Trial date set for Donna Adleson, accused in FSU professor murder for hire plot
FORT LAUDERDALE - A judge has set a September 30th trial date for Donna Adelson who is accused in a murder for hire plot.
Adelson is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation in what prosecutors allege was a murder-for-hire killing of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel, her former son-in-law, in 2014.
Adelson allegedly conspired with her son Dr. Charlie Adelson to kill Markel who was in the middle of a nasty custody battle with her daughter.
According to prosecutors, Charlie Adelson arranged the killing so his sister could move back to the Fort Lauderdale area from Tallahassee with her two children. Wendi Adelson had been unable to return to South Florida because Markel had joint custody of their young children after a highly contentious divorce.
Markel was gunned down in his garage by two men, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, who prosecutors say were hired through Katherine Magbanua, a former girlfriend and employee of Charlie Adelson and the mother of Garcia's two children.
Magbanua and Garcia are now serving life sentences for first-degree murder, and Rivera is serving a 19-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against them.
Adelson was arrested on November 13 as she and her husband tried to board a flight out of Miami International Airport to Vietnam.
Charles Adelson, a South Florida dentist, was convicted of Markel's murder a week before her arrest. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Donna Adelson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
