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Who killed Dan Markel?
Did Charles Adelson murder Dan Markel?
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What did Donna Adelson say about Markel's murder?
Nov 6, 2023 · Mr. Markel, 41, a well-known legal scholar at Florida State University, was shot on July 18, 2014, in his home in an upscale Tallahassee neighborhood. The police found him wounded, and he died 14...
- Overview
- An ugly custody dispute
- An undercover sting
- A ticket to Vietnam
In November, days after her son was convicted in a sprawling murder-for-hire plot over a custody dispute, authorities arrested Donna Adelson at Miami International Airport.
Adelson, 73, had participated in the plot, authorities alleged, and now she was at the airport with a one-way ticket to Vietnam — a country with no extradition treaty with the United States.
In an exclusive interview with NBC’s “Dateline,” Adelson’s lawyer rejected the possibility that she was trying to permanently flee the country and described her as “absolutely innocent” of first-degree murder and other crimes.
Dan Rashbaum described Adelson — a bookkeeper at her family’s dental practice — as a distraught parent who was furious with the justice system about her son’s murder conviction and life sentence. She hadn’t done anything wrong when she booked the ticket, he said.
“She was a free citizen like you and me,” he said.
To learn more about the murder-for-hire case, tune in to “Family Matters” on “Dateline” at 9 ET/8 CT tonight.
Authorities said Markel’s killing was linked to the dispute over the children he shared with ex Wendi Adelson. After she filed for divorce in 2012, Wendi asked a judge to let her move with their two boys from Tallahassee to South Florida, where her parents also lived, according to the affidavit in support of Donna’s arrest.
The judge rejected the request, but Charlie and Donna Adelson were “determined” to see Wendi relocate, the affidavit says. During Charlie’s trial, Magbanua testified that Charlie had called Markel a “terrible” man who had put his family through an ordeal and came up with the idea to kill his former brother-in-law.
Rashbaum, who represented Charlie Adelson in his criminal trial, blamed Magbanua for orchestrating the extortion and the murder, saying she was motivated by Charlie’s refusal to marry her.
According to the affidavit, Donna also repeatedly sought to have her daughter “coerce” Markel into allowing the move with an offer of $1 million, and she told her daughter to “threaten” to convert the boys to Catholicism — “knowing Markel was very observant in his Jewish faith and that the religious practices of the children were of the utmost importance to Markel.”
Rashbaum said that Wendi never actually presented Donna’s financial offer, which was intended to pay expenses related to a potential move to South Florida. Among other things, it would have paid for an apartment for Markel, Rashbaum said, and it would have allowed him to commute to Tallahassee. Wendi Adelson has denied involvement in Markel’s killing and has not been accused of any crimes.
Other 'Dateline' cases
Rashbaum rejected another piece of evidence that authorities pointed to during Charlie’s trial and in Donna’s affidavit.
More than a year after Markel’s killing — and before anyone had been arrested — law enforcement launched an undercover sting operation to try and determine who was involved, Georgia Cappleman, the prosecutor who later tried Charlie’s case, told “Dateline.”
In April 2016, an undercover federal agent posing as someone seeking to blackmail Donna over the murder approached her outside her Miami condo and handed her a news article about Markel’s murder. Written on the piece of paper was a dollar amount — $5,000 — and a phone number.
The agent told Donna that she was “taking care” of Magbanua and the father of her children, but not the friend who later pleaded guilty, Cappleman said.
“It’s designed to give Donna the impression that she’s being blackmailed for $5,000 on behalf” of the friend, Cappleman said.
In a conversation the FBI intercepted afterwards, Donna called her son about “some paperwork” that had been hand-delivered to her, according to the affidavit. When Charlie asked if it was about him, she whispered: “Well, probably the both of us.”
During a news conference after Charlie’s conviction, a reporter asked Cappleman if anyone else in the Adelson family would face charges.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Cappleman said. “Stay tuned.”
To Donna, Rashbaum said, the comment seemed directed at her.
“She’s just been told by the prosecutor immediately after her son’s conviction that she’s next,” Rashbaum said. “Her thought pattern is: They’re gonna arrest me. I’m 73 years old, and I’m gonna be in the same predicament of not having a fair trial in Tallahassee.”
“I think the thought pattern was: Let’s get away for some time, let’s see what the situation’s like,” Rashbaum said, adding: “They were gonna come back.”
Donna’s husband had also booked a ticket to Vietnam and was with her when she was arrested. He was not taken into custody and has not been charged with any crimes in connection with Markel’s murder.
Nov 10, 2023 · On Monday, a Florida jury found Charlie Adelson guilty of concocting a plot with a former girlfriend and hiring two men to kill his former brother-in-law Dan Markel in 2014. Markel's family had long suspected the Adelson family of being involved in the shooting, which took place while Markel and his ex-wife Wendi Adelson were in a bitter dispute.
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- Alison Lynn,Micaela V. Rosario,Tami Sheheri,Ivan Pereira
Nov 7, 2023 · In July of 2014, Florida State law professor Dan Markel dropped his two boys off at preschool, hit the gym, and then came home to his Tallahassee home where he was shot twice in the head in his...
Markel was killed in Tallahassee, Florida, in 2014, in a murder for hire motivated by child custody issues following Markel's divorce from Wendi Adelson, a clinical law professor and child advocate also employed at Florida State University at the time.
Oct 25, 2023 · Over nine years after Florida State University law professor Dan Markel was murdered in his garage and the hired killers and a woman found guilty of facilitating the hit have been sent to...
Nov 6, 2023 · Prosecutors allege Adelson and his family had the Florida State law professor killed to put an end to a nasty child custody battle between the defendant's sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel, her...
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