Open statements in the Donna Adelson murder trial began Friday in Tallahassee.
“The reason we are here today is because this defendant, Donna Adelson, was a part of the conspiracy to hire a hitman to kill her former son-in-law, Dan Markel,” Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan said.
“She was the matriarch — and a domineering one at that.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Adelson, 75, is accused of planning Markel’s murder.
She’s facing first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation charges, for the 2014 contract killing.
Donna’s son, Charlie Adelson, along with his ex-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua, and hitmen Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, have been convicted in connection with the case.
Police found Markel, a Florida State University law professor, shot in the head in his Tallahassee driveway on July 18, 2014. Dan was the former husband of Wendi Adelson.
Wendi is Donna Adelson’s daughter. Wendi has denied any involvement and has not been charged in the case, AP News reports.
On Monday, the prosecution said Markel took his two young sons to daycare, then went to work out, without ever knowing two hit men had been following him, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
A neighbor said they saw a light-colored Prus driving away from the scene before finding Markel and contacting police.
Investigators later learned that Wendi and Dan’s divorce settlement in 2013 provided for 50/50 custody, but the Adelson family, unhappy with the shared custody ruling, continued to push for the majority of custody.
Donna Adelason also pushed for Markel to move with the children from Tallahassee to Miami, where the Adelsons lived.
Dugan said the defendant offered the victim $1 million to allow Wendi and the children to relocate, after Markel obtained a court order that barred them from relocating, the Temple Daily Telegram reports.
“The defendant said that she would never, never, never give up and never stop fighting for Wendi and the boys to be relocated to Miami. And she never did,” Dugan said.
The defendant then resorted to methods in an attempt to “threaten or bully Markel into submissions.”
Donna Adelson, according to the prosecution, told her son Charlie that Markel was a “crazy person” while enlisting her son’s help.
When investigators questioned Wendi, she allegedly claimed that her brother had joked about hiring hitmen.
“When asked by law enforcement if anyone could have killed Dan Markel on her behalf, she also told police about her brother Charlie Adelson.. [he] had joked that he looked into hiring a hitman to kill Dan Markel as a divorce present, but decided to buy her a TV instead because it was cheaper,” Dugan said.
The defense argued that the state didn’t have enough evidence to link Donna Adelson to a murder plot. They pinned the blame on Charlie Adelson, who paid the hitmen to carry out the murder, and his three other convicted co-conspirators.
“It is truly outrageous,” defense lawyer Jackie Fulford said. “But what’s more outrageous is, without any evidence, only motive and theory, they put her at the top of this pyramid.”
“People who know Donna will tell you that she is not the person that the state is portraying her to be. She’s kind, caring, loving. She cares more about people than she does herself.”
Police arrested Donna Adelson in 2023, as she and her husband, Harvey, prepared to board one-way tickets to Vietnam via Dubai—two countries without extradition treaties with the US.
She previously told the court that she had been traumatized after her son’s arrest and needed “some peace, we need to catch our breath, we’re gonna go away somewhere.’”
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[Feature Photo: Dan Markel/FSU College of Law faculty biographies; Donna Adelson/AP]
