Who was Dan Markel? Bio, Wiki, Murder, Police Report

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The long-running investigation into the 2014 hitman killing of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel took a turn toward his ex-wife’s family with the arrest Thursday of the victim’s former brother-in-law on murder and conspiracy charges.

AGE:

Dan Markel was 41 years old.

DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:

The long-running investigation into the 2014 hitman killing of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel took a turn toward his ex-wife’s family with the arrest Thursday of the victim’s former brother-in-law on murder and conspiracy charges. Charlie Adelson, whose sister Wendi was engaged in a contentious divorce and custody dispute with Markel when he was shot execution-style in his Tallahassee garage, was indicted Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder, the Leon County State Attorney’s office confirms.

Adelson’s arrest at his Broward County home comes as his former girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, is due to go on trial next month on related murder charges after a prior mistrial when jurors were deadlocked. Two others, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, previously were convicted of murder in Markel’s death. State Attorney Jack Campbell did not elaborate on Adelson’s alleged role in a statement but referenced a “new audio” of a 2016 recording of a conversation between Adelson and Magbanua in which the two allegedly discuss undercover agents approaching Adelson’s mom about Markel’s shooting. “This recording includes statements by Charles Adelson which can be heard clearly for the first time,” Campbell said. Garcia, the suspected triggerman who drove to Tallahassee with Rivera from Miami in a rented vehicle, was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for conspiracy. Rivera pleaded guilty in 2016 to second-degree murder in a plea deal and was sentenced to serve seven years in prison.
Magbanua has pleaded not guilty.

Following Adelson’s arrest, his attorney David Oscar Markus said, “Charlie is innocent and the prosecutors have no new information that led to this arrest,” according to a text he sent to the Tallahassee Democrat. “The timing sure does stink, doesn’t it? On the eve of a long-awaited trial of Katie, this move has the smell of desperation.”

Ugly Aftermath of Divorce:

The initial arrests of Garcia, Rivera, and Magbanua spoke to dark fears among Markel’s closest friends and colleagues that the couple’s acrimonious split might be a factor in the killing. Markel, 41, was shot point-blank in the head on July 18, 2014, in the garage of his suburban home after dropping his two young sons off at daycare. He died the next day.

After the couple’s breakup two years earlier, Wendi Adelson had relocated herself and the couple’s two boys to South Florida, and Markel had gone to court to force them to move back against the wishes of Wendi Adelson’s family, according to court documents. A criminal affidavit portrayed the ongoing conflict between Markel and the Adelson family as a possible “motive for this murder.”

It had been Wendi Adelson’s choice to end her six-year marriage to Markel. In September 2012, “Markel reportedly returned home from a business trip to find his family gone, a majority of the contents of the house missing and the paperwork for dissolution of marriage displayed on his bed,” according to a criminal affidavit in the case.