Jury hears opening statements in trial of Florida matriarch charged in her ex-son-in-law’s death

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — More than a decade after a hired hit man shot her former son-in-law in the head in his Tallahassee garage, 75-year-old Donna Adelson is now on trial for helping orchestrate the 2014 murder of Daniel Markel, the Florida State University law professor who at the time of his death was locked in a bitter child custody fight with his ex-wife and Adelson’s daughter, Wendi Adelson. The couple had been married seven years before finalizing their divorce in 2013.

Donna Adelson faces charges of first-degree murder as well as conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder, in a trial that is expected to extend into September. If convicted, Adelson could spend the rest of her life in prison.

After three days of questioning, Florida Second Judicial Circuit Judge Stephen Everett seated a panel of 12 jurors and two alternates on Thursday, who he said could approach the case fairly and impartially. That’s no small feat in a case that has riveted Florida’s capital for more than a decade, as sordid details emerged about a messy divorce, tensions with wealthy in-laws and custody battles that culminated in the murder of a prominent local professor.

Four others are already serving prison time for what prosecutors say was a murder-for-hire plot hatched by members of the Adelson family and carried out by paid gunmen. Three people have been sentenced to life in prison, including Adelson’s son Charles Adelson.

In opening statements Friday in the same Tallahassee courtroom where her son was convicted, prosecutors painted Donna Adelson as the calculated and controlling matriarch of a wealthy South Florida family with the means and motive to orchestrate the killing of the ex-son-in-law she “hated.” The disdain grew from his standing in the way of letting her daughter and two young grandsons leave Tallahassee for South Florida to live closer to the rest of the family, more than 370 miles (595 kilometers) away.

Authorities say the Adelsons considered offering Markel $1 million to let his ex-wife and sons relocate to South Florida after he got a court order barring the move. Instead, prosecutors say members of the family began plotting his death, with Donna Adelson as a driving force.

“The defendant said that she would never, never, never give up and never stop fighting for Wendi and the boys to be relocated to Miami. And she never did,” prosecutor Sarah Kathryn Dugan said.

“The defendant acted in furtherance of this murder plot that went beyond just thinking about it or talking about it. And these acts make her guilty as a principal in first-degree murder, just as if she was the one pulling the trigger in the garage herself,” Dugan added.

Throughout the trial, Adelson has played an active role in her own defense, writing notes in a legal pad and studying prosecutors and witnesses behind a pair of tortoise-shell-style glasses.

In their openings, Adelson’s defense attorneys insisted that the state doesn’t have sufficient evidence to link the aging grandmother to the murder plot that they acknowledged was devastating and “outrageous” in its cruelty. Instead, they emphasized the roles played by others, including the hired gunmen and Adelson’s own son, who prosecutors say handed over the money to pay for the killing.

Defense attorney Jackie Fulford dismissed what she described as a sensational and headline-grabbing “story” told by prosecutors about a “matriarch mastermind” — for which the lawyer argued there is no evidence.

“It is truly outrageous,” Fulford said of the killing. “But what’s more outrageous is, without any evidence, only motive and theory, they put her at the top of this pyramid.”

A week after Donna Adelson’s son was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2023, she herself was arrested at the Miami airport, as she and her husband, Harvey Adelson, were trying to board an international flight to Thailand — a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States — using one-way tickets.

Harvey and daughter, Wendi Adelson, have denied involvement in the murder and have not been charged.

As the trial proceeds, the prosecution intends to call key members of Donna Adelson’s family as witnesses, including Charles and Wendi.

Also on the state’s witness list are Katherine Magbanua, Charles Adelson’s then-girlfriend, who prosecutors say served as the go-between with the two men hired to carry out the killing, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, who are also expected to testify.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.