LEON COUNTY, Fla. – A 73-year-old Miami Beach grandmother appeared in Leon County court on Tuesday in Tallahassee after her extradition from Miami-Dade County for her alleged role in her former son-in-law’s murder about nine years ago.
Leon County deputies booked Donna Adelson at about 1:30 a.m., on Tuesday, and a Leon County judge ordered her held without bond, as she faced charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
The Adelson family matriarch’s case is the fifth in the murder-for-hire plot to kill Daniel Markel, a law professor at Florida State University, in 2014, in Tallahassee. Police officers arrested her on Nov. 13 at Miami International Airport.
Adelson and her husband, Dr. Harvey Adelson, a South Florida dentist, bought one-way tickets and were planning to board a flight to Dubai on their way to Saigon, Vietnam, to avoid extradition if wanted by Leon County, according to investigators, court records show.
FBI Special Agent Pat Sanford attempted to seize Donna Adelson’s cell phone, but she attempted to pull away to prevent him from grabbing it, records show. The arrest happened after a family friend notified authorities about Donna and Harvey Adelson asking him on Nov. 12 for advice about airlines and places to stay in the Philippines, records show.
On Nov. 6, a jury in Leon County convicted Adelson’s son Dr. Charlie Adelson, a periodontist who lived in Fort Lauderdale, of charges related to hiring the hitmen who killed Markel, his former brother-in-law.
Records show investigators listened to Charlie Adelson’s jail calls, as Donna Adelson told him about “plans for a suicide” and “to flee to a non-extradition country” after creating trusts to make sure that her grandchildren were taken care of.
Prosecutors described Charlie Adelson, 47, as the mastermind of Markel’s murder. Katherine “Katie” Magbanua, who was his girlfriend at the time, testified to connecting him to Sigfredo “Tuto” Garcia and Luis “Tato” Rivera, the convicted hitmen from Miami-Dade.
Garcia is the father of Magbanua’s kids, and Rivera admitted he was a Latin King gang leader in northern Miami-Dade and a close friend of Garcia and Magbanua.
Markel was shot in the head twice on July 18, 2014, in his parked car, in Tallahassee. He was just outside of his home after dropping off his two sons at a daycare, and he died about 14 hours later in the hospital, according to the FBI.
Markel and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, an attorney who filed for divorce in 2012, were in a child custody dispute. Records show Markel had asked the court to limit his sons’ time with their grandmother Donna Adelson due to her alleged disparaging remarks.
Their disagreements included the boys’ place of residence. Markel, who was born in Canada and wanted to continue to work at FSU, wanted his sons to be near him in Tallahassee, and Wendi Adelson wanted them to be near her parents in Miami Beach.
Rivera admitted to buying the gun and renting the Toyota Prius that was used for the murder, records show. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for 19 years in prison in 2016 and testified against Garcia and Magbanua, who were convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison, and are appealing their cases.
Records also show Wendi Adelson told detectives that a murder-for-hire plot was a possibility, and said that her brother “commented” that he had looked into hiring a hitman, but it was cheaper to buy her a television as a divorce gift. Her mother set an appointment for her TV repair on the day of the murder, according to investigators.
Wendi Adelson’s ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Lacasse, a professor of social work at FSU, testified she had told him she feared her brother was serious about hiring a hitman. He also said he feared Wendi Adelson and her brother were trying to frame him for Markel’s murder.
Charlie Adelson was awaiting sentencing on Dec. 12 for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Wendi Adelson and her father, Harvey Adelson, have not been charged. Prosecutors said the investigation in the case was ongoing.
RECORDS
Read sections of the probable cause affidavit in Donna Adelson’s case
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