Florida dentist accused of hiring hitmen to kill his sister’s ex-husband
Nearly eight years after a prominent Florida State University law professor was gunned down in his driveway, his former brother-in-law has been accused of orchestrating the murder so that his sister could comfortably move with her two children to the Fort Lauderdale area from Tallahassee.
Charles Adelson was taken into custody by FBI agents at his home Thursday in connection with the 2014 slaying of Daniel Markel, a long unsolved mystery that has gripped the nation for nearly a decade. He was being held Friday at the Broward County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder after being arrested at his home by U.S. Marshals.
In the years since Markel’s murder, Adelson and other members of his family have been eyed as potential suspects. His sister, Wendi Adelson, was in the middle of a contentious custody battle with Markel when he was killed outside of his Tallahassee home in broad daylight on July 18, 2014.
Following their divorce, Wendi was left unable to relocate because she and Markel shared custody of their two children.
A grandy jury indicted Adelson on Thursday after listening to an April 2016 video recording, which captured a 40-minute conversation between the suspect and his former girlfriend and employee, Katherine Magbanua. Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell said in a statement that technicians had further enhanced the audio, revealing comments “by Charles Adelson which can be heard clearly for the first time.”
Magbanua is accused of helping organize the killing. She’s slated to be retried next month on a first-degree murder charge after a hung jury in 2019. Prosecutors have alleged that she hired Sigfredo Garcia, the father of her two children, to kill Markel and that he enlisted the help of his childhood friend, Luis Rivera.
The men then drove from South Florida to Tallahassee, where they stalked Markel as he dropped off his kids at daycare and then stopped by the gym. When the FSU professor arrived back at home, Garcia shot him as he sat in his car talking on his cellphone.
Garcia was convicted of first-degree murder in 2019 and sentenced to life behind bars. Rivera is serving a 19-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against Garcia and Magbanua.
David Markus, Adelson’s attorney, said his client is innocent and tied the arrest to Magbanua’s retrial.
“Prosecutors have no new information that led to this arrest,” Markus said in a statement. “The timing sure does stink, doesn’t it? On the eve of a long-awaited trial of (Magbanua), this move has the smell of desperation.”
With News Wire Services
