The mother of a Florida dentist convicted last week in the contract killing of her former brother-in-law has been arrested at an airport while allegedly trying to flee the country — and accused of masterminding a twisted murder-for-hire scheme.
Donna Adelson, 73, the matriarch of a wealthy family of dentists, was detained Monday night at Miami International Airport as she and her husband, Harvey, were about to use a one-way ticket to Vietnam via Dubai – two countries without an extradition treaty with the US.
He was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the 2014 death of prominent Florida State University law professor Dan Markel, who was shot in the head inside his Tallahassee garage.
His son Dr. Charlie Adelson, 47, was recently convicted of murdering Markel, 41, who is at the center of a bitter custody battle with the killer dentist’s sister, lawyer Wendi Adelson.
Donna Adelson, 73, was arrested at Miami International Airport and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy. AP The arrest is the latest in connection with the 2014 murder-for-hire of Dan Markel, pictured here.FSU College of Law
Leon County State’s Attorney Jack Campbell said he had planned to charge the parents of the family with the plot, but accelerated that plan when investigators learned he planned to flee.
“It’s going to be complicated and very difficult to bring them back, depending on where they end up in the world,” Campbell said.
“The arrest was not just based on flight, but that played a role in timing.”
In the days before his arrest, Adelson discussed “dealing with the situation” — with plans to either kill himself or flee to a non-extradition country — in a call with his son Charlie after his guilty verdict, according to recently filed court documents.
He is currently being held in the Miami-Dade County Jail without bail pending his transfer to Tallahassee.
Charlie Adelson, pictured here, was convicted Nov. 6 of first-degree murder and related charges.AP
On November 6, the jury found Dr. Charlie Adelson, 47, is guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy and soliciting the murder of his former brother-in-law.
Prosecutors said the periodontist arranged the murder-for-hire through his then-girlfriend, Katie Magbanua, who tapped her ex-husband and father of her children, Sigfredo Garcia, and his friend, Luis Rivera — both members of the violent Latin Kings gang — for the job. which is horrible.
Magbanua and Garcia, the triggerman, are already serving life sentences after being convicted of first-degree murder. Rivera was sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and agreeing to testify against his accomplice.
Charlie Adelson, who, like his mother, has denied any involvement in the murder, faces a mandatory life sentence when he is sentenced next month.
Charlie Adelson’s ex-girlfriend, Katie Magbanua, is serving a life sentence on a murder conviction for her role in the murder. Broward County Sheriff’s Office Magbanua’s ex-husband, Sigfredo Garcia, who was the triggerman, was convicted of first-degree murder. AP
The dentist father of two testified during his trial that his family had offered Markel $1 million to allow Wendi Adelson to move back to Miami with their two sons, but he refused.
That’s when, according to prosecutors, the Adelson family began hatching a plan to kill Markel.
Charlie steadfastly maintained his innocence – but admitted in court that he had made a joke about hiring an assassin to kill Markel as a gift for his sister.
“When I gave him a TV set as a divorce gift – the stupidest thing I’ve ever said in my life – and I said, ‘I’ll get you a hitman, but the TV set is a lot cheaper so I’m going with the TV set instead.’ I say it as a complete joke and it’s stupid but I do that a lot,” Adelson said in court.
During his trial, it was shown that Charlie paid Magbanua $138,000, which he broke with two hired guns, and the Adelsons later gave him absentee work at their dental clinic and other payments totaling more than $56,000, plus a used Lexus. .
Adelson claimed during his trial that he had made a joke that he would hire an assassin as a gift for his sister. AP
Wendi Adelson and her father, dentist Harvey Adelson, have not been charged in the murder-for-hire plot, but Campbell said the investigation remains open.
Wendi told detectives that Markel’s murder could have been arranged on her behalf, saying her parents were “very angry” at her ex.
During a years-long multi-agency investigation, detectives tracked down phone records that showed a flurry of calls between Charlie and Magbanua, he and the killer and Charlie, his mother and sister in the hours before and immediately after the murder.
Phil Markel buried his face in his hands after hearing a jury find Charlie Adelson guilty on all three counts in the murder of his son, Dan Markel.AP
Charlie Adelson was arrested last year after a technician enhanced a recording made of him and Magbanua inside a Mexican restaurant in 2016, telling him, in part, that if he thought police had any evidence that the family masterminded Markel’s murder, “we’d be gone. to the airport.”
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
