Is the Matriarch a Murderer? A Family Feud Turns Deadly in a Professor’s Driveway By KC Baker

The long-awaited trial of the matriarch of a wealthy Florida family accused of being the mastermind behind a murder-for-hire plot to kill her professor son-in-law in 2014 is set to begin on Tuesday, Aug. 19.

Donna Adelson, 75, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree murder in the alleged 2014 murder-for-hire of her son-in-law, Florida State University law professor Dan Markel, according to online court records.

In 2023, her son, Florida dentist Charlie Adelson, 47, was found guilty of the same crimes she is now facing: first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder.

Adelson’s former girlfriend Katherine Magbanua, and the two men hired to kill Markel — Latin Kings gang leader Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia, the father of Magbanua’s children — were also sentenced to prison in connection with the murder-for-hire plot.

On the morning of July 18, 2014, Markel, 41, was shot twice in the head at point-blank range at his Tallahassee home after bringing his children to preschool and going to the gym, prosecutors said.

Markel was sitting in his Honda Accord in his garage talking on the phone when he was shot by two hired killers, prosecutors said. He was rushed to a local hospital and died 14 hours later. 

According to prosecutors, Charlie and his mother, Donna Adelson, Magbanua and two hitmen allegedly conspired to have Markel killed because he was standing in the way of Wendi Adelson, Charlie’s sister and Donna’s daughter, being able to relocate to the Miami area with the couple’s two sons amid a contentious custody battle after their 2013 divorce.

Wendi Adelson has never been charged in connection with her husband’s murder.

Markel’s murder “stemmed from the desperate desire of the Adelson family” for Wendi and the children to be able to move to South Florida to be near her family, prosecutors said during Charlie Adelson’s trial, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Donna Adelson, whose husband, Harvey Adelson, founded the Adelson Institute for Aesthetics and Implant Dentistry in Tamarac, was arrested a week after her son’s conviction.

Donna Adelson was allegedly pushing Wendi to move to Miami, WPTV reported.

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“Email evidence indicates Wendi’s parents, especially her mother, wanted Wendi to coerce Markel into allowing the relocation to South Florida,” according to a 2013 affidavit obtained by WPTV after a Leon County judge formally denied Wendi’s motion to move to Miami with the children.

Donna allegedly “hated” her son-in-law, prosecutors said, especially after Markel asked the judge to prevent her from having unsupervised visits with her grandchildren, Law & Crime reported.

She was apprehended at Miami International Airport just as she and her husband were about to board a one-way flight to Vietnam, which is a non-extradition country.

During Charlie Adelson’s trial, Rivera testified that he and Garcia were paid $100,000 to kill Markel, which they split with Magbanua who set up the deal, according to Rivera, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Jury selection is set to begin on Tuesday, Aug. 19.