Criminal Justice
Estranged son of Donna Adelson, charged with law prof’s murder, called as a government witness
Government exhibit from the murder trial of Donna Adelson. (Photo by the Tallahassee Democrat via the Associated Press)
New York physician Robert Adelson, the estranged son of murder defendant Donna Adelson, testified about an unusual phone call during his mother’s trial this week in Tallahassee, Florida, for the murder of a law professor who was her former son-in-law.
It was the first time Robert Adelson testified in any prosecutions in the case, one of which led to the November 2023 conviction of another of Donna Adelson’s sons, dentist Charlie Adelson.
Donna Adelson is accused of seeking the murder of Florida State University College of Law professor Dan Markel to allow her daughter Wendi Adelson, a lawyer who was Markel’s ex-wife, to relocate with the couple’s two children from Tallahassee to be near the family in Miami.
Robert Adelson testified Monday that his mother called on his wedding anniversary, which was two days after the arrests of two alleged hit men, the first arrests in the case. Publications covering the testimony include the Tallahassee Democrat (here and here) and WCTV.
Robert Adelson said he considered the arrests “big news” but his mother did not bring it up during the phone call. He finally broached the topic, according to the Tallahassee Democrat’s coverage. “I said it at least two or three times—that they made an arrest, they got the guy who killed Danny,” Robert Adelson testified. “And her response was, ‘I’ve got to go.’ ”
“That was the last time I spoke with her,” he said.
Robert Adelson also testified about the family dynamic, according to a news analysis by the Tallahassee Democrat that labeled him “the most credible witness on the stand.”
“He testified Donna is controlling and rigid with fixed ideas regarding her children and their lives,” the newspaper reports. “He described his sister Wendi as acting like a ‘damsel in distress’ during the divorce.”
Donna Adelson approved of Markel until Wendi Adelson left him, Robert Adelson testified. Donna Adelson helped her daughter and the children leave while Markel was away for a speaking engagement and was gleeful when her daughter told Markel she had left just before he went on stage.
Wendi Adelson, who has not been charged, denied any involvement in the murder, the Tallahassee Democrat reports in a separate story. In testimony on Monday, she described the legal custody battle with Markel and her inability to get a judge to agree that she should be allowed to relocate with the children. She also said her brother Charlie Adelson had joked about hiring a hit man to kill Markel.
Earlier in the day, an investigator testified that Markel had filed a March 2014 motion to prevent Donna Adelson from having unsupervised visits with the children after they reportedly told Markel that “Grandma says she hates you.”
A hearing on the motion never occurred because Markel was killed beforehand.
Donna Adelson is the fifth person prosecuted in the case. The last person convicted was her son, Charlie Adelson. The alleged triggerman, Sigfredo Garcia, was convicted, and his alleged accomplice, Luis Rivera, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. An alleged go-between accused of hiring the hit men for Charlie Adelson, Katherine Magbanua, was also convicted.
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