Ex Mother-In-Law Arrested For Alleged Role In Hiring Hitmen To Kill FSU Law Professor

 Last week, Florida dentist Charlie Adelson was convicted of plotting to have his former brother-in-law murdered. Now, Adelson’s mother has been arrested for her alleged role in the murder-for-hire plot.

Donna Adelson, 73, was arrested on Monday and charged in connection with the murder of her former son-in-law, Florida State University law professor Dan Markel, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Donna has been charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation, the same charges on which Charlie was convicted.

State Attorney Jack Campbell told the outlet that Donna and her husband were intercepted at Miami International Airport preparing to board a flight to Vietnam, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. Campbell also said that police and prosecutors had enough evidence to arrest Donna, but the timeline of her arrest was sped up after they learned she was flying to Vietnam.

“That’s what forced our hand,” Campbell told the Democrat. “We started talking to some of our law enforcement partners about the complexities of trying to bring someone back from either Dubai or Vietnam. And that might be a very complicated and lengthy process. So that’s why we had to make a decision quickly.”

The flight was scheduled less than 48 hours before a grand jury was set to meet – which may have taken Donna’s case. Campbell added that there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest Donna’s husband, Harvey.

Donna is currently being held at the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond but is expected to be transported to the same detention facility where her son is incarcerated and awaiting sentencing.

Charlie Adelson, 47, was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation of first-degree murder, according to People Magazine. A jury deliberated for just three hours before finding him guilty, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Charlie reportedly mouthed the word “no” and lowered his head to the table after the first guilty verdict was read. He showed little reaction to the other verdicts.

Charlie was found guilty of hiring hitmen in 2014 to kill Markel. Markel and Charlie’s sister, Wendi, were locked in a contentious child custody dispute at the time the professor was murdered. Wendi had wanted to take the couple’s two children to Miami after their divorce to be closer to her family but was told she couldn’t make the move unless Markel consented, which he didn’t.

Markel had pulled into his garage on July 18, 2014, and was promptly shot twice in the head by unknown assailants. He was taken to a hospital but died 14 hours later.

Years later, it was discovered that the murder was part of a plot devised by Charlie and his mother Donna, who used a woman named Katherine Magbanua as an intermediary to hire two men, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, to murder Markel.

At the time of the planning, Charlie was dating Magbanua, who hired Garcia, the father of her children, to kill Markel. Garcia enlisted Rivera to help him, according to prosecutors. Garcia and Rivera drove to Tallahassee from Miami in a rental car to conduct the murder. This rental car was tracked across the state of Florida and was even captured on bus cameras, placing it in the vicinity of Markel’s home just after the murder.

Rivera pled guilty in 2016 to the crime and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. In 2019, Garcia was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for the conspiracy. Magbanua was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Her first trial resulted in a hung jury, and she is appealing her conviction.

During his trial, Charlie claimed he had nothing to do with the plot to murder Markel, WPLG reported. He claimed Magbanua, who became his ex-girlfriend, had planned the murder with Garcia and Rivera all on her own and then extorted him. This was Charlie’s attempt to explain away the $100,000 paid to Magbanua.