TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Ju umpire began deliberations Thursday at the murder trial of a 75-year-old woman, accused of being the mastermind behind a plot in which a hired man shot her former stepson in the head in a Tallahassee garage.
The lawyers finished the closing discussion in the afternoon after more than two weeks of trial. Donna Adelson faces first-degree murder charges and conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder. If convicted, she could spend the rest of her life in prison.
Adelson is accused of orchestrading the 2014 murder of Daniel Markel, a law professor at Florida State University who was trapped in a bitter child custody battle with his ex-wife and Adelson’s daughter Wendy Adelson at the time of his death. The couple got married seven years before their divorce was confirmed in 2013.
Adelson’s defense at trial claimed that the state lacked sufficient evidence to link her to a murder conspiracy. Instead, they highlighted the roles played by others, including the hired gunman and Adelson’s son.
Assistant State Attorney Georgia Coupleman said in her final argument that all defendants in Marquel’s murder have fingers at each other, and so are Donna Adelson. Prosecutors said they controlled Adelson’s relationship with the child, involved in the divorce of his daughter, and tried to insulate the people who used his son to kill Marquel.
“The way she thought she would escape this is the way she could escape,” the coupleman told the ju judge.
The incident has riveted Florida’s capital for over a decade. Details emerged about troublesome divorces, tensions with wealthy in-laws, and custody tensions that culminated in the murders.
The other four have already served their prison time for what prosecutors say was a murder-hiring conspiracy hatched by members of the Adelson family and was done by paid gunmen. Three people have been sentenced to life in prison, including Adelson’s son Charles Adelson.
During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Donna Adelson as the calculations and control of the wealthy South Florida family, with the means and motivations to coordinate the murder of her former step-son-in-law, which she disliked. They said that Karenda grew up as he lets his daughter and two young grandchildren leave Tallahassee and leave South Florida, living near his family for more than 370 miles (595 kilometers).
Defense attorney Jackie Fulford said the facts in the case did not support the story created by the prosecutors.
“There is no evidence linking my client to that murder,” Fulford said. “Charlie Adelson? Yep. Potentially Wendy Adelson? She said she hated him. She’s fighting him and the court. What about Donna Adelson? Nothing. Not proof.”
A week after Donna Adelson’s son was convicted of first-degree murder in 2023, she and her husband Harvey Adelson were arrested at Miami Airport after she and her husband Harvey Adelson attempted to board a flight to Vietnam.
Harvey Adelson and her daughter Wendy Adelson have denied any involvement in the murder and are not charged.
Others who are serving time for the murder are Katherine Magvanua and Charles Adelson’s then girlfriend, and prosecutors say they served as two men hired to carry out the murders and two men hired to carry out Sigred Garcia and Luis Rivera.
