A South Florida dentist who was convicted last month of being the mastermind behind the murder of a Florida State University professor in 2014 was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Charlie Adelson, 47, was found guilty on Nov. 6 of first-degree murder along with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder in the killing of Daniel Markel.
Adelson’s sister, Wendi Adelson, had divorced from Markel and shared custody of their two children. She wanted to move from Tallahassee in the north of the state to South Florida to be closer to her family. However, a judge at the time ruled that Wendi Adelson couldn’t relocate without Markel’s consent and he refused, saying she couldn’t move the children to Miami.
Prosecutors told jurors at trial that Adelson paid to have the prominent professor killed and that he used his girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, to hire the father of her two children, Sigfredo Garcia, to commit the murder. They said Garcia enlisted the help of his childhood friend, Luis Rivera.
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Magbanua and Garcia were convicted of first-degree murder and Rivera is serving a 19-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against them.
A week after Charlie Adelson's conviction, the matriarch of the family was arrested at Miami International Airport on charges of orchestrating the hit-man murder of her ex-son-in-law.
Authorities said Donna Adelson, 73, was arrested Nov. 13 as she and her husband were about to use one-way tickets to board a flight to Dubai and Vietnam, countries that do not have an extradition treaty with the United States. She is charged with arranging the 2014 murder.
Officers booked Donna Adelson into Miami-Dade's Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on an out-of-county warrant, records show.
During Donna Adelson's appearance in bond court on Nov. 14, Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer said the charges were out of Leon County, and said she would remain behind bars.
Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell said in a phone interview last month that while he believes his prosecutors already had enough evidence to convict Adelson, plans for her arrest had to be accelerated when investigators learned of her plans to leave the country.
Donna Adelson has long denied involvement in the killing of Markel.
MORE ON THE DANIEL MARKEL KILLING
Authorities say the Adelsons offered Markel $1 million to let his ex-wife and sons move, but when he refused Charlie Adelson and other members of the family began plotting his death.
During his trial, it was shown that Charlie Adelson paid Magbanua $138,000, which she split with the killers, and the family then gave her a no-show job at their dental practice and other payments totaling more than $56,000. Charlie Adelson also gave her a used Lexus.
Wendi Adelson and her father, dentist Harvey Adelson, have not been charged, but Campbell said the investigation remains open. They have denied involvement.
Markel was shot while parking in his garage after he dropped his sons off at daycare and visited the gym.
The Adelsons immediately became suspects in Markel's slaying after Wendi Adelson told detectives that the killing could have been arranged on her behalf, saying her parents were “very angry at Markel.” She told them that her brother had joked about hiring a hit man to kill Markel as a divorce gift, but he bought her a TV instead.
Still, the investigation involving local and state agencies and the FBI proceeded slowly.
Investigators were able to track phone records showing numerous calls between Charlie Adelson and Magbanua, her and the killers and Charlie Adelson, his mother and his sister in the hours before and shortly after the killing as well as large monetary transactions between the family and Magbanua. Garcia and Rivera were then linked to a rented Toyota Prius the killers used.
In 2016, an FBI agent, impersonating an extortionist, approached Donna Adelson outside her home and demanded $5,000 to not turn information about the slaying over to investigators. The ruse had been concocted in hopes that it would trigger a reaction from the Adelsons.
She contacted her son, telling him they needed to discuss “some paperwork” and that “you probably have a general idea what I'm talking about.” They led to several calls and meetings between her and her son.
Charlie Adelson was arrested after technicians enhanced a recording made of him and Magbanua inside a Mexican restaurant in 2016 while they were under surveillance discussing the extortion attempt.
In the conversation, Adelson told Magbanua that she would need to meet with the extortionist and agree to a one-time payment.
He also told her he wasn't worried about being arrested, but if he thought police had any evidence proving the family orchestrated the slaying, “we would have already gone to the airport.”
