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Tonight on Dateline. They claimed that I, this grandma, was the mastermind behind the murder.
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Never in a million years would I have wanted Daddy to be harmed or killed. A stunning new turn in a twisted family saga of murder and betrayal.
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The 70-something-year-old woman who bakes banana bread and takes care of her grandchildren.
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It's hard to embrace that she could commit such a heinous act. Her son, Charlie, knew how to get it done.
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He was Donna's right hand. The daughter, Wendy, is at the center of this entire story.
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I was not involved in any plot to kill Danny. The estranged son, Rob Adelson. Who is the leader in the family?
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Who tends to run the show? I think my mom. A very powerful witness. He had direct evidence to offer.
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I am an innocent woman. She's just being a parent, not a killer. She's a meddler, not a murderer.
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We have a jury fine. The defendant. Shock. It's such a traumatic moment. A dad gunned down in his garage. A family turned toxic. Ten years of twists come down to a shattering moment in court. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Stateline.
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Here's Dennis Murphy with Deadly Mischief. For 50 years, contestants have been spinning that wheel and trying to solve that puzzle.
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It's a bit like trying to solve a crime. Each clue revealed brings a bigger picture into focus.
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And that brings us to a certain contestant in 1989. We now meet Donna Adelson from Coral Springs, Florida.
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I want to hear all about you, Donna. Let's go. Well, I'm a domestic coordinator.
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A domestic coordinator? Back then, Donna did just great on Wheel of Fortune. She solved the puzzle.
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On Wheel, the idea of the game is to fill in the blank. Do you remember what hers was?
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I remember it well. Donna. F. Yes. Mischief maker. Mischief maker. Yeah, that's it, Donna.
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And oh, what fatal mischief Donna Adelson would make. Here she is 34 years later, writhing in a police van under arrest.
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And she's now become the wheel of misfortune, if you will. So exactly who is this 75-year-old grandmother?
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depends who you ask. She's a terrific human being, believe it or not. There is something purely evil inside that woman.
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And just how did she find herself in a jumpsuit facing trial for murder? Please come up with the witness stand, Ms. Adelson.
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Donna, in my mind, is the architect. I didn't do this. Tonight, we bring you the latest chapter
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in this hair-raising tale. This is not justice. It is vengeance. Mrs. Adelson, control yourself.
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with brand new evidence. She actually called me her jail daughter. All the explosive testimony,
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including the prosecution's newest star witness. How do you know the defendant in this case, Donna Adelson?
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She's my mother. But first we have to roll back the years to the summer of 2014 in sunny Tallahassee, Florida.
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The opening scene of what I've come to think of as a Shakespearean-like drama. A tale of bitter divorce,
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dueling grandparents, twisted family ties, and the custody of two little boys that all started with one tragic and mysterious murder.
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It's right next door to my house. 11 a.m. on July 18th, a man heard gunshots from a neighboring garage and quickly called 911.
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He's inside, the car is running, and he's got blood all over his head. He was Dan Markell, a beloved and accomplished law professor at Florida State University.
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Markell had just arrived home from the gym when he was shot twice in the head. His car window smashed, his eyeglasses broken, his assailants apparently pulling away.
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That car was backing up. It was light-colored, white or silver. I want to say it was a Prius.
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When Dan's friends, Jared and Heather Ross, first heard about a shooting in town, they couldn't believe it.
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Then Jared got word who the victim was. I went into the bedroom and I kind of woke Heather up.
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And I said, it was Danny. And she kind of looked at me like, what, what? And I said, the shooting on Trescot, it was Danny.
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Tallahassee authorities reached Dan's parents, Ruth and Phil Markell, that afternoon.
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Shot, that doesn't make sense. No, who would ever want to shoot Dan Markell? For me, it was an out-of-body experience.
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Like, I can't, you know, even, don't even want to think about it in terms of that, the moments were so horrific.
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They quickly made their way to Tallahassee, but never did get to say goodbye. Dan Markell died overnight in the hospital.
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It's tough to talk about until now. Dan's friend Josh Berman got the call at home in New York.
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I put the phone down. I sat there on the bed with my head in my hands. I was like, you know, speechless.
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Dan Markell was just 41. A loving friend and father was now gone, not to mention a brilliant legal mind.
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Our second speaker is Dan Markell. A native Canadian and Harvard graduate, he was a sought-after speaker at legal conferences across the country,
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including this appearance for the Federalist Society. I guess I've been working in the realm of punishment theory for the last dozen years or so.
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Incredibly gregarious guy. Mark Spotswood was a colleague of Dan's at FSU Law School.
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What was his passion? What drove him in the law? His research focus and his passion was figuring out why we ought to punish people,
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really digging into the philosophical justifications for punishment, to think about how could we make better choices about sentencing His goal was to make the law school at FSU one of the top ten schools and that was part of Danny abilities
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He just met people, and he wanted to put people together. Back in 2004, Dan connected with a law student named Wendy Adelson
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on the Jewish dating app J-Date. They were, like, visibly lovey-dovey. Wendy hailed from South Florida from a family of well-to-do dentists.
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What do you think the glue was? mutually, the interaction. Wendy's definitely a sharp cookie. They had some overlapping interests,
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but quite candidly, they just seemed to be in love with each other. The couple married in 2006 and settled in Tallahassee, where they eventually had two sons.
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Dan loved the boys more than anything else in the world. I think we all love being a parent,
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but I don't know that I've ever seen anyone love being a father more than Danny Markell.
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But after six years, Wendy and Dan's relationship began to crack. The day of reckoning came in September 2012.
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While Dan was away traveling for work, Wendy packed up the kids and left divorce papers on the bed.
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Surprise news, they're getting divorced, huh? Yes, it was a shock. Stephen Webster was a divorce attorney for Dan and became a friend.
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As I understand it, Wendy Adelson wanted to take the children with her and move closer to her family in South Florida.
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Was that the question? That was the initial question. And family law court said you cannot do that.
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If the children are here in a stable environment and the father can participate fully with the raising of the children,
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the law prefers that and should. That motion was denied. Wendy stayed in Tallahassee with the boys as the court required,
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eight hours away from her parents' home in South Florida. Her divorce from Dan became final in 2013.
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But the custody arrangement remained a sore point on both sides. 50-50 sharing arrangement with the kids.
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Yes, absolutely. And he availed himself of every second. And quite frankly, you know, wanted some time that maybe she found offensive.
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Offensive enough to kill her ex-husband? Now police were about to talk to Wendy,
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who would be remarkably forthcoming about their bitter divorce and a whole lot more.
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Danny didn't treat me very well. Setting the stage for a painstaking march toward justice that would rip apart two families.
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I'm sitting there thinking, these people are the ones that killed my son. I was not involved in any plot to kill Danny.
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Never in a million years would I have wanted Danny to be harmed. I believe that the truth has a way of coming out.
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The investigation into the death of Florida law professor Dan Markell was just hours old
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when his ex-wife Wendy Adelson first spoke to police. There was a shooting. Your ex-husband, Daniel, has been taken to the hospital.
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He's not going to survive. Oh, my God. Okay? I'm sorry, Lord. I remember to turn around this party.
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What happened? Well, before we get into everything, I have to establish where you were and who you were with and so forth.
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Okay. Okay? Through tears, Wendy told the detective she'd been at her home that day having her TV repaired, five miles from the crime scene.
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I didn't leave until noon. Okay. Oh, my God. And I tried to drive up Trescot, and I saw that it was blocked.
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Do you know anybody that would have a beef against your ex-husband? Oh, my God. I hate to ask you now, but I have to do it now.
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You understand, right? I understand. He always meant well, but he would sometimes rub people the wrong way.
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But not anyone would do something like this. Oh, my God, we're poor kids. Where's your closest family at?
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My parents are in Coral Springs. Okay. And my brother, I have two brothers, but I'm very close to one of them who is in Fort Lauderdale.
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Oh, my God, I can't believe this is happening. After Wendy got control of her emotions, she phoned her mom, Donna.
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Mom, I need you to sit down. Danny has been shot. And I don't think he's going to make it.
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And I'm at the police station, and I'm trying to help them figure out who may have done this.
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Her mom said she'd rush up to Tallahassee to be with her. Love you, too. Bye. Then Wendy hung up.
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My mom handled that pretty well. Tallahassee police took photos and swabbed her hands for gunshot residue.
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None was found. Georgia Kappelman is chief assistant state attorney in Leon County, Florida,
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and would review Wendy's interview with law enforcement. She told the truth about the status of their relationship.
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That it wasn't a happy marriage in the end and it was a very bad divorce. Correct.
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He's litigious, so we have ongoing litigation where I filed a motion in the court to have him pay me what he said he would.
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It certainly was of interest to law enforcement that there was an ongoing nasty divorce and litigation concerning these children.
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That's part of a classic recipe for homicides. Yep. But detectives later checked out her alibi and confirmed that she could not have shot her ex-husband.
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Now they wondered if someone she knew could be behind it. Danny didn't treat me very well.
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And I'm so scared that maybe someone did this. not because they hate Danny but because they thought this was good somehow Wendy told them she been seeing another man after the divorce Jeffrey Lacasse an associate professor of social work at FSU
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We've been dating since end of October. We had like a fight at the end of June and it was weird.
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I asked him to just no contact for a week just so I could kind of figure out whether I wanted to be with him or not.
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When did you ask him that? Monday night after yoga. Just a few days before Dan Markell was gunned down in his garage,
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Wendy said she wanted to cool things off because Jeff had become increasingly jealous.
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Is Jeff a violent person? No. Not at all? No. Jeff owned a gun? I don't think so.
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I mean, he certainly could have a gun and I wouldn't know about it. So the Tallahassee police tracked down Jeff Lacoste, who had a lot to say about Wendy.
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Have you met Wendy? Not personal. Very charismatic and very good at, I mean, once you take this way, just do anything for
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I'm not the only man that's been under her thought. Jason Newlin is the chief investigator for the Leon County State Attorney's Office and
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worked closely with the Tallahassee Police and the FBI on the case. Did you think Lacoste was still head over heels for Wendy?
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Oh, definitely. I think he would have loved another chance. To police, Jeff Lacoste seems straight out of central casting.
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the jilted boyfriend a man who made no secret of his dislike for dan you've never had any kind
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of physical contact with danny no i'm surprised you guys didn't call me earlier though because
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i probably said 100 times in public that i like to kick his ass because he kept like
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really making wendy suffer and things like that right but no i would never i'm a professor i'm
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not i'm a i didn't do anything like that no no and it turned out he didn't he was 500 miles away
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when Dan was shot. So he's got an alibi that holds up. He does. Whoever's in the driveway is not him.
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Correct. So who was in that driveway? Not Wendy and not her ex-boyfriend. It was only day one of an investigation
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that would soon involve law enforcement agencies across the state of Florida. The detective's first mission,
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find the car that neighbor saw driving away. It's the date of the homicide and you can actually see the Prius pull up to the ATM.
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dan markel's jewish faith had been deeply important to him and his memorial service
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at his tallahassee synagogue was packed with friends and family including wendy and her parents
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did you see wendy at the service i did she kind of came in in shock it was a really sad sad and
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harrowing scene. Then just days after the service, Wendy moved back to South Florida with her two
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boys to be near her family. Up in Tallahassee, homicide detectives started following the best
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lead they had, that possible getaway car a witness described. It was light colored, white or silver.
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I want to say it was a Prius. Detectives suspected that car may have been following Dan that morning,
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so they retraced his travels in search for clues. So Jason, he's dropped the kids off at the
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Preschool, roughly, what, five minutes to nine, something like that? Close to that.
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And then he's driving right down this road to go to the gym. That's when Dan left his voicemail for Wendy.
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Hey, Wendy, it's Danny. Good morning. It's 9 o'clock on Friday. I was hoping to pick the boys up early this afternoon and take him swimming.
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Cops found security video of Dan as he arrived at the gym at 9.13 a.m. You could see him checking in. We did see him scan his key card in.
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Then police checked security cameras outside the health club and hit a forensic home run.
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What do you know? There was a Prius. And it was following Dan when he drove in. At 10.34 a.m., Dan leaves the gym.
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When Dan drives out of the parking lot, the Prius is 20 seconds behind him. He leaves the parking lot here and is headed back towards his house.
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At that point, he is being hunted. They're not going to let him out of their sights?
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They're not. Over the next few months, police gathered more video of that Prius from cameras on local buses and spotted something else, a SunPass toll tag on the Prius windshield.
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Investigators suspected the car had traveled from out of town, and it turned out that SunPass had dinged at toll sites on I-75 between Miami and Tallahassee at times that fit the window of the shooting perfectly.
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It was assigned to an actual business. The SunPass business account came back to a small car rental agency in North Miami.
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The renter won Luis Rivera. Also on the paperwork, cops found a cell phone number that led them to another man, a close friend of Rivera's.
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And that's how you end up establishing Sigfredo Garcia. Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, two names already known to law enforcement.
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Both were from the Miami area and had criminal records. Garcia had been arrested for robbery and burglary,
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and Rivera was a member of the Latin King's gang. A little more investigation turned up bank records.
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And they were able to locate a withdrawal from a bank down in Pembroke Pines. And this was on the day of the murder?
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It's the date of the homicide. And you can see Luis Rivera driving and Siegfried Garcia sitting in the passenger seat.
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There on the day of Dan Markell's murder were their two prime suspects, together in a silver Prius, it was a perfect match for the vehicle seen stalking Dan.
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It had taken investigators nearly two years to put the puzzle pieces together. And in the summer of 2016, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera
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were arrested and charged with the murder of Dan Markell. But it was anything but case closed It was not a random act that they came up here for him These guys Garcia and Rivera they didn wake up one fine morning and say we got two options
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We can hang out on the beach and drink, or we can go rent a car, drive to Tallahassee,
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go murder some guy we never met point blank in his garage, and then drive back. I mean, the police have called this a murder for hire, and these guys didn't hire themselves.
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Investigators discovered that right after Dan Markell's death, the two men went on a spending spree,
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buying cars and motorcycles. It seemed they'd come into major amounts of discretionary cash.
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But where had it come from? Who was the paymaster with the money, the malice, and the desire
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to see Dan Markell dead? Detectives went back to their first theory. Could his ex-wife Wendy
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have been involved, or maybe her family? Stephen Epstein is an attorney and author of a book about
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the Markell case, Extreme Punishment. Steve, what are some words that describe the relationship
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between these two families, the son-in-law and the Adelsons. In the months leading up to the murder, it was toxic.
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Definitely toxic. How toxic did it get? Well, Wendy herself hinted at it in a seemingly offhand remark
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during her police interview. My parents have more reason to dislike Danny than almost anyone else.
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He hurt their daughter. And as they dug into the court documents from her divorce with Dan,
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investigators learned Wendy had a forceful person in her corner, her mother, Donna Adelson.
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In a series of emails, she encouraged Wendy to go low, fight dirty. Hi, honey, it's time for action.
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Let's show this F what will make him absolutely miserable. But first, Donna told Wendy the family was going to make Dan a big money offer to back down.
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Investigator Jason Newland learned that even Wendy's brother, Charlie, was planning to kick in a few hundred thousand dollars.
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There was communication between Wendy and Donna about just to offer him a million dollars.
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until you raise the kids in a certain way. Just go, here's a million bucks. Yeah.
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A million dollars to relocate the kids to South Florida closer to Grandma. But the Adelsons ultimately never did make that offer.
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So had Wendy's family done something else to make Dan go away? That seemed improbable given their circumstances.
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Her dad, Harvey, was a prominent dentist who, along with her mother Donna, ran the Adelson Dental Institute in Tamarack, Florida.
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Donna was very much the happy homemaker. Her kids were her main focus, as she mentioned when she charmed the Wheel of Fortune audience in 1989.
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I'm responsible for the activities, classes, and lessons of my son Robert, who was 16, Charlie, who was 12, Wendy, who was 10.
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When they grew up, the oldest Rob moved away and saw the family less and less. Donna made sure her middle child, Charlie, remained closer to home.
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My name is Dr. Charlie Adelson, and I am a periodontist. He eventually joined the family business and had a lucrative implant practice.
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What I love about what I do is being able to restore people's smiles. Dr. Charlie was also a flashy figure around the Miami area,
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driving a Ferrari with a license plate that read Maestro. Dan Markell's friend, Jared Ross, had grown up in South Florida and knew the Adelsons too.
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He and Charlie were in the same high school class. He was really outgoing. He was kind of a party guy.
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You could tell he was loving that South Florida lifestyle. Wendy was the baby of the family,
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and investigators learned that Charlie was her protective older brother. In her police interview, Wendy talked about how her parents and brother
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rallied around her during the divorce. My brother, the one whose name is Charlie, the one I'm really close to,
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he knew Danny treated me badly, and it was always this joke. He said, I, you know, I looked into hiring a hitman and it was cheaper to get you this TV.
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So instead, I got you this TV. I mean, he would never. He's my big brother. That story certainly got the prosecutor's attention.
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According to Wendy Adelson, it was suggested by the brother in the form of a joke.
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But it's a very strange thing to say. Very. In light of the circumstances, it wouldn't be any big deal if he was alive and well with us.
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It was all very interesting, this smoke gathering around Wendy Adelson and her family of dentists.
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Then word came from the Leon County Jail, one of the state's suspects wanted to talk.
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Because I asked him, why are you going to kill me? The two hitmen accused of killing Dan Markell sat in jail for months,
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while Tallahassee investigators kept trying to figure out who had hired them for the job.
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Then one of them decided to confess. Luis Rivera pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a reduced sentence.
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He told investigators that Garcia said he had a contract to kill Dan and needed the gangbangers' help.
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I'm going to kill this guy. You're going to get paid this much, $35,000. We're driving. He showed me a picture of my kid.
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The night before the murder, Rivera said, they checked into a motel not far from Dan Markell's home.
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Right in the morning, went to Markell's house. Followed him to the gym, waited in the parking lot for a while.
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So when he came out of the gym, I followed him home. I see him jumps out, goes around the car, shot him twice, got in the car, we left.
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Kid's driving. I mean, it's as cold-blooded a killing as you can get. to drive all the way to Tallahassee
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and pull up into someone's driveway that you don't know and just shoot them in cold blood.
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And Rivera offered an answer to the cop's biggest question. What was the motive for Dan Markell's murder?
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Because I asked him, why are you gonna work here to try to curse? The lady wants your two kids back.
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She wants full custody of them kids. The lady who wanted full custody of the kids?
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It sounded like he was talking about Wendy Adelson. Rivera went on to tell police that after his partner Sigfredo Garcia killed Dan Markell,
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they quickly hit the road back to Miami, and Garcia made a phone call. He called her, and he said, everything is done.
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Make sure you have my money. I'm on my way. But the woman on the other end wasn't Wendy.
00:24:26
It was Garcia's romantic partner, the mother of his children, Katie Magbonowa. And who was she?
00:24:33
She was employed at a couple dental practices. She was employed at a bar at one point.
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A modest income at best, yet in a curious bit of timing, Katie's cash flow and South
00:24:44
Florida standard of living suddenly improved after Dan Markell was murdered in Tallahassee.
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Her bank account for the end of 2014 through 2015 went from a minimal low-income bank account to $100,000 cycling through in less than a year.
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But where did the money come from? More digging turned up a tantalizing clue. She was getting a paycheck from me, Adelson.
00:25:10
$400 and change? Correct. Was there any obvious work that she was doing? There was no obvious work that law enforcement was able to uncover. Yet she's drawing a paycheck.
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Checks signed by none other than Donna Adelson, Wendy's mom. But it turns out Katie's connection to the Adelsons ran a lot deeper than a few cash checks.
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Because she is the girlfriend or recent ex-girlfriend of Charlie Adelson, Wendy Adelson's brother.
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So there's your heavy, your hit guys. One of them has a girlfriend, Katie McBonawa, who has also been a girlfriend of Charlie Adelson?
00:25:44
Correct. Boy, that's straddling two worlds. Mm-hmm. Investigators learned Katie received more perks from the Adelsons,
00:25:52
including Alexis, and some other upgrades. We were informed at one point that Charlie paid for half of her breast augmentation.
00:25:59
Done by a guy known in South Florida circles as Dr. Bubner? Dr. Bubner, yeah. Putting it all together, investigators had formed a tidy theory
00:26:08
that these two criminals gunned down Dan Markell in a hit set up by Katie Magbanowa
00:26:14
and paid for by Dan's angry in-laws. But a theory isn't evidence. There's just no communication with anybody that we can find
00:26:25
or that anybody will tell us that says the Adelsons are involved. Investigators had been tapping the Adelsons' phones
00:26:32
and decided to put a squeeze on the family. They launched an undercover sting operation targeting Donna Adelsons.
00:26:39
In police terms, it's called a bump. You're going to be wearing green, black, and white tops.
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FBI agents knew Donna was a doting grandma who frequently looked after Wendy's two boys.
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They surveilled her near her luxury high-rise condo as she headed to pick up her grandsons from school.
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Excuse me, Mrs. Adelson? How you doing? I just wanted to give you this. He's an FBI agent, and he is going to approach Donna Adelson on the street
00:27:05
and imply that he is somehow affiliated with Louis Rivera and give her a piece of paper which contains an article about the homicide.
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And written on the letter is $5,000 and a phone number. Tuto is a nickname Garcia used.
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He says something to the effect of, you're taking care of Katie and Garcia, but you're not taking care of my boy.
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He doesn't say the name, but the implication is that it's Rivera. I want to let you know that my brother, he's incarcerated.
00:27:49
He helped your family with this problem you guys had up north. I don't know what it is.
00:27:54
Well, this will explain. She had the paper, they're walking away. Donna walked home to her condo and immediately called Charlie.
00:28:01
I got some paperwork hand-delivered to me. Are you being sued? No. Does it involve me or other people?
00:28:12
Well, probably both people. What's that? Probably the two of us. So you probably have a general idea what I'm talking about.
00:28:22
After that cryptic conversation with his mother, Charlie Adelson called Katie, which, of course, is exactly what investigators were hoping for.
00:28:31
Hey, what's going on? Investigators believe they were inching closer to solving the puzzle of Dan Markell's murder.
00:28:51
After they staged that bump confronting Donna Adelson, FBI agents were listening as Charlie quickly called his one-time girlfriend, Katie McBonawa,
00:28:59
the only known link between the hitmen and the Adelsons. I don't know what's going on, but my mom, she said that someone approached her on the street,
00:29:10
but something regarding her son, something regarding his ex-girlfriend, and the person asking my mom for some money.
00:29:23
Katie didn't say anything incriminating on that call, but the fact that Charlie called her told investigators they were on the right path.
00:29:31
Law enforcement kept close tabs on Katie, Charlie, and Donna Adelson for weeks and found them in constant communication after the bump.
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Hello. Hey. Hey, how are you? Hey, how are you? Is everything okay? The investigators kept hoping one of them would explicitly say they had planned Markell's murder,
00:29:48
but the chatter was vague. At times, it seemed as though they were speaking in code.
00:29:53
Good properties come up all the time. I mean it suspicious but it doesn get us there If you going to try somebody you want to make sure your evidence is as good as it possibly can be So the thought all along was go after the low fruit first
00:30:07
hope that more of the low-hanging fruit individuals flip and turn states' evidence.
00:30:13
That was their hope for Katie. Prosecutors thought they had enough evidence against her to pull the trigger.
00:30:18
So in October 2016, she was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. But she didn't flip.
00:30:26
She pleaded not guilty and three years later went on trial. Prosecutor Georgia Kappelman laid out the evidence against Katie and Sigfredo Garcia,
00:30:36
her alleged co-conspirator and father of her children. Catherine Magbanawa was hired to solicit Garcia,
00:30:44
who in turn solicited Rivera to come to Tallahassee and to execute Mr. Markell in cold blood.
00:30:52
In a risky and dramatic move, Katie took the stand in her defense, and she didn't give an inch.
00:30:59
Did you have anything to do with the murder of Dan Markell? No, ma'am. Did you get the father of your children, Mr. Garcia, to commit a murder on behalf of Mr. Charlie Adelson?
00:31:15
No, ma'am. Her lawyer walked her through some of the state's most damning allegations,
00:31:20
including the charge that the Adelsons had given her thousands of dollars. Katie said no, she supported herself.
00:31:27
She said she worked as a bottle girl, promoting liquor brands at bars and clubs.
00:31:32
And as she told it, tips were good. What was a good night for you at the club? I can walk out of there with $1,000 to $1,500.
00:31:41
No blood money from the Adelsons, she said. not even for that augmentation surgery.
00:31:46
Charlie didn't pay for that. How did you pay for your birth symptoms? Well, from my cash tips.
00:31:51
All along, the state had hoped Katie would turn and reveal other figures as the real masterminds of the murder.
00:31:57
But she didn't. Still, Katie couldn't deny that she was intimately connected to Charlie and the Adelson family.
00:32:04
Charlie's own sister came to court and provided evidence for that. My name is Wendy Adelson.
00:32:10
Wendy was given some immunity to testify. Her statements on the stand couldn't be used against her.
00:32:15
She told the jury she had never met the alleged hitman, Sigfredo Garcia, but she had met Katie.
00:32:21
The state showed the jury this photo of the two of them on the beach together in June 2014, just a month before Dan's murder.
00:32:30
Do you know where the photo was taken? I think that's South Beach. Close to where your parents were living in the condo?
00:32:39
Yes. She was dating my brother But the idea that Katie was part of a conspiracy that involved her family
00:32:50
Wendy pleaded ignorance Were you involved in any way in a plot to kill Dan Markell?
00:32:56
No Do you have any knowledge of anyone being involved in a plot to kill your husband?
00:33:01
No The other Adelsons, Charlie and parents Donna and Harvey were not to be found in the courtroom
00:33:09
But the jury did hear from them in the evidence, including that video from The Bump.
00:33:15
And prosecutors had another recording. They played the jury a bit of this video.
00:33:20
That's Katie and Charlie talking in a Miami restaurant called Dolce Vita. The video was grainy and the audio hard to hear, but it showed the two in close contact after The Bump.
00:33:32
And of course, the state brought in one of the admitted conspirators to court as well.
00:33:36
Luis Rivera told the jury how he drove with Sigfredo Garcia from Miami to Tallahassee to shoot the law professor.
00:33:43
Soon as he pulled in, Garcia jumped off. He jumped out of the car and went around, went to the driver's side and shot him.
00:33:49
He said he got paid $35,000. Who was responsible for getting the money? Nobody with Katie.
00:33:55
Was it Katie or not? Yes, it was Katie. Now it was up to the jurors. They went off to deliberate on the charges against the alleged hitman and Katie Magbanawa.
00:34:04
After 10 hours... They came back with a verdict. State of Florida versus Sigfrido Garcia.
00:34:11
The defendant is guilty of first degree murder. But what about Katie? That was a different story.
00:34:18
A Tallahassee jury had just rendered a guilty verdict for hitman Sigfredo Garcia in the murder of Dan Markell.
00:34:37
Now Dan's parents awaited the fate of the other accused co-conspirator, Katie McBonawa.
00:34:43
It was quite tense for us. I was very nervous. But on the question of Katie's guilt or innocence, the jurors were deadlocked.
00:34:51
As to Ms. McBanoa, I will declare this case mistried. The mistrial experience was actually quite upsetting, shocking, and we had to pull ourselves together.
00:35:03
Prosecutors believed Katie was the central link in a chain of conspiracy to kill Markel,
00:35:08
connecting the hitmen to Charlie Adelson and his family, and they were determined to retry her.
00:35:14
So what's next for you then? regroup and try to do it better next time. As they regrouped, prosecutors kept the Adelsons in their sights.
00:35:25
Wendy was working as an immigration attorney in Miami with her two boys, not far from her parents and brother Charlie.
00:35:32
Preparing for Katie's second trial, prosecutors took that surveillance video of Charlie and Katie in a restaurant
00:35:37
known as the Dolce Vita tape to an audio technician who'd once worked for the CIA.
00:35:42
Maybe he could make it easier to hear And he hit pay dirt The audio of their conversation is still low
00:35:50
But easier to understand In the first enhanced clip Charlie tells Katie Suggesting according to prosecutors That if he really feared arrest he be on a plane
00:36:05
And in another moment later in the conversation, Charlie is wondering why the scary character in that FBI sting targeted his mom and not him.
00:36:25
Is that the best evidence you have tying Katie to this family? It's the best evidence we have tying the Adelsons into this crime.
00:36:36
Specifically, Charlie Adelson, the loyal son and Wendy's protective big brother.
00:36:41
It had taken nearly eight years to get here. But in April 2022, FBI and police arrested Charlie at his house in Fort Lauderdale.
00:36:49
The charges, first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation of murder. Dan Markell's friend, Josh Berman.
00:36:56
How'd you hear Charlie was busted? They'd taken him down. Oh, I probably got five texts at once and, you know.
00:37:03
And you said what? Something profane. Like it's about half the time. Yeah, exactly.
00:37:14
Charlie Adelson was transferred from Miami to the Leon County Jail. And just a month later, he got more bad news.
00:37:21
In her second trial, Katie was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, though she continued to deny any involvement in a conspiracy.
00:37:30
The defendant is guilty of first-degree murder. So in October 2023, the stage was set for the People v. Charlie Adelson.
00:37:40
Dan's parents, Phil and Ruth, returned to Tallahassee with the hope that prosecutors were closing in on the real masterminds behind their son's murder.
00:37:48
When you actually walk in a courtroom and you recognize the offender, who he's from, and the family, that was a really different experience.
00:37:58
One of the state's first witnesses was Wendy's ex-boyfriend and one-time potential suspect, Jeff Lacoste.
00:38:04
You may take your seat. He testified that Charlie had bragged to him about having contacts in the criminal underworld.
00:38:11
He also told the jury an explosive story. Wendy confided in him that Charlie had gone much further than merely joking about a TV being cheaper than a hitman.
00:38:20
In a very serious tone of voice, he told me that Charlie had investigated all possible options to take care of the problem of Danny Markell, including hiring a hitman.
00:38:32
So definitely not to be confused with the TV joke? No, I'd heard that joke repeatedly. This was something very different.
00:38:40
Charlie's devoted parents, Donna and Harvey, didn't attend the trial. They watched at a friend's beach house.
00:38:46
But his sister Wendy did show up, again testifying for the state under that limited immunity agreement.
00:38:53
Still, that wouldn't protect her from a withering direct examination. Your family had your ex-husband killed to try to help you, didn't they?
00:39:01
No, that's completely untrue. For a few hours, it seemed like she was the one on trial.
00:39:06
Were you involved in any way in the plot to kill your ex-husband? Absolutely not.
00:39:11
Did you know it was going to happen, but maybe not know the details? I knew nothing.
00:39:16
Did your brother ever mention hiring a hitman to kill Dan Markell? No. But Kappelman reminded Wendy that she was the one who first told that story
00:39:24
about Charlie and a hitman on the day of the murder. He knew Danny treated me badly, and it was always this joke, you know.
00:39:30
I looked into hiring a hitman, and it was cheaper to get you this TV. While I was talking with law enforcement for six hours, terrified out of my mind,
00:39:38
I offered them every possible idea I could come up with. Right. And one of the possible ideas was that your brother could have murdered your child's father.
00:39:49
I didn't really believe that was possible. Was part of the plot for you to be able to have plausible deniability about this?
00:39:56
Absolutely not. Then Katie McBonawa returned to the stand to testify against her one-time boyfriend, Charlie,
00:40:04
this time as a witness for the state. Please raise your right hand. Katie had sat in this box and sworn under oath
00:40:10
that she had nothing to do with the murder of Dan Markell. But now she was testifying as a convicted killer,
00:40:17
serving a life sentence. Were you in the middle? Yes, ma'am, I was. After years of denials,
00:40:25
Katie finally admitted her involvement in the murder, and not just hers. Who came up with the idea to kill Dan Markell?
00:40:33
Charlie. It was a seed planted in Ernest nine months before the murder with a simple question.
00:40:39
What was the question? Do you know anybody that can harm someone? And did you know anybody that could harm someone?
00:40:45
Yes, ma'am, I did. Who was that? Sigfredo. Katie says she convinced Sigfredo Garcia to commit the murder.
00:40:52
Then Charlie gave her specific instructions. He had a manila envelope that was sealed.
00:40:59
He told me, Katie, do not open it and basically give that paper to the other person.
00:41:09
Did he express any concerns about fingerprints being on the envelope or the contents?
00:41:14
Yes, ma'am. He said he wore a glove so that there's no fingerprints on it. And what about licking the envelope?
00:41:20
And that he didn't lick the envelope. Katie testified that after the murder, she went to Charlie's house to get the payment.
00:41:26
and Charlie had the money packaged up for her, stapled in stacks. She also said her payment for the killing included those checks from the Adelson Institute signed by Donna.
00:41:38
Did you perform any job at the Adelson Institute? No, ma'am, I did not. Author Stephen Epstein, is this finally the unvarnished truth from Katie McBono?
00:41:48
It's certainly a lot closer to the truth than what we heard from her before, which was that she knew nothing.
00:41:53
But according to Charlie attorneys the real unvarnished truth about Dan Markell murder was something nobody not even the prosecutors sitting at the next table over had heard before On that day two crimes occurred The first one the state knows about The other one they don know about But before we get there I like cliffhangers
00:42:19
So do we. I'm not being. And you won't believe the story you're about to hear from Charlie Adelson himself.
00:42:37
But this was Charlie basically saying this the whole time. Charlie Adelson's ex-girlfriend, Katie McBonawa, was unswerving in her testimony against him.
00:42:45
But Charlie's attorney, Dan Rashbaum, says she did plenty of swerving in the years leading up to this appearance on the stand.
00:42:53
She's told more than two versions. She's lied when she was arrested. She's lied in the first trial.
00:43:00
She's lied in the second trial. And then her story changes again when she's on the stand.
00:43:04
I told you, I lied in my first and second trial to save myself. Just like you're lying here to save yourself, right?
00:43:11
I'm not saving myself. I'm telling the truth this time. What happened after that was a high-stakes gamble for the defense.
00:43:17
We called Charlie Adelson. Charlie Adelson himself took the stand with a brand new version of events.
00:43:23
And this guy gets out of the car. Startling, head spinning, and totally out of the blue.
00:43:29
He claimed two crimes had been committed. The murder of Dan Markell and the extortion of Charlie Adelson.
00:43:37
When you heard it, you know this case so well. What did you think? My jaw dropped open.
00:43:41
Did you cause the death of Professor Dan Markell? Absolutely no. Charlie told the jury his own nightmare began the very day Dan was murdered.
00:43:52
Katie came over to his house that night, and she was in a panic. She said, listen, this is all my fault.
00:43:59
I spoke in too much detail about your family's personal problems, about your sister, Dan Markell, and the million-dollar offer.
00:44:05
That would be the million dollars the Adelsons talked about giving Dan if he'd let his children move to South Florida.
00:44:13
What did you say? I'm like, what are you talking about? And she's like, she's like, my friend killed Dan and he wants to be paid a third of a million dollars.
00:44:23
What happened next? I stood up and I started cursing it. I'm like, what the f***? Are you kidding me?
00:44:29
And she's like, no. I'm like, who did this? Who's your friend that did this? And she's like, I don't want to say.
00:44:34
I can't say. And I'm like, Katie, I'm not going to be part of this. Like, I'm not going to be part of paying for a murder.
00:44:40
This is insane. And she's like, look, if you don't pay in 48 hours, they will kill you.
00:44:47
And I said, Katie, I feel like I'm getting extorted now. He testified he didn't have that much money, but he did have $138,000 in his safe.
00:44:58
She put it in her purse and she asked me, she goes, how can you get the rest? Charlie said he couldn't ask his parents. They'd go right to the police.
00:45:08
She asked me, she said, well, can you pay like, can you pay like $3,000 a month?
00:45:16
And I said, yeah, I can, I can do that. And while most killers don't agree to installment plans, these guys apparently did.
00:45:27
Then Charlie testified that Katie seemed to want to get in on the extortion money herself.
00:45:32
She asked for a cut of the $3,000 monthly payment and suggested he put it in a payroll check for her.
00:45:38
I said, I'll do it for you. No problem. I mean, I wanted to keep her happy. Charlie said his mother did the books for the dental practice,
00:45:45
so she set up the payments for Katie to go through the company payroll. And she's like, well, what's Katie going to be doing?
00:45:51
And I go, oh, she's just going to be helping me out with some stuff and different things.
00:45:57
As for the key evidence, that newly improved video that helped pave the way for Charlie's arrest,
00:46:02
He had an explanation for that, too. Why didn't you specifically mention the word extortion in Dolce Vitae?
00:46:11
I was being real careful when I spoke to Katie. I would never say the word extortion to him.
00:46:16
You've got a very complicated theory, which addresses all the dots and T's that need to be crossed.
00:46:23
But what about the fact that these guys are strangers to Dan Markell? I mean, that doesn't seem to make sense.
00:46:28
We're going to kill this guy and then hope we get 300,000? But that's the same exact thing in the murder for hire theory, too, because the testimony is clear that they didn't get paid before the murder.
00:46:41
So they're doing a murder for hire, according to the state, with the hopes of getting paid later.
00:46:48
It doesn't make any sense. Outrageous as it all sounded to Dan Markell's family and friends.
00:46:53
Charlie's detailed defense did make some of them nervous. Did you worry that he was going to find one juror to believe it?
00:47:00
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. If prosecutor Georgia Kappelman was worried, she didn't show it.
00:47:06
In her cross-examination, she didn't even try to hide her disdain. Doctor, have you ever heard the saying that the simplest explanation is always the most likely?
00:47:18
Have you heard that? I've heard that theory before, yeah. Do you agree that the only problem with having an explanation for everything
00:47:24
is that there's just so many explanations? There's no explanation. I explained what happened.
00:47:31
According to the prosecutor, nothing Charlie did was consistent with someone who was a victim of extortion.
00:47:37
She asked Charlie about his cozy relationship with Katie, which continued even after all the danger he claimed she'd brought into his life.
00:47:51
What's the purpose of keeping Katie happy? Was she going to sick the Latin Kings on her?
00:48:00
If you made her unhappy, she was she was protecting that. I didn't know what would happen.
00:48:05
Did you offer that she could use your Range Rover anytime? I said she could borrow the car.
00:48:11
Sure. Did you pay for the breast augmentation? No, I did not pay for her job. On the stand, Charlie seemed to have an explanation for everything.
00:48:21
Do you think you can talk your way out of this? No, I don't. I'm not part of a murder.
00:48:27
Now the jurors would have to decide if Charlie was a victim or part of a murder conspiracy,
00:48:32
as others wondered if anyone else from his family was involved. By the fall of 2023, Charlie Adelson had transformed from suave Miami bachelor
00:48:54
to criminal defendant facing a life sentence. All that remained was to hear from the group of jurors
00:49:00
who were deliberating his fate. So what are you thinking? I mean, you're out there in the gallery.
00:49:05
Did you think you had it this time? We knew we had a good chance. We've already been around this stuff a little too long.
00:49:11
We're over nine years now. So the deliberations are just a very, very worrisome time.
00:49:18
Everyone can be seated. But word came much sooner than the Markels anticipated. the jurors had reached a decision.
00:49:25
Definitely surprised at like the three-hour mark. Has the jury reached a unanimous verdict?
00:49:32
Yes, Your Honor. It had taken nearly a decade to bring Charlie to trial, but this jury's verdict was quick.
00:49:38
The defendant is guilty of first-degree murder. Thousands were live-streaming the verdict,
00:49:44
including author Stephen Epstein. I think Charlie thought he was about to walk out of the courtroom a free man.
00:49:50
Three hours later, he wasn't. No. And you could see his reaction. It was a look of surprise, of shock, and his head sank to the table,
00:49:59
and he mouthed one word, no. In the moment, it's like a feeling of relief, almost celebration.
00:50:12
It's a good feeling because you were waiting for this to happen. And yet you can't really celebrate because you have this stark, awful moment of grief in your life
00:50:20
that this is all about. Yes. Prosecutor Georgia Kappelman took a quick victory lap,
00:50:26
then hinted that Charlie's conviction was not the end of the conspiracy chain. Is this the last prosecution
00:50:32
we're going to see in the Dan Martell murder, or will there be others? I don't know the answer to that question yet.
00:50:38
So stay tuned. As Kappelman left the courthouse, Charlie Adelson settled in behind bars.
00:50:45
And when they put him away, there's a telephone there. There is. And who's at the other end of the line?
00:50:50
Same person who's been at the other end of the line throughout his entire life, his mama, Donna Adelson.
00:50:58
There's nothing to say. There's nothing to say. Charlie spent many hours on the phone with his mother, Donna, and father, Harvey.
00:51:06
This is a free call from Charlie, an incarcerated individual at the Leon County Jail.
00:51:12
This call is not private. Hey. Hey, Charlie. Charlie, how are you guys? Okay, okay.
00:51:22
They commiserated over the verdict. I can't believe it's reality either. We just can't believe it.
00:51:29
That what? That this is what happened. That there's no out of this. We can't believe this.
00:51:37
Donna was especially critical of the jury. They didn't give you a chance. They had their minds set up.
00:51:43
You don't walk out three hours. No, trust me, they didn't. Charlie said the trial played out like a particular TV show.
00:51:51
You know the one. When they realized they were losing, they had to turn it into Dateline.
00:51:57
Nobody watches Dateline without coming away with their own, thinking they'd figured it out.
00:52:03
One Adelson was notably absent on those calls, Wendy. On one call, Donna was talking to Charlie, then his side of the call dropped.
00:52:12
But for the next 25 minutes, she kept talking to her husband Harvey and others in the room,
00:52:17
not knowing she was still being recorded. She read them a text she said she sent to Wendy after the verdict.
00:52:24
I wrote this last night. We know you never ask anything about your brother, but we just got off the phone with him,
00:52:29
and the first thing he asked was, how's Wendy holding up? I didn't have the heart to tell him that you never called up or asked about him.
00:52:37
I just said, we weren't up to phone calls right now. Everyone looks to protect you.
00:52:43
I bet you've got a lot to think about. But then she didn't answer. Eventually, Wendy, an experienced lawyer, replied.
00:52:51
And Donna read that message out loud, too. I'm not responsible in any way for Charlie's situation.
00:52:58
I am not guilty because I did not do anything wrong, and I was not involved in any way with Danny's death.
00:53:03
Donna seemed to realize she was losing her grip on her adult children. I said to Harvey, I said, Donna, family was cursed.
00:53:11
And Donna had an urgent reason to get Wendy back in the fold, something she expressed on this same recording.
00:53:17
I have a space here. I want to give her pose. We're going to be gone. I want her to have all this information.
00:53:23
Gone? Where? The conversation soon turned from complaints about the trial to plans for the future.
00:53:31
And they are just going back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out, what do we do now?
00:53:36
And oh, what a plan the mischief maker had hatched. There's a lot of things that we have to do, and we've got a very tight time frame.
00:53:56
Donna and Harvey Adelson love to go on extravagant vacations Just seven months after Dan murder they traveled to Australia and posed for these pictures
00:54:06
including these shots, tourists mugging for the camera as convicts at a Melbourne jail.
00:54:11
But now their son Charlie was in actual jail for murder, and their lives had changed dramatically.
00:54:18
Here's Donna talking to Charlie about another big trip she was planning. We've been looking it up over and over.
00:54:24
Things change if there is extradition from Vietnam. Because we've looked at all the places.
00:54:31
I mean, I could go to Korea and China, but there's no extradition. But we're looking for places where there's no extradition.
00:54:37
Donna seemed to be planning to flee to a country that would not send her back to the U.S. or any prosecution.
00:54:43
And she set it all on that monitored jailhouse line. Authorities learned Donna and Harvey had booked one-way tickets to Vietnam the day after Charlie's conviction.
00:54:53
When Dan Markell's friend Jared later heard about it, he believed it could mean only one thing.
00:54:58
Jared, a one-way ticket. One-way ticket. They planned this. They knew that if Charlie was convicted, they were coming for her next,
00:55:07
and she wanted to one-up them and get out before they could. As Donna and Harvey made their way toward the plane,
00:55:13
Tallahassee FBI agent Pat Sanford leading a team of officers some of them undercover, pounced.
00:55:20
They're boarding the plane. They believe they're about to make their great escape.
00:55:25
But Pat Sanford is there. And literally sees the phone in Donna's hand and grabs for it because he has a search warrant.
00:55:36
Donna yanks it away from him as if she's got control and power. And the next thing you know
00:55:42
She's got her hands behind her back, cuffed. And she's marching in the opposite direction, off the jetway,
00:55:48
with a gaggle of officers surrounding her. And Harvey, utterly helpless to do anything.
00:55:53
Harvey was sent home without being charged. When did they issue a warrant? Donna, seen here sitting in the back of a police car,
00:56:02
was driven straight from the airport to a Miami lockup. It's an event with a lot of exclamation points.
00:56:09
Oh, it's amazing. Where are we now? They've gotten Donna, the mother. And where does she fit in the grand scheme of things, do you think?
00:56:15
Donna, in my mind, is the architect. In November 2023, nine years after Dan Markell's murder,
00:56:23
Donna Adelson was transported up to the Leon County Jail in Tallahassee, writhing, shaking, and very far away from the high-rise condo in South Beach
00:56:33
where she'd spent her life of luxury. Then she faced a judge. How does she plead?
00:56:38
Not guilty, Your Honor. As she sat in the Leon County Jail, Donna lamented that she wouldn't be able to see her two grandsons, Wendy's kids, on their first day of school, as she wrote in this email obtained exclusively by Dateline.
00:56:52
It breaks my heart that I can't see them or even pictures of them on this special day.
00:56:57
If the state convicts me like they did to their uncle for a crime I had no part in, I want them to remember all the fun things we did together.
00:57:05
I do not want them to visit me in prison. If I don't get out, then hopefully I die soon so that no one remembers me in prison garb behind bars.
00:57:14
With her trial approaching, her attorneys argued Donna should be released on bail.
00:57:19
At a bail hearing, Donna testified about the jailhouse conditions. I've gained more than a third of my body weight here.
00:57:28
The diet is all carbs, no protein, and we have had no exercise at all. She said she felt unsafe and had even been assaulted by another inmate while she was brushing her teeth.
00:57:40
What happened? Someone came up behind me and pulled my left hand away from the sink and twisted my arm.
00:57:53
And she said, unless you want those pretty white teeth knocked out of your mouth, you're going to find me commissary.
00:58:00
So I said, okay. Donna said she bought the woman some snacks at the commissary, the jailhouse store, and she eventually left her alone.
00:58:10
Prosecutors objected to bail and pointed out that the jail conditions were not unusually harsh.
00:58:15
Ms. Adelson has complained about the jail being too loud. The food is not good, but she is in jail. It's not the Four Seasons.
00:58:23
What's more, the state argued Donna was an obvious flight risk, given that one-way ticket she'd booked for Vietnam.
00:58:29
But Donna had an explanation for that. It was a vacation, not an attempt to flee.
00:58:36
My husband and I were literally shocked and traumatized at what had happened to Charlie.
00:58:44
It was his idea. He said, sweetheart, let's go just get away. That wasn't enough to convince the judge.
00:58:50
Donna would stay locked up. Meanwhile, Charlie was transferred to the same jail in Tallahassee,
00:58:56
so he could potentially testify in his mother's trial. He was apparently having a hard time there, too.
00:59:03
Here he is, berating a deputy for opening the cell door on his toe. Congratulations.
00:59:09
You opened a hatch. There's someone standing here barefoot. You opened a door to their toe.
00:59:13
Excuse me? That was really f***ing stupid. Bring your lieutenant over. I'll tell him how f***ing stupid you are.
00:59:18
As Charlie and his mother awaited her trial, Donna's defense team geared up for a fight.
00:59:24
She's just being a parent, not a killer. She's a meddler, not a murderer. It had taken more than a decade to take down four links in the chain of conspiracy for Dan Markell's murder.
00:59:49
The two hired gunmen, the go-between, and Charlie Adelson. Now it was Donna Adelson turn the grandmother who the state believed orchestrated it all just to bring her grandchildren closer to her In August 2025 Donna found herself in a Tallahassee courtroom to face trial
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charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation of murder. The stakes couldn't have been higher.
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Sitting in the packed gallery were Phil and Ruth Markell. Across the aisle, Harvey Adelson, Donna's husband, sat alone.
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I could not understand how he could sit there like stone-faced. He never had a reaction.
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Good morning. Good morning. 75-year-old Donna, in glasses and wearing a simple cardigan, looked every bit the grandmother.
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Her attorney, Jackie Fulford, praised her virtues. She's kind, caring, loving. She cares more about people than she does about herself.
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The first defense witness was Donna's best friend, Ann Cunningham. Have you found her to be a hateful person?
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Never. Is she aggressive towards others? Never. Have you ever heard her threaten anyone?
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Never. She told jurors that Donna called her the day Dan was killed, sounding frantic, almost hysterical.
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She was very concerned and worried about Wendy and the boys, whether they were in danger.
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because she did not know who had shot him. John Singer is an attorney and legal analyst who followed the trial.
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That testimony was for the purposes of somehow connoting that Donna wasn't involved,
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that Donna was shocked as everybody else was. She played no part in this. She wasn't the orchestrator.
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And after her son Charlie's conviction, the friend said she saw Donna slide further into despair.
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She was considering taking her own life. Echoing Donna, the friend testified that Donna wasn't planning an escape to Vietnam.
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It was simply a vacation. And she had a return date in mind. In fact, she told you she was coming back, didn't she?
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Definitely. And she was coming back without a doubt to go to what? Lincoln's bar mitzvah.
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Lincoln is Wendy and Dan's son. His bar mitzvah was scheduled for January 2024, just a few weeks after their Vietnam flight.
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had even picked out a dress for the occasion. When she booked the ticket, there was no warrant.
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She was not doing anything wrong. The defense conceded that Donna was over-involved in Wendy's
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life and indeed wrote some nasty things about her son-in-law, like in that email where she called him
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the F-word and said she wanted to make his life miserable. But they said that wasn't evidence of
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murder. In all the evidence they have collected, she can't help herself but run her mouth. Not a
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single email, no phone calls that are recorded, no written documents, no emails, not one single
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thing that said anything about wanting Danny Markell killed. And her attorneys pushed back
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on the investigator's theory of the crime, that Donna would orchestrate a murder because of the
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relocation of her grandsons. They pointed out the fight over custody and relocation was in the
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rearview mirror, settled and done by a judge. Relocation was done for over a year. That's the
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motive. There is not a single email that shows that my client, Donna Adelson, was continuing on
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a rampage about relocation. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you will give today and this trial
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will be the truth? Daughter Wendy returned to the stand with her limited immunity agreement.
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Once again, she denied any involvement in the scheme. I was not involved in any plot to kill Danny.
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Wendy offered more insight into Dan and Donna's relationship. The week before he died, your mother was babysitting for Danny, wasn't she?
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Yes. And in fact, she actually made him banana bread, specifically the way he liked it, right?
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It was his favorite. Without nuts, but with chocolate chips. That's right. She babysat seven days before his murder.
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So that's the story from the defense that Donna isn't this diabolical person. She's not the ogre that you're all hearing about.
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Yes, and she even baked Dan his favorite, her banana bread. And that shows they had a very cordial relationship even a week before he was killed.
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Charlie Adelson was in a jail close by, waiting to testify in his mother's trial.
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But the defense never called him. Rather, they focused on all of that surveillance evidence.
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They argue that investigators tried repeatedly through those wiretaps in the FBI sting operation
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to get Donna to blurt out anything incriminating. But she never did. Her confusion during that FBI bump seemed genuine.
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I don't know what to do. The defense played another tape, this one recorded by Donna herself.
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She called back the undercover agent and again expressed complete ignorance. Everybody knows what's going on.
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Well, I don't, you know, you're saying everyone knows. I know I lost my ex-son-in-law.
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I did not have anything to do with it. It isn't me. You have got the wrong person.
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The defense insisted Donna was innocent, and in a surprising move, told the jury that might not be true for two of Donna's children.
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There's not a single piece of evidence that connects my client to that murder. Charlie Adelson? Yep.
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Potentially Wendy Adelson? She's the one who said she hated him. She's the one fighting with him in court.
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Donna Adelson? Nothing. Instead, they urged jurors to see Donna for who she really was.
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She's just being a parent, not a killer. She's a meddler, not a murderer. Meanwhile prosecutors had been building their case against Donna Adelson and they were ready with powerful new evidence including a star witness ready to lift the curtain on the Adelson family secrets
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How do you know the defendant in this case? She's my mother. After 11 years investigating Dan Markell's murder, prosecutors believed they had the final pieces of the puzzle.
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And they were about to reveal new evidence against Donna Adelson, the family matriarch.
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Assistant State Attorney Sarah Dugan. Who in Dan Markell's life would hate him enough to hire a professional killer?
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Donna Adelson, of course. She was not the sweet granny who baked banana bread for her son-in-law.
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The prosecution said she was angry, bitter, and vengeful over Wendy and Dan's divorce.
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Did your mom ever call Dan Markell any disparaging names around this time frame?
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She did. Okay, including piece of s***? Yes. A narcissist? Yes. A bully? Yes. A bastard?
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Yes. They introduced another email exchange, with Donna urging Wendy to take bizarre steps to
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gain the upper hand in the custody fight. She used a nickname for Dan, Gibbers. If you dress
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your kids up in Hitler youth uniforms and brought them down here, Donna wrote, it would show Gibbers
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that he's not in control. If your children are baptized, it doesn't make them Christian. It's an
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act. Dan was devoutly Jewish. She wanted to put the kids in Hitler youth uniforms as a way of
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infuriating and angering Dan. Do you remember that? Prosecutors said Donna never gave up trying
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to get Wendy and her grandsons to move closer to her. She referred to being in Tallahassee,
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that you were a hostage and a prisoner, right? Yes, she did. But they argued there was another
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legal flashpoint, far more explosive than the relocation issue. Prosecutors called it
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The grandma motion. The kids had allegedly told Dan that grandma says that you're stupid.
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Grandma says that she hates you. And Dan had had enough of that. Dan was so furious, prosecutors said, that he filed a motion to limit Donna's contact with the boys.
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A family court judge scheduled a hearing on that motion. But Dan didn't live to see it happen.
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So you put that court date on the timeline, it becomes more important. It definitely does.
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it was still looming and had not been adjudicated as of the date that the murder took place.
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Once the murder plot kicked into gear, prosecutors said Donna was doing her part to see it through.
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While she never directly communicated with the two hitmen, investigators did find something
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that was crucial for the two men tailing Dan. Her calendar book had Dan Markell's license plate
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number of his car in it in 2014. There would be no reason at that point, two years post-separation, for her to have that
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other than to provide that information to the ultimate individuals who effectuated the hit.
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Once again, prosecutors called the central link in the conspiracy chain Katie Magbonoa.
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Katie described picking up the initial payment for the hit from Charlie's house the night
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of the killing. Did you go to Charlie Adelson's house to get the money on the night of the shooting?
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Yes, ma'am. Prosecutors suspected that money came from Charlie's wealthy parents, Donna and Harvey.
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In court, they showed the jury this text message from Donna to her son, Charlie, earlier that night.
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Just three words outside your house. That's another very damaging piece of evidence.
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That puts mom, Donna, as the source of the money. That's correct. Katie testified that the cash was bundled into stapled stacks.
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And this was odd. The money was damp. Tell me that his mom washed the money. That she physically washed the money.
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Yes, ma'am. Literally washed it. At a time, perhaps to erase any traces of fingerprints or whatever else could have been on the money.
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And of course, the state showed jurors all those checks Donna had written out to Katie.
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Checks that she signed herself. And while it's true Donna never said anything directly about the murder plot on those hours of wiretaps or recorded jailhouse calls, prosecutors did play that call she made to Charlie after the bump.
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Does it involve me or other people? Well, probably both people. What else, argued the state, could she be talking about besides the murder?
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That is direct evidence. If anyone in that jury room wants to acquit her, make them tell you how that is not a confession.
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Prosecutors thought it was absurd, even laughable, that Donna's defense called her trip to Vietnam a vacation.
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You're not flying to a non-extradition country to come back in a couple of months to surrender and have your hands cut.
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You're flying to a non-extradition country with the hopes that you'll get to live the rest of your life there.
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Then a new face in the saga entered the courtroom. I swear, you might take your seat.
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For the first time, Donna's eldest son, Rob Adelson, who'd been estranged from the family since Dan's death, took the stand.
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Who's the oldest child? I am. Rob testified that he watched his mother assume the role of fixer in Wendy's life, and Wendy let her.
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Did you observe that Wendy played a bit of a damsel in distress, in your opinion, in the divorce?
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Yes, I think that's a good way to describe it. And he described his mother's odd behavior after Dan was murdered.
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I said, you know, what do you guys think happened? and she had said, you know, I don't know and I don't care.
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It doesn't concern me. Was that out of character for her to not be curious and not be asking some questions?
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Yeah. He told jurors how the FBI came to his home for an interview. And this is what his mother told him.
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And she called me and said, the police come around, you know, don't talk to them.
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Okay, so she told you not to talk to law enforcement. Correct. And I said, I already did.
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What did she say to that? She said, oh, well, you don't know anything anyway. You don't know anything anyway, which assumes that somebody does know something.
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Like Donna. Yes. The subtext of what she said is, I know what happened and you don't.
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When news broke that police had arrested the hitman, Rob spoke to his mother again.
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So I said, you know, they arrested someone who killed Danny. You know, there's no response.
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And I said it, you know, at least two or three times. And then her response was, you know, I've got to go.
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And then did she hang up the phone after that? Yes. And they never spoke again. They never spoke again.
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Phil Markell was grateful that at least one Adelson was capable of standing up to Donna.
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I think the story was very, very important. Took unbelievable guts. The state said that even when she was behind bars, Donna Adelson wasn't done making mischief.
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Please raise your right hands, Bernhardt. This was one of Donna's cellmates at the Leon County Jail, Drina Bernhardt.
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She actually called me her jail daughter, and she and I got close. Drina had spent time in jail with Katie McBonawa years prior.
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When Donna found that out, Drina said she tried to recruit her to create a cover story,
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that Katie McBonawa was the real mastermind, and that she and Charlie knew nothing about the plot.
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The same extortion narrative Charlie himself had floated at his trial. She wants Drina Bernhardt to tell this jury, her jury, that Katie McBonawa told her this is what happened.
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And it was, you will go into a trial someday, and you'll tell him that Katie admitted she lied, and this double extortion, crazy as it sounds, actually happened.
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Yes. The cellmate testified how Donna even drafted this handwritten script, spelling out exactly what she should say in court, and suggested she memorize it.
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Cameras in the jail caught Donna walking up to a table and writing it out in the cellmate's notebook.
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Obviously, the recklessness of it, the foolhardiness of it, the thinking I'm not going to get caught because of it was insane.
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What does she write in the script? Extort. Underlined. It was a mic drop moment for the prosecution.
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Now, one question remained. Would the meddling mother who had so much to say about her children's lives
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have anything to say to the jury? This decision affects the rest of my life. For nearly two weeks Donna Adelson sat at the defense table listening to prosecutors portray her as the master architect of murder
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Now it was up to Donna. Would she take the stand and answer to any of it? The conventional wisdom was that she was going to testify to try to save herself.
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Have you made a decision concerning this matter? I haven't. I'm not prepared to make that decision. This decision affects the rest of my life.
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I was hoping I would have some time to speak to my terms. This has already been discussed, ma'am.
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What is your choice? The judge is infuriated. Like, you need to decide, are you testifying?
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And she's not able to make that decision. Five minutes later, Donna had her answer.
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At this time, I don't want a testifier. Now it was up to a jury to decide Donna's fate.
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And it didn't take long. After three hours, about as long as Charlie's jury, the jurors sent word they had reached a verdict.
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The jury files back in. Donna, she looks so nervous like she may pass out. We, the jury, find the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder.
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Mrs. Adelson, control yourself. She is so upset, and she breaks down, starts crying.
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The judge admonishes her. But the funny part, she didn't have a single tear rolling down her cheeks.
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There is something purely evil inside that woman. And the coldness of a person to be crying hysterically and not being able to shed a tear.
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Dan's murder has shattered our family and caused deep, permanent pain. Right after the verdict, the Markell family was allowed to give victim impact statements.
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My only short question to Donna, was it worth it? I'd like to have an answer from her.
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I don't think I'll ever get one. Deputies transferred Donna in a wheelchair from the courthouse to her jail cell.
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The matriarch, once said to control everything, was now a convicted felon. Have you arrived at a point of finding something that feels, looks like justice, whatever that may mean?
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only if and when everybody involved is brought to justice. I think I just feel kind of honored to be able to deliver this win for the Markels.
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Another victory lap. And once again, the assembled reporters wanted to know, was there more to come?
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Do we need to stay tuned? Stay tuned. You can stay tuned. From the moment Dan was killed, his ex-wife's role has been the source of endless speculation.
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Prosecutors have previously named Wendy as an unindicted co in court documents She has never been charged with anything related to the plot The case against Wendy is more difficult than the case against Donna and Charlie
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but there is enough circumstantial evidence there to infer that Wendy took affirmative steps
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to help further the conspiracy. Legal analyst Singer points to two key actions that could tie Wendy to the conspiracy.
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Days before he was killed, Wendy sent a text to Dan asking about his travel plans.
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Was she making sure he'd be home for the scheduled hit? There was no reason for her to send that to Dan Markell unless it were to ensure that he was in fact going to be in town.
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And hours after the shooting, prosecutors argued, Wendy drove out of her way along Dan Street and saw the police roadblock there.
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Was she checking to see if the murder actually happened? To me, the step back point comes back to the old Latin phrase, cui bono.
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Who benefited from this awful thing? And you have to say, the widow, the wife. Wendy was the beneficiary.
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She got exactly what she wanted. She got the children. Right, and does common sense tell you that her family, with whom she is so incredibly close,
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was going to have her ex-husband, the father of her children, murdered without her knowledge or imprimatur?
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Wendy, ever the careful attorney, has said over and over again, in court testimony and in her police interview,
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that she had no involvement in the plot to kill her ex-husband. Her attorney did not respond to our request for comment.
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In October 2025, Donna returned to court for sentencing. Her husband Harvey was there again to support her.
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After years of silence, the retired dentist finally spoke and went after both the prosecution and the judge.
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And I could not help but scream in my mind by the witnesses that were brought forward by the prosecution who told outright lies.
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A biased judge and jury were influenced by years of one-sided news pieces and social media.
01:19:47
Thank you, Doctor. Ms. Fulford, this has nothing to do with the character of the defendant.
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The judge shut down the husband's rant. Harvey paused, then continued. This is not justice. It is vengeance, and it is wrong.
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Then it was Donna's turn to address the court. I had no knowledge that this horrible, evil act was going to take place.
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Where is the evidence before July 18, 2014, at 10.50 in the morning? Before you continue, Mrs. Abelson, you certainly can continue.
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However, the court can take into consideration the utter lack of remorse that you are displaying.
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Donna wasn done with her denials not by a long shot Never in a million years would I have wanted Danny to be harmed or killed nor could I ever do something that would leave these two small boys to grow up without him
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I swear to you on my life, I was not involved in any way with Danny's murder. I was not.
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then the judge sentenced Donna to life in prison without parole for Ruth and Phil Markell
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Donna's conviction has closed one chapter in the saga but it is not the end of the story
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their grandsons who have always been at the heart of the case are now both teenagers
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and live with their mother Wendy I don't have that relationship with my grandchildren
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and of course I don't have it with my son either. After Dan's death, Wendy changed the boys' last names from Markel to Adelson,
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saying it was to protect their privacy. The Markels say that over the years, Wendy has restricted their contact with their two grandsons.
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The last time that I actually saw the children, I actually spoke to Wendy and I asked her,
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wouldn't it be nice if we can arrange for the boys you included to come to toronto let them see
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where their father grew up let them see where he's buried and she said that'll never happen
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never happen that's what she said to me we want to be a part of their life we want them to know
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how much love we have for them. It's been more than a decade since Dan Markell was gunned down in his garage.
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The brilliant law professor, who spent his career studying punishment and justice,
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became himself the victim of a murder plot that sent five people to prison. But for those who knew him,
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Dan's legacy isn't defined by courtrooms or convictions. It's defined by the people he loved the most,
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his family. He was such a phenomenal father. I mean, the best thing about Danny, everybody, you know, he's a scholar, he's internationally acclaimed.
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That all counts. But the biggest, biggest factor was the kind of father that he was.
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That's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our Talking Dateline podcast.
01:23:03
Dennis Murphy and Blaine Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode.
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Available Wednesday in the Dateline feed wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central.
01:23:17
I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.