TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Broward County periodontist told a Leon County judge on Wednesday afternoon that he wants to testify during his trial over his alleged role in the murder of a Florida State University law professor.
Charlie Adelson, of the Adelson Institute in Tamarac, stands accused of being the mastermind of the murder-for-hire plot that killed Daniel Markel, his former brother-in-law in Tallahassee.
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Markel, 41, who was born in Canada, died on July 19, 2014. He was talking on the phone in his car when he was shot just outside of his home after dropping off his two sons at school, police said.
Patrick Sanford, an FBI special agent who was involved in the investigation, testified that Markel died 14 hours after he was shot and before a planned trip to a conference in New York.
Sanford said there were thousands of conversations recorded during the FBI’s investigation, which lasted years before Adelson’s arrest last year.
During testimony, jurors learned an FBI undercover agent pretending to extort the Adelson family prompted conversations in 2016 that prosecutors deemed to be incriminating.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the prosecution played some of the FBI’s recordings with accompanying transcripts. One of the conversations was between Adelson and his ex-girlfriend Katherine “Katie” Magbanua.
“Find out who the [expletive] this is,” Adelson told Magbanua during a recorded call about the undercover FBI agent who was pretending to extort them.
On Monday, during her testimony in court, Magbanua said she connected her then-boyfriend to the convicted hitmen, Sigfredo “Tuto” Garcia, of Miami Beach, the father of her children, and Luis “Tato” Rivera, of North Miami, a Latin King member and friend.
Adelson’s sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel were in the middle of a child custody dispute after she filed for divorce in 2012 and moved to South Florida with their two sons.
A Leon County judge denied her motion for relocation in 2013 and Markel sought to enforce the ruling in 2014.
Kristin Adamson, a Tallahassee lawyer who represented Wendi Adelson in divorce proceedings, testified on Wednesday afternoon. She described the case as “odd” even though it was a “run of the mill” divorce.
“It’s odd for the opposing party to make claims against me and want me disbarred,” Adamson said about Markel’s reactions.
Garcia, who was sentenced to life in prison, shot Markel in the head twice, at close range, while Rivera, who took a plea deal for 19 years in prison for second-degree murder, admitted to purchasing the gun and driving the getaway car.
Magbanua was convicted of first-degree murder after a retrial last year and her appeal is pending.
Leon County Circuit Judge Stephen Everett is presiding over Charlie Adelson’s trial for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
Everett said the defendant’s testimony would begin on Thursday morning. He dismissed the jury shortly after 4:20 p.m. and said the court was in recess until 8:45 a.m.
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