Professor’s Wife Called Him an 'STD' Before His Execution-Style Killing — but Denies She Was Involved in Plot By KC Baker 49

Wendi Adelson admits that she has called her law professor ex-husband derogatory names including an “emotional terrorist,” a “dark lord” and even an “STD.”

But that doesn’t mean the 46-year-old mother of two had anything to do with the murder-for-hire plot that ended Canadian-born Dan Markel’s life when he was shot and killed in 2014, she insisted on the stand, The Tallahassee Democrat, Court TV and YouTube’s Surviving the Survivor report.

“I was not involved in any plot to kill Danny,” Wendi testified on Monday, Aug. 25.

Wendi’s mother, Donna Adelson, 75, the matriarch of a wealthy Miami family, is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder in connection with the July 2014 death of Markel, 41.

Donna pleaded not guilty to the charges. She was arrested in Nov. 2023 just as she and her husband, dentist Harvey Adelson, were about to board a one-way flight to flee to Vietnam, a non-extradition country, police said.

The Florida State University professor was shot twice in the head at point-blank range in his Tallahassee garage after bringing his two children with Wendi to preschool and going to the gym, prosecutors said. He was rushed to a local hospital and died 14 hours later.

Donna is accused of masterminding a sinister plot to kill her son-in-law because he wouldn’t allow Wendi to move with their two young sons to the Miami area, where Donna and the family live, prosecutors allege.

Following their bitter 2013 divorce, Wendi and Markel were embroiled in a contentious child custody battle.

Prosecutors allege that Donna, whose family owns a lucrative dentistry practice, helped fund the contract killing, estimated to cost more than $100,000, according to court documents, CNN reports.

Donna is the fifth person charged in connection with the Harvard law school graduate’s murder. 

In 2023, Donna’s son, once-successful Florida periodontist 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.

Charlie’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.

In her opening statements on Friday, Aug. 22, one of Donna’s attorneys said there is no evidence that Donna had anything to do with the murder-for-hire plot, alleging that Charlie paid for it, CNN reports.

Wendi and Markel had separated in 2012 after Wendi took their sons, Ben and Lincoln, to her parents’ house in South Florida while Dan was away on a business trip, according to ABC News. After divorcing in 2013, they were granted joint custody, with Wendi being required by a judge to keep the children in Tallahassee.

On Monday, while Wendi was on the stand, the prosecutor asked if her mother was “very angry” with Markel. “Before he died?” Wendi asked. “Yes.”

She then asked if Wendi “hated him too,” to which Wendi replied, “At certain points I was very frustrated with him.”

Asked if she had ever referred to Markel as an STD, Wendi said, “It looks like I made that analogy.”

Reading an iMessage that Wendy admitted to sending on Feb. 26, 2013, the prosecutor said, “‘Danny is an STD. One wrong mistake marrying him and this will never go away.’ Is that what you said?

“I did,” Wendi replied.

She said she didn’t think she shared this sentiment with her mother. “I don’t ever remember saying that so I dont think it’s something I said very often.”