Today is a day many of us who followed the Dan Markel murder case have long waited for!
Charlie Adelson has been convicted of hiring the two hit men who killed Dan. The jury convicted him on all three counts (first degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation of murder) after brief deliberations.
Dan was a prominent legal scholar at Florida State University. After his wife Wendi Adelson and he had an acrimonious divorce in 2012-13, Wendi's brother Charlie and his mother, Donna Adelson, paid two hitmen to kill him, so that Wendi would get sole custody of their two boys, and be able to move them to the Miami area (where the Adelson family lives). The two hitmen themselves were convicted a long time ago (one made a plea bargain and became a state witness). Earlier this year, the state also convicted Katie Magbanua, Charlie's ex-girlfriend who served as the go-between connecting the Adelsons and the killers (she was also a longtime girlfriend of one of the hitmen, Sigfredo Garcia). Magbanua and the hitmen testified against Charlie at this trial.
The conviction doesn't surprise me. The defense theory that Katie and the hitmen killed Dan and then extorted money from a completely innocent Charlie by threatening to kill HIM, is utterly implausible for multiple reasons. On that view, there was no point to killing Dan, in the first place, and thereby predictably attracting the attention of the police. They could have just extorted Charlie without killing anyone.
I'm glad to see justice has finally been done to Charlie, 9 years after Dan's death. However, we may not be done with this case yet: Donna Adelson is also likely to be charged.
At Charlie's trial, the state also presented considerable evidence indicating Wendi may have been in on the plot. I have long thought she was probably innocent. But recent revelations at least cast doubt on that view. Whether the state has enough evidence to charge her remains to be seen.
If Wendi ultimately follows her brother to prison, Dan's parents (who live in Toronto) could potentially end up with custody of the 2 boys (now ages 13 and 14). After Dan's murder, Wendi changed their last names from Markel to Adelson, and for 6 years barred the two grandparents from seeing them.
For the moment, I think Donna (against whom there is a lot of evidence) is next up, whereas Wendi (I still think) will not be charged. But I could be wrong about the latter point! We shall see.
None of this makes up for the awfulness of Dan's death, and the loss suffered by his family and friends, and especially his two kids. But there is at least some value to seeing justice done.