comments about him in front of the children, which they later repeated to him.
They told him things like, “Grandma says you’re stupid … she says you’re trying to take her sunshines away from her,” and “Grandma says she hates you,”
as per CNN.
Sadly, things took a deadly turn at this point and Markel was killed before the case could be resolved.
 |
| Dan Markel and Wendi Adelson |
 |
| Dan Markel |
Prosecutors say that Donna Adelson relied on her son, Charles Adelson, to "solve the problem".
At the time, Charles had a girlfriend named Katherine Magbanua who was connected to the underworld, so he reportedly turned to her for help.
Magbanua then involved her children’s father, Sigfredo Garcia, and his longtime friend Luis Rivera, who were both known members of the Latin Kings gang, to kill Markel.
On July 18, 2014, the plan was executed, as per
WCTV News.
According Luis Rivera, he and Garcia stalked Markel and waited for him to come home. He said that when Markel pulled into his garage and sat in his car, Garcia jumped out and shot the 41-year-old professor twice.
Rivera said that the payment for the job was $100,000 and that his share for participating was $37,000.
That same night, text message records show Donna Adelson texted her son, Charles, “outside your house,” and prosecutors believe this was a signal for the delivery of the payment.
After the murder, financial records showed that Magbanua started receiving paychecks from the Adelson family’s dental practice, where Donna and Charles Adelson worked.
These checks were handwritten and signed by Donna herself and continued for more than a year, even though Magbanua never actually worked there.
However, the payments stopped in 2016, when the FBI started an undercover sting operation to solve the case.
That same year, Luis Rivera accepted a plea deal and agreed to cooperate with authorities, so he received a 19-year prison sentence.
Sigfredo Garcia, on the other hand, pleaded not guilty, but after going to trial he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Katherine Magbanua also received a life sentence for her role in facilitating the murder plot.
 |
| Charles Adelson |
 |
| Charles Adelson |
After the hitmen were converted, the FBI’s undercover investigation eventually broke the case open, as per CNN.
An undercover agent approached Donna Adelson, pretending to be an associate of Luis Rivera, and threatened to expose the plot unless he was paid.
The FBI recorded phone calls and watched meetings where a panicked Donna and Charles Adelson talked in coded language and even considered giving him $5,000 to stay quiet.
This operation tied the Adelson family directly to the crime, and Charles Adelson was finally arrested in 2022.
He was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation. Prosecutors claimed that he managed the logistics and payments for the plot under his mother’s direction.
In 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Just days after his conviction in 2023, Donna Adelson and her husband got rushed visas and booked one-way tickets to Vietnam, a country without an extradition agreement with the US.
But before their plane could take off, authorities arrested her on the jetway at Miami International Airport.
Donna Adelson has pleaded not guilty, and her lawyers argue there is no proof she planned or funded the killing, saying the blame lies only with her son.
If found guilty on all charges, she faces life in prison.
Wendi Adelson, Dan Markel’s ex-wife, and her father, who is Donna Adelson’s husband, have not been charged in connection with the murder.
The trial continues, with all four previously convicted co-conspirators, including her son Charles, expected to testify against her.
For updates on this case and other high-profile true crime cases, sign up for our free newsletter here.
Read Next: Florida Man Accused Of Hiring a Hitman to Kill His Underage Sex Slave
Read Next: How a Former NFL Star Hired a Hitman to Murder His Pregnant Girlfriend
Read Next: Firefighter Pays Homeless Man $600 to Kill His Wife
Comments
Post a Comment