Dan Markel murder: Charlie Adelson spent 35 hours on phone with mom in week of her arrest

A locked-up Charlie Adelson spent an astonishing amount of time on the phone with his mom — and perhaps others using her cell — in the roughly week-long span between his conviction and her arrest in the murder of their former in-law, Dan Markel.

Adelson, a Fort Lauderdale periodontist, was found guilty Nov. 6 after an eight-day trial in Leon Circuit Court for first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in Markel's 2014 death. His mom, Donna Adelson, was arrested Nov. 13 on the same charges after she and her husband tried to board a flight out of Miami with one-way tickets to Vietnam, which has no extradition treaty with the United States.

Charlie Adelson’s call log from the Leon County Detention Facility, obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat through a public records request, shows he racked up 2,118 minutes — more than 35 hours — in jail calls during that fateful week. He made a total of 86 phone calls, though some were not completed, all to the same phone number, which according to court records belongs to Donna Adelson.

The sheer volume of calls — which are monitored and recorded and fair game for prosecutors to use against defendants — was breathtaking for a case with so much evidence involving wire taps and incriminating conversations between members of the Adelson family and others.

What prosecutors say Charlie and Adelson talked about on 'multiple calls'

After Donna Adelson’s arrest, investigators pointed to “multiple calls” between Charlie Adelson, who has been held at the Leon County jail since his arrest last year, and his mom, who was presumably in Miami at the time but now is behind bars in the same facility as her son.

In the calls, “Donna Sue Adelson is telling Charles Adelson that she is getting things in order, creating trusts, and making sure her grandchildren are taken care of,” arrest records state. “Donna discusses plans for a suicide, but also discusses plans to flee to a non-extradition country. Donna Sue Adelson has considerable financial resources to accomplish this.”

Beyond that glimpse into their conversations, it’s unclear exactly what all the Adelsons talked about on the calls. Both the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office denied requests by the Democrat for copies of recordings of the calls. The State Attorney’s Office said that they will become public record once discovery is exchanged between prosecutors and Donna Adelson’s defense lawyers.

FBI Agent Pat Sanford, the bureau’s lead investigator in the Markel murder, seized Donna Adelson’s white Apple Iphone the night she was arrested, according to an affidavit to search her phone that was filed less than 48 hours later. Court records say Donna Adelson “attempted to pull away and prevent” the agent from taking her phone and that she said she had been told not to give it to law enforcement.

However, calls to the phone appear to still be going to the Adelson family. On Monday, a Democrat reporter called the phone number, and a man, who did not identify himself, answered. It’s not clear whether that person was Donna Adelson’s husband, retired dentist Harvey Adelson, who has not been charged.

“Charlie?” the man asked. After the reporter identified himself, the man said, “You know what, I’d love to talk to you but not right now.”

Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman, the lead prosecutor in the Markel case, confirmed that Donna Adelson’s phone had in fact been confiscated.

“It was seized,” she said in a text. “No reason HA (Harvey Adelson) could not have her calls forward to his phone now though."

Markel a Florida State University law professor, was fatally shot July 18, 2014, in the garage of his Betton Hills home by two hired killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, who were later convicted in his murder along with Charlie Adelson’s former girlfriend, Katie Magbanua.

It came during a bitter court battle between Markel and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, over their two sons — which prosecutors say provided the motive for the crime. Wendi Adelson, who took the stand for a third time during her brother’s trial, denied her family was involved.

Jail records: Charlie Adelson and his mom talked every day

Charlie Adelson called his mom at least once a day from jail from the start of his trial Oct. 23 until jurors returned guilty verdicts earlier this month, according to the log. But the calls increased greatly in number and duration after his conviction, which turned the heat up on his mom and prompted widespread speculation that she would be the next person charged in Markel’s murder.

From Oct. 23 through Nov. 6, Charlie Adelson made a total of 116 phone calls to his mom’s phone totaling more than 2,343 minutes or just over 39 hours. Some 90% of the calls were made starting the night of his conviction and running through his mom’s arrest.

Five of the calls were flagged as “three-way call detected,” the records show. Under the jail’s 2017 inmate guide, which is being revised, third-party calls are not allowed.

The single longest call — which lasted nearly two hours — occurred on Nov. 7, the day after the conviction of Charlie Adelson, who faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The day of his mom's arrest, he spent nearly two and a half hours on the phone.

All jail calls are monitored or recorded with the exception of conversations between inmates and their lawyers. And while the jail used to restrict phone calls to no longer than 15 minutes, it loosened those rules in the wake of the pandemic.

Angela Green-Sherrod, spokeswoman for the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, said incarcerated individuals can make collect and pre-paid calls using phones located in each of the pods or electronic tablets that each one is issued. She said the technology was implemented during the pandemic, when the detention facility moved from on-site to video inmate visitation.

“As a result of this integration, limitations on phone usage were reevaluated, and inmates now have increased opportunities for communication with those tablets,” she said in an email. “Usage of both is restricted during facility lockdowns and shift changes.”

Charlie Adelson's call log shows his debit account was charged for only a fraction of the calls, some 115 minutes, totaling $18.72, not including fees and taxes. It wasn't entirely clear whether the remaining calls were collect.

Defense attorney: Jail calls can be 'nail in the coffin' for defendants

Mutaqee Akbar, a noted Tallahassee criminal defense lawyer, said inmates don’t have to wait to use the phone like they did before COVID. They essentially have unfettered access to phones and tablets, absent a lockdown, allowing them to make calls “at will.”

“As long as there’s not a shutdown going on, they can just use the phone as long as they have money on it,” he said. “And somebody like Adelson who has an unlimited amount of money, that’s pretty much like having a cell phone in his cell. All he needs is somebody to just put money on his phone in order to make whatever phone calls that he wants to make.”

He was surprised, however, by the amount of time Charlie Adelson spent on the phone, particularly the week leading up to his mom's arrest.

"Five hours a day does seem long," he said.

Akbar said he advises his clients who are in jail to stay in touch with family and friends via the phones and to talk about general things — “but definitely not about the case.” He said law enforcement and prosecutors in particular mine recorded phone calls for evidence they can use in court.

He said he’s seen defendants deny allegations in court only to admit to them in jail calls. In other cases, defendants have spoken to someone they’ve been ordered not to communicate with or have given instructions for a witness not to testify.

“It happens all the time,” Akbar said. “We’ve seen it all. It could be that nail in the coffin a lot of times. And it could be the difference between we’ve got a triable case and you’ve got to take this plea.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Charlie Adelson spent 35 hours on phone with mother Donna before arrest