Charlie Adelson trial LIVE: State, defense making closing arguments in Dan Markel murder

Elena Barrera and Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat

The prosecution and defense will deliver their closing arguments Monday morning in the murder trial of Charlie Adelson, who's accused of arranging the 2014 murder-for-hire killing of Dan Markel.

Both sides wrapped their cases last week as Adelson himself opted to take the stand and testify in his own defense. The case is expected to go to the jury later today.

Prosecutors allege Adelson and his family had the Florida State law professor killed in 2016 to put an end to a nasty child custody battle between the defendant's sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel, her ex-husband. The two shared two sons together.

The Adelson trial marks the third in the Markel case since 2019 and the first against one of his in-laws. Sigfredo Garcia, one of the two hit men hired to kill Markel, and Katie Magbanua, his girlfriend and Adelson's link to the killers were tried in 2019. He was convicted, though there was a mistrial for Magbanua, who was found guilty in her second trial last year. The other hit man, Luis Rivera, pleaded guilty and testified against the pair.

Adelson maintains he was extorted by Magbanua and didn't tell the police because he was scared he would be killed.

Scroll on for live updates from the courtroom

Judge Stephen Everett instructs the jury for deliberation

As the eighth day of Charlie Adelson's trial for the murder of Dan Markel begins, Adelson's fate is on the horizon.

Judge Stephen Everett told jurors that the state must prove three elements beyond a reasonable doubt for a guilty verdict on first-degree murder. They must find that Dan Markel is dead, that the death was caused by the criminal act of Adelson and that it was premeditated.

"It's up to you to decide which evidence is reliable," Everett said to the jury.

He advised them that some witness testimonies should be considered with more caution than others, and that Adelson's testimony should be considered like any other witness' statements.

"All of us are depending upon you to make a wise decision," Everett said.

State presents closing statement

Sometimes when a defendant can't dispute the facts, they try to distort the facts you are seeing, Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman said to the jury.

A defendant will create an explanation, their own version of the story, in an attempt to make it go away, she said.

"To find it reasonable you have to buy a lot of things he’s selling," Cappleman said.

Under Adelson's story, "these stone cold killers" let him go on a payment plan to pay the extortion he said they demanded.

"I have no way of knowing if this stuff sounds ridiculous to you," she said. "But they only need to get one of you confused enough to derail this whole thing."

Cappleman took the jury through the case from the very beginning, evaluating key points of evidence and testimonies for the last time.

She said the "trash talk" — Adelson's joke about a TV being cheaper than a hitman — would have been meaningless had Markel not actually been killed by a hitman.

“Dan Markel remains the only victim in this case" Cappleman said. "The only thing he is guilty of is fighting like hell for those kids. And he lost. He didn’t lose in court, but he lost.”

Wendi Adelson denied her mother's involvement in her divorce with Markel, but emails between the mother and daughter show otherwise, Cappleman said.

Cappleman read emails to the jury that urged Wendi to do whatever she could to show Markel he wasn't in control and to put on the "performance of a lifetime."

Wendi also denied that she ever felt "stuck" in Tallahassee even though she wrote an entire book about being stuck in the city because of her Canadian husband's job, Cappleman added.

Text messages between Charlie and Donna Adelson were reintroduced to the jury, as well as motions that were filed from the proceedings following the divorce.

Cappleman reminded jurors of the motion Markel filed to limit Donna's visits with the two kids, which she said happened four months before he was killed.

"Could the defendant have cared enough about his sister's marital problems to commit the murder?" Cappleman asked. "Maybe, maybe not."

She said that even if he didn't, his mother certainly did, and she was in his ear all the time.

On Halloween 2013, Adelson began soliciting Katherine Magbanua to orchestrate the hit, Cappleman said. The conspiracy spread when he got in contact with a person who could get the job done.

With Markel out of the picture, she said, relocation was no longer a problem. Wendi took her kids and moved them just a few days after the murder and changed their last name from Markel to Adelson.

"And just like that, their father was erased," she said.

Cappleman said Adelson might have gotten away with the murder were it not for a few things, including Jim Geiger, Markel's next door neighbor who heard the gunshots and caught a glimpse of the Prius the killers had rented.

"If push came to shove, who are you going to believe?" Cappleman asked. "An oral surgeon or a gang member? He's banking on that."

It's "not reasonable" to believe that the killers found out where Dan Markel would be the day of the murder from the victim's professor blog, she said.

Markel was executed, close range, in his garage and left for dead. If it wasn't for Geiger, who knows how long he would have suffered there alone and unaided, Cappleman said.

"You've heard wildly different versions of how this thing went down and they both can't be right," Cappleman said.

The defense lies on the theory that Adelson was extorted for the money paid out to Magbanua and the killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.

Adelson testified that his relationship with Magbanua grew stronger during the alleged extortion. She was taking his money, so it defies logic that they'd become closer, Cappleman said.

She also pointed out that the payments to the involved parties stopped after the bump, and that this is most likely because they suspected it was law enforcement and were spooked. Why else would the payments stop if he was being extorted like he said?

“The players in this case are smart," Cappleman said. "They have given a lot of thought to their preparations before and their explanations after. They really thought of almost everything.”

The "bump" is a direct example of how Adelson acts when he's threatened, she said. He doesn't keep quiet about the "bump," and he investigates his suspicions.

Cappleman reminded jurors of the Dolce Vita recording and Adelson's comments to Magbanua.

“If they had any evidence, we’d already be at the airport,” Adelson said on the recording.

“Does that sound like an innocent man?” Cappleman asked.

He never paid the $5,000 that the blackmailer wanted, which is a "pittance" to what he already paid out to the killers. Adelson then said on the recording that if Garcia can't take of the undercover agent, he would find somebody else who could.

After the murder, Adelson had the best year of his life in 2015, Cappleman said. His sister was happy, his mother was happy, he was making money "hand over fist" and he just began a new relationship with June Umchinda, who described the beginning of their relationship as "a fairytale," she said.

Umchinda and Ryan Fitzpatrick, a former friend and business partner, both testified that his behavior changed around the time of the "bump."

"And why on earth would he be more stressed out with his extortionists arrested?" Cappleman asked.

Cappleman said when she presented the extortion theory to Luis Rivera he laughed and said, "That's a good one."

"Their jigsaw theory is a pile of pieces that just don't fit together," she said. "How many coincidences can there be until they are no longer coincidences?"

Defense begins closing statement

Daniel Rashbaum, Charlie Adelson's attorney, said they didn't have to prove Adelson's innocence, but he said he believes they did prove he is innocent.

"Sometimes the simple answer is the wrong answer," Rashbaum said. "Sometimes things aren't so simple."

Adelson didn't have a motive to "upend his life," Rashbaum said, he was just living his life. The state presented the issue of relocation as a motive for the murder. But Rashbaum said that the move was denied a year before the murder and that the move would have no direct effect on Adelson's life.

"Use your common sense," he said. "It's a puzzle piece they can't explain."

Rashbaum told jurors that they don't have to like Adelson and that there are many reasons not to, but that doesn't make him a murderer.

He pointed out how FBI agent Pat Sanford testified that he's worked many murder-for-hire cases, but none of the hitman were paid over time. Rashbaum said Sanford testified that he has seen extortions executed like this.

Katherine Magbanua's testimony was then questioned by Rashbaum. He noted how she lied throughout her proffer and trials, but came and testified that she was now telling the truth.

"The one thing I hate is when someone comes in this courtroom and lies," Rashbaum said. "I hate even more when a murderer comes in this courtroom and lies."

Chronicling the Charlie Adelson trial:

GAVEL-TO-GAVEL COVERAGE:

The Tallahassee Democrat will livestream each day of the trial of Charlie Adelson from the courthouse in Tallahassee. Watch on Tallahassee.com and the Tallahassee Democrat's Facebook and YouTube pages. For best viewing experience: Download the Tallahassee Democrat app to watch and receive text alerts on when to watch – from opening arguments to the verdict.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Live Charlie Adelson trial: Closing arguments in Dan Markel murder case

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