TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Broward County periodontist testified in his defense on Thursday during his Leon County trial for the 2014 murder of a Florida State University law professor.
Charlie Adelson, who lived in Fort Lauderdale, stands accused of hiring the hitmen who killed Daniel Markel, his former brother-in-law, amid a custody dispute with his sister.
Adelson said the killers were not hitmen. His defense: A girlfriend, a romantic rival, and their gang member friend were part of the murder without his knowledge and his extortion.
Daniel Rashbaum, his defense attorney: “Do you love your nephews?”
Adelson answered in the affirmative.
Rashbamu: “Would you ever take their father away from them?”
Adelson: “Never in a million years.”
Prosecutors accused Markel of being the mastermind of a murder-for-hire plot. The FBI and detectives found Katherine “Katie” Magbanua, who was Adelson’s girlfriend at the time, was the connection between Adelson and Sigfredo “Tuto” Garcia and Luis “Tato” Rivera, the convicted killers.
“I always suspected that it was Sigfredo who did it ... He was an angry guy,” Adelson said during his testimony.
Garcia is the father of Magbanua’s kids, and Rivera, an admitted Latin King gang member, was their friend. Adelson said he had never even heard about Rivera before his arrest.
“I wasn’t part of the murder,” Adelson said.
Markel was shot in the head twice on July 18, 2014, in his parked car, just outside of his home in Tallahassee, and died about 14 hours later, according to the FBI.
Adelson said he was working in Palm Beach County when his mother messaged him and he called her back. He said she told him that Markel had been shot in Tallahassee.
“I was pretty upset about what I had just heard,” Adelson said.
During their testimonies in court, Magbanua and Adelson both agreed that she had served as a mediator between the killers and Adelson. The two also agreed that she came over to his Fort Lauderdale apartment the night after the shooting.
“It’s my fault for running my mouth the way I did,” she told Adelson about Markel’s murder, according to Adelson. She also allegedly said, “Listen, this is all my fault ... My friend killed Dan. He wants you to pay him. ”
Adelson said Magbanua instructed him to pay her in installments, so she could then pay the killers. She also allegedly asked him to avoid telling anyone or the police, so the killers wouldn’t hurt him or his family.
“She was just apologizing and telling me that her friend is crazy and she was telling me that she was going to protect me,” Adelson said.
Adelson said that after the two broke up in July, he continued meeting with her to make the cash payments. Then, Adelson said, Magbanua asked him if he could pay $1,000 through his company, so she could get health insurance for her kids.
Since his mother kept the books in his practice, Adelson said he asked her to issue the checks for Magbanua. He also continued to help her.
Adelson said Magbanua was “constantly broke,” so while they were friends he decided to continue to give her gifts because he wanted to keep her happy.
“I needed her for my safety,” Adelson said about Magbanua.
Adelson said he eventually told his mother who then told his father about the extortion and about Magbanua’s help as a mediator and her instructions.
“I didn’t think she had anything to do with it. I didn’t even want to believe that she had anything to do with it,” Adelson said about Magbanua, later adding, “I thought she got dragged into this in the same way I got dragged into this.”
Rashbaum played some of the FBI recordings of Adelson’s conversations in court. The prosecution had already played some for the jury, but Rashbaum asked Adelson for context.
Adelson said his mother was “very scared” and “she wanted to go to the police” in 2016 after an undercover FBI agent approached her in South Beach and pretended to want to extort her out of $5,000 — while mentioning the payments to Magbanua.
Adelson said he asked his mother to wait and told her that she was going to talk to Magbanua to see if she knew what was going on. After his meeting with Magbanua on April 20, 2016, he said he told his mother they had concluded it was the police because of the subject’s behavior.
“I believe there is no danger to my family at this time — very minimal,” Adelson told his defense attorney during his testimony about the undercover FBI operation.
Adelson said he was with his dad at a sushi bar at Matsuri, a Japanese restaurant near Coral Gables, when a man sat next to his father and placed a big bag on the counter.
“He is either the rudest guy ever or he could be a police officer,” Adelson said about his thoughts about the undercover FBI agent who was recording their conversation.
Detectives arrested Adelson last year. Leon County Circuit Judge Stephen Everett is presiding over his trial for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
Earlier in the trial, Rivera admitted to being the head of the Latin King’s North Miami branch, getting the murder gun, and renting the getaway car. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for 19 years in prison in 2016.
Magbanua and Garcia were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Her appeal is pending.
On Thursday afternoon, Everett said the court was in recess until 8:45 a.m., on Friday. Rashbaum told Everett in court that Adelson was not done with his testimony, which would continue for a second day.
Adelson announced on Wednesday afternoon in court that he had decided to testify in his own defense.
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