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The trial of Donna Adelson for the 1st degree murder/solicitation of murder of Dan Markel

ASHES

ASHES

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This one has been a long time coming. In this 2014 case, Dan Markel, a Canadian born law professor living in Tampa Florida, was murdered by hitmen hired by his ex-wife Wendi Adelson's family.

There was a bitter custody battle about where the kids lived and their religion and stuff in which Wendi was losing, then Dan was murdered and she got everything she wanted. She was also a law professor, and was an author who wrote a non-fiction book that mirrored her own situation that was used against the defendants in their trials.

The hitmen, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, were hired through Katherine Magbanua, the sometimes girlfriend of Charlie Adelson, Wendi's brother. The two gunmen were found guilty and pled guilty to the murder. Katherine's first trial was a hung jury. Charlie's trial was in 2023 and he was found guilty, and so was Katherine in her 2022 retrial.

Now, it's Donna's turn. She was arrested attempting to flee the country in 2023 with a one way ticket to Vietnam after Googling non-extraditable countries.

After her trial, I can only hope we see the trial of Wendi.

Her case has been winding through the court, and now we are getting closer to the trial date of August 25th 2025.

It was set for 2024, but her attorney at the time (who had been Charlie's attorney) withdrew from the case on the first day of jury selection (I believe due to the conflict of interest.)

Obviously I'm not starting out with the presumption of innocence here. There's been other trials. I'm familiar with the evidence. Her fleeing is conciousness of guilt. The same goes for her constant schemes still going on behind bars. I'll feel more confident with a guilty verdict, but in no way will I argue for her innocence.

ETA: forgot to add, in case it wasn't clear, Donna is the mother of Wendi and Charlie.
 
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Magbanua, Garcia, Rivera. Rivera is the one that plead guilty and testified against the others. Garcia and Magbanua were tried together and he was convicted and she was a mistrial until her later conviction.

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Charlie Adelson, convicted 2023

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Wendi Adelson, unindicted co-conspirator. There's some debate as to whether she was in on it before the murder, or they hid it from her. However, after, she definitely participated in the coverup. Plus, she drove to the crime scene right after it happened. Pretty sus.
 
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Dan Markel

www.nbcnews.com

Remembering Dan Markel

Loved ones describe Dan as the fun-loving, welcoming friend and father they remember him to be.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com
 
Couple more things.

The Adelson's family business is dentistry. Charlie was planning on taking over from his dad Harvey Adelson, but things went south after he was convicted. That's one of the ways they paid Katherine, by claiming her as an employee and giving her a check.

The reason we don't talk about much is Harvey is because he is mostly irrelevant. It's clear from the family communications that Donna was bossing Charlie around, and Charlie would convince Wendi to do whatever Donna told him. That included getting involved in her relationships and the custody battle.

No, Harvey is Donna's plausible deniability. The one who can tell the authorities without lying "No we weren't fleeing anything, we just heard that the rice paddies are beautiful this time of year." I am not too concerned if he's ever tried or not, to the extent I am Wendi is, because of her proven knowledge and actions.

Oh, and the laundered money. 🤣 Donna knew they had to launder the cash they were taking from the business to give to the killers, so she literally put it in the laundry. They complained when they got the money it was wet.
 
ASHES said:
View attachment 67575933

This one has been a long time coming. In this 2014 case, Dan Markel, a Canadian born law professor living in Tampa Florida, was murdered by hitmen hired by his ex-wife Wendi Adelson's family.

There was a bitter custody battle about where the kids lived and their religion and stuff in which Wendi was losing, then Dan was murdered and she got everything she wanted. She was also a law professor, and was an author who wrote a non-fiction book that mirrored her own situation that was used against the defendants in their trials.

The hitmen, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, were hired through Katherine Magbanua, the sometimes girlfriend of Charlie Adelson, Wendi's brother. The two gunmen were found guilty and pled guilty to the murder. Katherine's first trial was a hung jury. Charlie's trial was in 2023 and he was found guilty, and so was Katherine in her 2022 retrial.

Now, it's Donna's turn. She was arrested attempting to flee the country in 2023 with a one way ticket to Vietnam after Googling non-extraditable countries.

After her trial, I can only hope we see the trial of Wendi.

Her case has been winding through the court, and now we are getting closer to the trial date of August 25th 2025.

It was set for 2024, but her attorney at the time (who had been Charlie's attorney) withdrew from the case on the first day of jury selection (I believe due to the conflict of interest.)

Obviously I'm not starting out with the presumption of innocence here. There's been other trials. I'm familiar with the evidence. Her fleeing is conciousness of guilt. The same goes for her constant schemes still going on behind bars. I'll feel more confident with a guilty verdict, but in no way will I argue for her innocence.

ETA: forgot to add, in case it wasn't clear, Donna is the mother of Wendi and Charlie.
Click to expand...

Do you know the title of her book? I didnt find it on Amazon.
 
No doubt during this trial, references will be made to "the bump". To avoid any confusion later, I'll give it a quick explanation.

"The bump" is an event in the investigation that happened before anyone had been convicted, but they knew who did it and had already arrested Luis Rivera. What happened is an undercover officer pretended to be an associate of Rivera (the driver, Garcia pulled the trigger), and while she was on her way across the street from her home to Wendi and Dan's kids school to pick them up, he said her name, and gave her a note. Then he tells her he knows the situation and wants to make sure Rivera was taken care of. The note said the same thing, asking for $5000.


The purpose was to see where communications about the plot went from Donna, and of course for them to incriminate themselves. The phones were tapped and they had access to emails and texts. She contacted Charlie after the bump, and their recorded conversations where they talked about the murder in their code helped to convict him.

The bump operation was recorded, you can see it here.
 
I just have to share, Donna's arrest was absolutely fantastic. She really thought she was going to keep her phone. Heh heh.
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