One of the four people in prison for the murder of FSU law professor Dan Markel in 2014 took the stand Tuesday at Donna Adelson’s trial. Adelson is accused of orchestrating the murder of her ex-son-in-law.
Katherine Magbanua was convicted for helping arrange the shooting.
Prosecutor Georgia Cappleman asked Magbanua about her conversations with Charlie Adelson, Donna’s son, who is also in prison.
“Did you tell him, like, yes I can do it?” Cappleman asked, referring to what Magbanua said was Charlie’s request that she find someone willing to harm Markel.
“Yes, I just agreed to it, that I had somebody,” Magbanua replied. She and Adelson dated for a while.
Magbanua said Charlie Adelson would step aside for phone conversations with his mom as he and Magbanua were making a plan for the murder. Magbanua said she couldn’t hear the conversations he had with Donna.
In testimont the day before, Donna Adelson’s daughter Wendi took the stand with immunity from the state. She was in a custody battle with Markel when he was killed.
Here is part of an exchange between Cappleman and Wendi Adelson:
Cappleman: “Were you in any way involved in the plot to kill your ex-husband?”
Adelson: “No.”
Cappleman: “Did you maybe know it was gonna happen but not know the details?”
Adelson: “I did not know it was going to happen, and I did not know any details.”
Cappleman: “Did you provide any information, even unknowingly in hindsight, that you think could have been used to assist the murderers?”
Adelson: “I don’t think so. I didn’t provide any information.”
Wendi Adelson added that she had no information that would connect her mother to the murder.
Donna’s estranged son Robert Adelson also took the stand. He is a doctor in New York. He was questioned by Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan about a phone call with his mom after the murder.
“One of the things that she told me is – it bothered me, but I didn’t have any details about – but she said that someone went to the front door and said ‘are you Dan Markel’ and then shot him,” Adelson testified.
Dugan asked, “So she said someone told her that someone knocked on Danny’s door, said ‘are you Dan Markel,’ he said ‘yes,’ and the shooter shot him?”
Adelson replied, “That’s the story I heard, and you know, later we found out that wasn’t what happened. But that story bothered me a lot because there’s only one way you could hear that story.”
Markel was shot as he sat in his vehicle in the open garage of his Betton Hills home.
75-year-old Donna Adelson is the fifth person charged with murder, conspiracy, and solitication. Her son Charlie was convicted, as well as Magbanua and the two hitmen, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.
