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

ASHES

ASHES

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
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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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Jury selection wrapped up yesterday, opening statements starting this morning.

 
Judge Stephen Elliot
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Harvey and Donna Adelson:
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ASA (Assistant State Attorney) Georgia Cappleman prosecuting:
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Judge still reading the jury the charging documents and instructions.
 
This is her sad face zoomed in from the above picture.
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I would be sad if I were her too. Her alleged murderer daughter will be testifying against her, and possibly also her convicted murderer son, as well as probably the actual murderers and middlewoman.
 
Now opening statement from the prosecution.
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ASA Sarah Catherine Dugan giving opening, with slideshow:
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Donna, to Wendy before the murder:
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She also suggested edits for Wendy's attorney to make to the divorce documents.
 
They cover well the territory of Donna's motives regarding Wendy's loss of her relocation motion for the kids from Tallahassee, something she had been advocating strongly for. That transitions into the communication with email, text and calls between Wendy and her, and Charlie, and of course the bump and how that showed the line of communication.
 
Donna told Wendy she didn't care if she had to dress their toddlers up in nazi uniforms as long as she could take them to South Florida and let Dan know he wasn't in control. Dan was also Jewish.
 
Donna had been alienating them from him, and he was prepared to fight back. He was having success in court to that point.
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The connections:
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She is 'crying' already as a prosecution witness describes the gunpowder stippling.
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Donna's attorney giving opening statement. It sounded like they're going with the blame it on Charlie, and the blackmail story that failed him at his own trial.
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Luis Rivera took the stand already today. He's the one that plead guilty, the driver. Magbanua, the middleman, and Garcia, the trigger man, were found guilty at their own trials.

35 minutes:
 
Direct evidence might be a problem, can motive alone get a conviction. The trial just started so the prosecution might have something more up they're sleeve.

Did anyone see that bitch crying for her murdered son in law as the prosecution played out his cold blooded murder. Was glad when judge told her to knock off the bullshit.

And if that wasn't sickening enough, her lawyers were laying hands on her, sympathizing with her pain. I mean what a crock of shit.
 
ASHES said:
Donna's attorney giving opening statement. It sounded like they're going with the blame it on Charlie, and the blackmail story that failed him at his own trial.
Click to expand...
Now as the ship is sinking, blood doesn't matter that much anymore.
 
ASHES said:
Luis Rivera took the stand already today. He's the one that plead guilty, the driver. Magbanua, the middleman, and Garcia, the trigger man, were found guilty at their own trials
Click to expand...
Cold blooded piece of shit.
 
But for Wendi none of this would have happened, prosecuting her will be tougher than Donna.
 
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