TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A 75-year-old Miami Beach woman who is awaiting trial over her alleged role in the murder for hire of her former son-in-law was in shackles when she appeared in Leon County court Wednesday.
Daniel Markel, a Florida State University law professor and father of two boys, was fatally shot on July 18, 2014, after parking his car at his home’s driveway in Tallahassee. He was 41.
Markel was in the middle of a custody dispute with his ex-wife Wendi Adelson, an attorney who wanted to move from Tallahassee to South Florida with their two sons, Benjamin and Lincoln.
Donna Adelson, the maternal grandmother of Markel’s sons, was arrested in 2023 at Miami International Airport before she and her husband, Harvey Adelson, boarded a flight to Vietnam.
Through tears, before Leon County Circuit Judge Stephen Everett, Donna Adelson said she has been the victim of assaults and extortion while at the Leon County Detention Facility.
Donna Adelson also said her diet at the detention facility lacked protein and the healthcare to treat her pain and hearing issues was insufficient. She wants Everett to release her on bond.
Adelson’s arrest was just days after her son, Charlie Adelson, a periodontist, was convicted. Adelson’s defense attorneys also asked Everett to not allow a recorded jail phone call of when she told her son that she wanted to run away.
“We’ve been looking it up over and over because things change if there is extradition from Vietnam. We have looked at all the places. I mean, I could go to Korea and China, but there’s no extradition. But looking for places where there’s no extradition,” Donna Adelson said during the recorded call, records show.
Charlie Adelson’s ex-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua admitted to being the intermediator in the murder for hire involving Sigfredo “Tuto” Garcia, who was the father of her two kids.
Garcia recruited his friend Luis Rivera, who later testified against Magbanua and Garcia in exchange for a 19-year sentence for second-degree murder.
Charlie Adelson, Magbanua, and Garcia were convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Donna Adelson is awaiting trial for first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation and asked Everett to release her on bond.
Everett did not allow Donna Adelson’s release or exclude the recorded phone calls. Wendi Adelson and Harvey Adelson were not charged in the murder.
