A Tallahassee jury has returned a guilty verdict against Charlie Adelson. He was charged with three felonies for the 2014 murder of Florida State University Law Professor, Dan Markel. The next phase of the trial is sentencing. Adelson could face life in prison.
Markel was shot and killed in the garage of his Betton Hills home. Three other people have previously been sentenced in the case: Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera--the two hitmen who killed Markel, and Katherine Magbanua—who acted as a go-between connecting the hitmen with Charlie Adelson. Magbanua was dating Adelson at the time of Markel's murder and Garcia is the father of her children. Rivera was a childhood friend of Garcia's.
Adelson faced charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation for the death of his ex-brother-in-law. His defense claimed that he was being extorted by Magbanua, Garcia and Rivera, and that he believed he was being extorted again after undercover law enforcement left a flier about the case with his mother, prompting a series of calls where the two, along with Magbanua, are heard speaking in coded language.
“People don’t talk in code if they have nothing to hide,” said State Attorney Georgia Cappleman during closing arguments Monday.
Cappleman pointed to text messages and phone calls Adelson had with his mother, Donna Adelson, and with Magbanua. “He didn’t pull the trigger, but that didn't mean he had nothing to do with Markel's death," she said.
Daniel Rashbaum, who represented Adelson in court, claimed the puzzle pieces in the state's murder-for-hire story didn't fit. Rashbaum argued that Adelson did not have a motive, and that many parts of the state's theory were based on guesses.“We do not guess, we don’t ignore things that don’t fit into the theory,” he said.
Markel's death came as Charlie Adelson's sister, Wendi Adelson, was in the midst of a difficult custody fight following their divorce. Adelson is the first in his family to be charged and convicted. Other members have long been implicated in the crime. The case now goes to the sentencing phase.
