In a case that reads like a crime thriller, a wealthy American mother-in-law has been sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the contract killing of her former son-in-law during an acrimonious custody battle.
Donna Adelson, 75, was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder for orchestrating the fatal shooting of Dan Markel, a 41-year-old law professor, in 2014. The conviction marks the culmination of an eleven-year fight for justice by Mr Markel's grieving family.
The Devastating Custody Dispute
The tragedy unfolded from the bitter divorce between Dan Markel and his wife, Wendi Adelson. Their marriage ended abruptly in 2012 when Mr Markel returned from a business trip to find his wife and their two young sons gone, along with much of their furniture.
The divorce was finalised in 2013, with a judge ordering joint custody of the children. Crucially, the judge refused Wendi Adelson's request to relocate the children to Miami, where her parents, Donna and Harvey Adelson, lived. The court ruled that moving so far from their father was not in the children's best interests.
This decision infuriated the Adelson family. Donna Adelson, the matriarch of a wealthy family with a lucrative dentistry business, reportedly instructed her daughter to offer Dan Markel $1 million to allow the move. When this failed, the situation escalated dramatically.
Mr Markel later applied for a court order to prevent Donna Adelson from having unsupervised visits with his children, alleging she was disparaging him to them. Texts and emails presented in court revealed she had threatened to convert the children to Catholicism—their father was Jewish—and even suggested dressing them in Nazi uniforms to spite him.
A Brutal Murder and a Complex Investigation
On 18 July 2014, the conflict reached its horrifying conclusion. Dan Markel was shot twice in the head at point-blank range as he sat in his car outside his home in Tallahassee, Florida. He died in hospital 14 hours later.
Investigators quickly connected the killing to the custody battle. A neighbour reported hearing gunshots and seeing a Toyota Prius flee the scene. The vehicle, hired in Miami, was captured on surveillance footage stalking Mr Markel on the morning of his murder.
The investigation revealed a complex plot. In 2016, three individuals were arrested: Katherine Magbanua, who had ties to the Latin Kings gang, and the two hitmen she hired—Sigfredo Garcia, the father of her children, and Luis Rivera.
Rivera, the driver, later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a reduced sentence. He confessed to being paid $35,000 for his role and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Both Garcia and Magbanua were found guilty and received life sentences.
The Mastermind Unmasked
Authorities soon traced the conspiracy back to the Adelson family. Evidence showed Magbanua, who had previously dated Donna's son, Charles Adelson, was on the payroll of the family's dental practice despite not working there.
At Charles Adelson's trial in 2023, the prosecution argued that Donna Adelson relied on her son to "solve her problems," and Dan Markel had become a problem. Charles Adelson was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Just days after his conviction, Donna Adelson and her husband were arrested at Miami International Airport as they attempted to board a one-way flight to Vietnam, a country with no extradition treaty with the US.
During her trial, Adelson was described as an "over-bearing matriarch" who funded and instructed the murder plot. A pivotal piece of evidence was a recorded prison call where, after being approached by an undercover FBI agent, she whispered to her son, "Well, probably the both of us," when he asked if the blackmail threat was about him.
Despite maintaining her innocence at her sentencing in October this year, stating she would have stopped the plot had she known, the court found her guilty. She is the fifth person to be convicted for the murder of Dan Markel.
Following the murder, Wendi Adelson moved the children to Miami and changed their surnames to Adelson. Neither she nor her father has been charged in connection with the crime.
In a victim impact statement, Dan Markel's mother, Ruth Markel, spoke of the family's "unimaginable pain and heartbreak." His father, Phil Markel, directly asked Donna Adelson, "Was it worth it?"
