A wealthy family from Florida. A couple of hitmen. A law professor shot dead in his home.
The plot to murder Daniel Markel more than a decade ago hinged on a bitter custody dispute and took years to unravel. Earlier this month, a grandmother who once worked as an accountant in her family’s dental office became the fifth defendant sent to prison for her role in the sprawling conspiracy.
Here’s a look at the network of defendants, the man they were convicted of killing and the woman at the center of the plot, who has never been charged with a crime.
Florida jurist shot to death in his home
Daniel Markel
Daniel Markel, a Harvard graduate and prominent jurist at Florida State University, focused on the philosophy of punishment and spent years examining the topic to better inform sentencing decisions in the criminal justice system, recalled a university colleague, Mark Spottswood. Markel, 41, was also a devoted father of two young children and, at the time of his death, was embroiled in a bitter dispute with his ex-wife over custody of their children.
On July 18, 2014, Markel had just arrived home in Tallahassee when a gunman shot him twice in the head and fled. The scholar was declared dead the next day.
A neighbor provided what turned out to be crucial evidence of the murder: After hearing gunshots in Markel’s garage, the man called 911 and reported what he saw: a light-colored Toyota Prius driving away.
A romance that turned bitter
Wendi Adelson
Wendi Adelson, then a law student, met Markel in 2004 on a dating site and they married two years later. At first, the couple was in love: “They were visibly lovey-dovey,” recalled Markel’s friend, Josh Berman. — But by 2012 the relationship had deteriorated and Adelson filed for divorce.
Adelson wanted to move her children from Tallahassee to South Florida, where her family lived, but a family court judge denied the request, saying she had not met her “burden of proof that a relocation was in the best interests of the minor children.” What remained of the relationship between Markel and the Adelsons deteriorated.
“It was toxic,” Steven Epstein, a lawyer and author of a book about the case, “Extreme Punishment,” told “Dateline.” “Definitely toxic.”
After Markel’s death, Adelson described her ex to authorities as “litigious” and said he had treated her poorly, a video of the interview shows. He wondered if someone might have shot him dead not because they hated him, he said in the interview, “but because they thought this was good in some way.”
During their divorce, Adelson told authorities, one of his older brothers joked about hiring a hitman to kill Markel. Her parents, he added, had “more reason to dislike Danny than almost anyone else. He hurt their daughter.”
In police interviews and in court testimony, Wendi Adelson has repeatedly denied involvement in Markel’s murder and has never been charged with a crime.
A $35,000 job and a confession
luis rivera
Luis Rivera was the driver of the Prius seen driving away from Markel’s house. Rivera, a member of the Latin Kings who lived in Miami, was arrested in connection with the murder in the summer of 2016, two years after Markel was shot to death. In exchange for a reduced sentence, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and confessed, telling authorities that he was paid $35,000 for his role in the murder and identifying the custody dispute as a possible motive, a video of the interview shows.
“The lady wants to get her two children back,” Rivera recalled the man he identified as the gunman saying. “She wants full custody.”
Rivera was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
the connection
Sigfredo García
The man Rivera identified as the gunman, Sigfredo Garcia, was also arrested in the summer of 2016. He pleaded not guilty and was found guilty of first-degree murder after a trial three years later. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Garcia provided a link between Markel’s murder and the Adelsons: The mother of his children, Katherine Magbanua, had not only dated the protective older brother who had pranked the hitman, but was also on the payroll of the Adelson Institute, a dental practice owned by Wendi Adelson’s parents, according to Georgia Cappleman, chief assistant state’s attorney in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit.
On the way from Tallahassee to Miami, Rivera told authorities, Garcia called Magbanua and told him, “Everything is done. Make sure you have my money. I’m on my way.”
Working for the Adelsons
Katherine Magbanua
Although Katherine Magbanua was paid by the dental practice, it did not appear that she was doing any work for the practice, Cappleman told “Dateline.” And she had received other benefits from family, including help paying for her breast augmentation surgery, according to Jason Newlin, chief investigator for the Leon County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Magbanua was arrested in October 2016 and charged with murder, conspiracy and solicitation in Markel’s murder. She denied the allegations and testified at a trial three years later that she had performed legitimate work for the Adelsons and had paid for her surgery with cash tips from a job promoting liquor brands.
A mistrial was declared after the jury deadlocked, but during a retrial three years later, Magbanua was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to life in prison.
The protective older brother
Carlos Adelson
Wendi Adelson’s protective older brother was a periodontist who ran a lucrative implant practice north of Miami and drove a Ferrari with a distinctive license plate: “Maestro.” According to prosecutors, he had been recorded in a Miami restaurant and appeared to be involved in the crime, and was arrested in 2022 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation of murder.
During his 2023 trial, Charles Adelson denied playing a role in Markel’s murder and testified that he was the victim of a deadly extortion plot: After Markel’s murder, he said, Magbanua told him that if he did not pay a third of a million dollars within 48 hours, he would be dead.
Charles Adelson testified that he paid her what he could ($138,000 in cash) and agreed to pay $3,000 more a month through checks from his family’s dental office.
Magbanua took the stand and gave testimony very different from his previous statements. He said he had lied in his trials to save himself and pointed to Charles Adelson as the person responsible for devising the murder plot. Magbanua also acknowledged recruiting Garcia to carry out the murder.
On November 6, 2023, after three hours of deliberations, a jury convicted Charles Adelson of all charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Matriarch on a mission
Diana Adelson
Days after her son’s conviction, the Adelson family matriarch was arrested in dramatic fashion: She and her husband were detained at Miami International Airport with one-way tickets to Vietnam they had booked on Nov. 7, a day after Charles Adelson’s conviction, and after she was recorded in a jailhouse phone call saying they were “looking for non-extradition locations.” (Vietnam does not have an official extradition treaty with the United States.)
Donna Adelson was charged with murder, solicitation and conspiracy. She pleaded not guilty.
During a nearly two-week trial that began in August, prosecutors portrayed Donna Adelson as a vengeful mother-in-law who was furious at Markel’s efforts to limit her contact with her grandchildren and helped orchestrate the murder plot.
Among the key evidence presented at the trial was a phone call that Donna Adelson made to Charles Adelson after she was approached by an undercover FBI agent who pretended to be affiliated with the murder plot. Cappleman, the prosecutor, described what Donna Adelson said in the recorded call (she told her son that the officer’s comments involved “the two of us”) as a “confession.”
Donna Adelson’s attorney, Jackie Fulford, acknowledged that her client was an overly involved grandmother, but Fulford said she was a “meddler, not a murderer.” Prosecutors, Fulford added, did not have a single piece of evidence connecting Donna Adelson to the murder.
On September 4, after a few hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Donna Adelson of all charges. In a victim impact statement delivered immediately afterward, Markel’s father asked Donna Adelson a brief question.
“Was it worth it?” said Phil Markel.
A month later, the 75-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
