Update:
Charlie Adelson went before a Leon County judge remotely via Zoom this morning. The judge issued no bond on charges including first degree murder.
Original story:
Charlie Adelson goes before a Leon County judge this morning on three charges related to the 2014 murder of FSU law professor Dan Markel. Adelson was indicted by a Leon County grand jury last week and arrested at his Broward County home. He was booked Monday night into the Leon County jail.
Prosecutors say Adelson orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot to kill Markel, his ex-brother-in-law. They say Adelson’s sister Wendi was battling Markel for custody of their two children, and she wanted to move back to South Florida.
A Leon County grand jury indicted Adelson last week after hearing a newly enhanced recording of him talking about the case in a restaurant in 2016. Prosecutors say the enhanced audio was the missing piece they needed to indict Adelson.
Markel was killed at his Betton Hills home. Two men, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, were convicted of carrying out the murder.
Katherine Magbanua, the alleged go-between for Adelson and the hitmen, is facing a retrial next month after a jury deadlocked 10 – 2 in her first trial. Magbanua was the other person in that recorded restaurant meeting with Adelson in 2016.
