TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A choose sentenced a South Florida dentist to life in jail on Tuesday within the shooting death of his former brother-in-law, a distinguished professor at Florida State College, following a bitter custody battle.
Charlie Adelson, 47, was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide, conspiracy and solicitation final month within the 2014 killing of Dan Markel, who was gunned down in his automotive exterior his Tallahassee residence. Prosecutors contended that Adelson paid to have Markel killed, and jurors took simply three hours to search out him responsible.
“I might identical to to say that I keep my innocence,” a stoic Adelson instructed the choose, who additionally sentenced him to 30 consecutive years on the lesser counts.
Prosecutors laid out a case of wire faucets and secretly recorded conversations that implicated Adelson throughout the eight-day trial.
Markel’s father, Phil Markel, stated he and his household have “suffered tremendously” including that he not solely misplaced his son, but in addition misplaced a relationship together with his grandsons, who had been 3 and 4 years outdated when their father was killed.
Their mom — Adelson’s sister Wendi Adelson, who has denied involvement and has not been charged — shared custody of the boys since her divorce from Markel. She wished to maneuver from Tallahassee to South Florida to be nearer to her household, however a choose had dominated that she couldn’t relocate with out Markel’s consent, and he refused as a result of he did not need the youngsters to maneuver so distant.
Prosecutors instructed jurors that Adelson used his girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, to rent the daddy of her two kids, Sigfredo Garcia, to commit the murder. They stated Garcia in flip enlisted the assistance of his childhood good friend, Luis Rivera. Magbanua and Garcia at the moment are serving life sentences for first-degree homicide, and Rivera is serving a 19-year sentence after pleading responsible to second-degree homicide in alternate for testifying towards them.
Adelson testified that prosecutors bought the information of the case unsuitable. He instructed jurors that he felt a way of aid to lastly inform the general public that he was a sufferer of extortion and never the mastermind of a homicide plot.
In a twist, the 73-year-old matriarch of the Adelson family was arrested at Miami Worldwide Airport on expenses of orchestrating the hit-man homicide of her ex-son-in-law, one week after her son was convicted in Tallahassee. Donna Adelson was about to make use of one-way tickets to board a flight to Dubai and Vietnam, international locations that do not need an extradition treaty with america.
She remained held with out bond within the Leon County Jail on Tuesday. Jail information do not listing an lawyer for her. She faces the identical expenses her son was convicted on.
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