Mother of Florida dentist convicted in murder-for-hire killing is arrested at Miami airport

The mother of a Florida dentist convicted in a 2014 murder-for-hire killing of Florida State law professor Dan Markel was arrested and taken into custody at Miami International Airport on Monday night.

Donna Adelson was arrested on charges of murder, conspiracy and solicitation in Markel's murder, the same crimes for which her son, 47-year-old Fort Lauderdale dentist Charlie Adelson, was convicted a week before. Donna Adelson's daughter and Charlie Adelson's sister, Wendi Adelson, was previously married to Markel.

The arrest was a bombshell development in the nearly decade-long Markel case, coming in rapid-fire succession after a jury convicted Charlie Adelson on Nov. 6.

Donna Adelson, 73, is the second member of her family and the fifth person to be charged in connection to the murder amid a bitter post-divorce fight between Markel and his ex-wife.

Prosecutors have argued that members of the Adelson family conspired to hire hit men to kill Markel. Latin Kings gang member Luis Rivera, Sigfredo Garcia and Katie Magbanua, are also all in prison in connection with the murder.

Victim's former mother-in-law was trying to flee country, officials say

State Attorney Jack Campbell confirmed to the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network, that Donna Adelson and her husband, Harvey Adelson, were intercepted at the airport Monday, and that they had one-way plane tickets to Vietnam, with a stop in Dubai.

Investigators had the evidence needed to charge Donna Adelson, but her trip to the airport sped up their timeline, Campbell said.

"That's what forced our hand," Campbell said. "We started talking to some of our law enforcement partners about the complexities of trying to bring someone back from either Dubai or Vietnam. And that might be a very complicated and lengthy process. So that’s why we had to make a decision quickly."

Campbell added that Donna Adelson was in the process of trying to flee, which will be part of the state's evidence in its case against her. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Vietnam.

Her arrest came less than 24 hours before a Leon County grand jury is scheduled to meet, though it's unclear whether her case will be heard. All first-degree murder charges run through the grand jury.

Donna Adelson was arrested and booked into the Miami-Dade jail. It was not immediately clear when she will be transported to the Leon County Detention Facility, where her son is incarcerated while he awaits sentencing.

Campbell said the state did not have the evidence to arrest Harvey Adelson, a retired dentist and former owner of the Adelson Institute in Tamarac, where Donna Adelson served as office manager and Charlie Adelson, a periodontist, also worked.

What happened to Dan Markel?

Markel, then a 41-year-old father of two young sons, was shot twice in the head the morning of July 18, 2014, after parking his car in the garage of his Trescott Drive home. He died the next day at a hospital.

The investigation by the Tallahassee Police Department and the FBI led to the arrests of the two hit men, Rivera and Garcia, and Magbanua, who was the killers’ link to Charlie Adelson.

Rivera took a plea deal in 2016 in Markel’s murder, and flipped on Garcia and Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s children and Charlie Adelson’s ex-girlfriend. Both Garcia, found guilty in 2019, and Magbanua, found guilty in her second trial last year, are serving life in prison.

Charlie Adelson faces a mandatory life sentence in prison. Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett asked for a pre-sentence investigation, and the next court date is set for Dec. 12. Rivera avoided a life sentence, getting 19 years in prison for second-degree murder in exchange for his cooperation. Magbanua also opted to cooperate after her conviction, taking the stand against Charlie Adelson early in his trial.

Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman told reporters after Charlie Adelson was found guilty that she didn't know whether more people would be charged. "Stay tuned," she said.

Who is Donna Adelson and what is her connection to the murder?

Donna Adelson, who has three children with her husband, Harvey, is the matriarch of a family that built a successful dental practice in South Florida before allegedly planning and financing Markel’s murder.

Prosecutors have long considered Donna and Harvey Adelson and their daughter Wendi Adelson, Markel’s ex-wife and the mother of their two sons, as conspirators in the murder-for-hire plot. Wendi Adelson testified during her brother’s trial that her family was not involved.

Donna Adelson featured heavily in her son’s eight-day trial through wire taps with her son that were played in court and emails and texts with her family that prosecutors read aloud. Though she and her husband were both initially listed as witnesses, the state and defense both agreed to drop them before the trial.

Analysis:Even after almost a decade, Dan Markel murder saga may not be over

Prosecutors said the nasty post-divorce proceedings, including a request by Markel to bar Donna Adelson from unsupervised visits with her grandchildren, provided the motive for the murder. Countless communications among the Adelson family – which featured heavily in Charlie Adelson’s trial – would resurface in any future prosecution.

In one email from June 2013, Donna Adelson, who referred derisively to Markel as “Jibbers,” told her daughter that it was “time for action” after a judge denied her request to relocate with the kids to Miami. Cappleman read the email aloud during closing arguments.

“It’s time to take control of your life and not let Jibbers think he’s won anything by having you remain in Tallahassee, eight hours away from the only family you have. You can be a good actress when you want to. I’ve seen you in action. You need to put on the performance of your life. Jibbers hasn’t beaten the Adelson family yet.”

When the FBI turned up the heat on the family in 2016, it dispatched an undercover agent posing as a blackmailer to rattle Donna Adelson outside her Miami condo and get her and others talking on wires.

In a call soon after to her son, she avoided explicit talk about what had just happened — that the agent had given her a newspaper article about Markel and instructions to pay $5,000. She said it involved “probably the two of us. So you probably have a general idea what I’m talking about.”