Matriarch in murder-for-hire trial decided not to testify after clashing with judge. The jury found her guilty the next day

By Lauren del Valle, Jean Casarez, CNN

(CNN) — A day before Donna Adelson was convicted of first-degree murder for orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot to kill her former son-in-law, the 75-year-old woman agonized over whether to testify in her defense in a Tallahassee, Florida, courtroom.

Adelson, convicted Thursday after not taking the stand, was initially charged in 2023 with first-degree murder and other charges for her role in a plot to kill prominent Florida State University law professor Dan Markel in 2014, which prosecutors said was motivated by her desire to end the bitter custody battle between Markel and Adelson’s daughter, Wendi.

The subject of a true-crime podcast and television specials, the complicated family drama with its matriarch at the forefront was among this summer’s criminal cases of intrigue.

At the televised trial that spanned about two weeks, state prosecutors presented evidence from an FBI sting operation, wiretapped phone calls and testimony from Adelson’s adult children, jailhouse informants and alleged co-conspirators — elements that helped prove Adelson was the mastermind behind the contract killing that she helped fund and conspired with her son, Charles Adelson, for years to cover up.

Donna Adelson’s defense case lasted two days: Her attorneys called 12 witnesses, including a few longtime friends who served as character witnesses, and Wendi’s former divorce lawyer, who suggested her divorce and custody battle over their two boys weren’t as contentious as the prosecution claimed.

Donna Adelson chose not to testify after struggling with the decision. Her attorneys said they didn’t have adequate time to discuss Donna’s possible testimony with her and asked the judge several times for more time. At one point Wednesday, the judge indulged their request to meet with Adelson and the attorneys at a side bar out of the public’s earshot.

“I am not prepared to make that decision. This decision affects the rest of my life,” Adelson told the judge later that day after a long lunch break.

At that point, Judge Stephen Everett said, “You’re in the same position as every other criminal defendant who faces trial. Ultimately, you must decide whether you will testify or whether you will not.”

“I know I have to choose,” Adelson responded. “I was hoping I would have some time to speak to my attorneys.”

Everett granted her another few minutes to mull it over before demanding she make a decision, threatening to consider holding her attorneys in contempt.

After a long silence standing at the defense table, Donna Adelson finally said, “At this time, I don’t want to testify.”

‘A murder of convenience’

Her decision was a change of course from what her attorneys signaled ahead of the trial. Lead prosecutor Georgia Cappleman told reporters after the trial ended Thursday night that she was surprised by the decision but understood it.

Adelson’s move was a departure from her son’s defense strategy. Charles Adelson testified at length in his own trial before he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

After hearing closing arguments on Thursday, the jury took about three hours to render its verdict: Donna Adelson was guilty of first-degree murder and counts of conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

“Oh my God,” she said audibly at the defense table, bursting into sobs after the first guilty count was read.

After her initial outburst, the judge then removed the jury from the courtroom. Then he told Adelson outside of their presence that he would have to remove her if she couldn’t compose herself.

Markel’s mother, Ruth, had harsh words for his son’s former mother-in-law in a victim impact statement after the guilty verdict was read.

“At its core, this was a murder of convenience so that one grandmother could live closer to her grandchildren. She killed their father and ripped the children from the other grandparents’ lives,” Ruth Markel said.

Dan’s father, Phil Markel, referenced the fate of his surviving grandchildren in his statement.

“In the Jewish custom, we have an expression to always wish others to live to 120 years of age. For Donna, I wish her to live to 120 alone in her jail cell,” Markel said. “I wish that every day of her remaining days, she thinks about the harm she has caused to so many, especially those two boys she claims to have loved so much.”

She’s the fifth co-conspirator convicted

The two hit men who carried out the killing were arrested in 2016, but it took years and a sting operation encircling the Adelson family before Charles Adelson was arrested in 2022.

Katherine Magbanua, who the son was dating in 2014, ultimately was convicted in 2022 for her role in facilitating the murder plot. Her children’s father, Sigfredo Garcia, was convicted of killing Dan Markel. Garcia had help from his longtime friend Luis Rivera, a known Latin Kings gang member who took a plea deal in 2016 and ultimately helped law enforcement tie Garcia, Magbanua and Charles Adelson to the crime.

The jury at this trial saw records suggesting that Donna Adelson, who lived with her husband in a luxury Miami condo, had the means to fund the murder plot that cost over $100,000 with their son, who worked with them at the family’s thriving dentistry practice.

Prosecutors in this case showed extensive communications between mother and son, illustrating their close relationship and how Donna kept track of things for Charles, who in turn solved all kinds of problems for her.

Neither the prosecution nor his mother’s attorneys called Charles Adelson to the stand in her trial, though Donna’s lawyers pointed the finger at him in her defense, telling the jury that he alone paid over $100,000 for Markel’s contract kill.

Magbanua testified in the state’s case against Donna Adelson that she believed Charles ferried information to his mother about the murder plot though he never explicitly said as much to her. She said that many times before the murder when Charles would discuss the arrangement with her, he would step away to call his mom.

Magbanua went to Charles Adelson’s house the night of the murder to get the money for herself and the two hit men, she testified. Charles told her at the time that his parents had just left his house. When she later asked him why the cash was damp and moldy, Charles told her his mother had physically washed it, Magbanua testified.

About three months after Markel’s murder, Magbanua testified that she began receiving paychecks from the Adelson Institute for Aesthetics & Implant Dentistry and that Charles would hand deliver them to her, usually several at one time, and Donna had always signed them. Magbanua never actually worked for the family dental practice, she said, but received 44 checks until April 2016.

Donna’s defense attorney said in closing arguments that she wrote the checks at her son’s direction.

Around that time in 2016, an undercover FBI agent approached Donna Adelson purporting to extort her with information about the contract killing on behalf of Rivera. Although she eventually called the undercover agent and denied knowing about the murder plot, Donna’s first call after the confrontation with the agent was to Charles, trial evidence showed.

She told her son discreetly on the wiretapped call played for the jury that they needed to meet in person to discuss the situation that probably had to do with both of them. The prosecution told the jury they should consider Donna’s words on that call a confession.

‘You can stay tuned’

Wendi and her father, Harvey Adelson, have not been charged in connection to the murder-for-hire plot though they came up in evidence at Donna’s trial.

Evidence showed Wendi’s resentment after a judge denied her 2013 petition to relocate her sons away from Markel in Tallahassee to South Florida to be near her brother and parents.

The jury saw extensive emails between Donna and Wendi that showed how Donna pushed Wendi to pursue relocation to South Florida at any cost, including offering her ex-husband $1 million and taunting him with the possibility of converting their kids from Judaism to Catholicism.

Adelson’s defense attorney said her interest in Wendi’s custody battle didn’t mean she had Wendi’s ex-husband killed.

“She said some ugly things and she meddles in her children’s lives, meddles in their lives, gets involved in their divorce. She’s a parent. She’s just being a parent, not a killer. She’s a meddler, not a murderer,” Jackie Fulford told the jury at closing arguments.

At Donna’s trial, Wendi Adelson testified that she hasn’t spoken to her mother since November 2023, around the time her brother Charles was convicted.

She testified that in October of that year her mother had encouraged her to testify in a way that would help her brother at his trial. Donna was upset with how her daughter testified, feeling like Wendi’s testimony wasn’t helpful to her brother, Wendi testified.

Wendi several times denied having any involvement in or knowledge about a plot to kill her ex-husband.

When prosecutors asked Wendi what information she had about her mother’s involvement in a plot to kill Markel, Wendi testified, “I don’t have any information.”

In her final question on cross-examination, Fulford asked Wendi to confirm that anyone who was involved in Markel’s killing should be held responsible — including her.

“You testified on direct that anybody in your family that had anything to do with it should be held responsible, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes,” Wendi Adelson said.

“And that includes you, doesn’t it?”

“Anyone, anyone who’s responsible,” Wendi responded.

After the verdict Cappleman evaded questions from reporters about whether Wendi Adelson should be worried about a possible prosecution but eventually said, “You can stay tuned.”

Harvey Adelson was with his wife when she was arrested at Miami International Airport as they tried to a board a flight with one-way tickets to Vietnam a week after their son was convicted.

Harvey, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, sat in the front row of the gallery behind the defense table each day of his wife’s trial.

Recorded phone calls showed Donna Adelson considered suicide as an alternative to fleeing the country in the days between her son’s conviction and her arrest.

The judge ordered the sheriff’s office to follow necessary procedures to ensure Adelson cannot self-harm before she was led away in handcuffs after the guilty verdict Thursday night. She’s being held “in an area where she can be closely monitored,” Leon County Assistant Sheriff Brice Google told CNN Friday.

Adelson, who now faces up to life in prison, will be sentenced at a later date. Markel’s parents asked the judge to impose the harshest possible penalty.

In closing his victim impact statement, Phil Markel said, “My only short question to Donna: Was it worth it?”

Walking away from the podium, Markel looked over at the defense table where Adelson sat looking back at him with tears in her eyes.

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