VERDICT: Jury decides Charlie Adelson is guilty for Dan Markel murder (liveblog)
The fate of Charlie Adelson is decided: He's guilty on all counts.
The prosecution and defense delivered their closing arguments Monday morning in the murder trial of dentist Charlie Adelson, who's accused of arranging the 2014 murder-for-hire killing of Dan Markel.
Both sides wrapped their cases last week as Adelson himself opted to take the stand and testify in his own defense. The case is expected to go to the jury later today.
Prosecutors allege Adelson and his family had the Florida State law professor killed to put an end to a nasty child custody battle between the defendant's sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel, her ex-husband. The two shared two sons together.
The Adelson trial marks the third in the Markel case since 2019 and the first against one of his in-laws. Sigfredo Garcia, one of the two hit men hired to kill Markel, and Katie Magbanua, his girlfriend and Adelson's link to the killers were tried in 2019. He was convicted, though there was a mistrial for Magbanua, who was found guilty in her second trial last year. The other hit man, Luis Rivera, pleaded guilty and testified against the pair.
Adelson maintains he was extorted by Magbanua and didn't tell the police because he was scared he would be killed.
Scroll on for live updates from the courtroom.
Dan Markel murder-for-hire conspiracy: Everything you need to know about the case and what happened
5:10 p.m. Jury decides: Guilty
The jury found Charlie Adelson guilty on all counts.
Adelson was convicted Monday evening of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder.
His sentencing date is yet to be set, but Judge Stephen Everett said it might take about a month.
Adelson hunched over as the first "guilty" was uttered. He sat contemplating the news with his head lowered and eyes heavy with sadness as his future was discussed.
2 p.m.: Charlie Adelson's fate now in the jury's hands
The case went to the jury at about 1:50 p.m. Judge Stephen Everett gave jurors the usual admonishments, including not to talk about the case in any form. He tells them to let him know if any of them become aware of a violation.
The judge also dismissed three alternates, two were men, one was a woman; all three are white.
The day began with the judge giving instructions to the jury. Everett says the state must prove three elements beyond a reasonable doubt for a guilty verdict on first-degree murder. They must find that Dan Markel is dead, that the death was caused by the criminal act of Charlie Adelson and that it was premeditated.
The parties waived lesser and included charges in the instructions.
State begins rebuttal: 'Even his own sister doesn’t believe this load he’s trying to sell you'
Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman said that Daniel Rashbaum was encouraging the jury to speculate, which is against the law.
She then said that the defense was pushing hard to prove Wendi Adelson's innocence but said it made no sense because she wasn't the one on trial.
When Cappleman asked Wendi during her testimony about the extortion theory, Cappleman said this was the first time that she heard of the theory and she didn't know if it was true.
“Even his own sister doesn’t believe this load he’s trying to sell you," she said.
Cappleman poked holes in the defense's argument about the witnesses, specifically Katherine Magbanua's testimony. She said she isn't hinging their case on Magbanua's testimony, but she's asking them to decide whether it fits with the rest of the evidence.
Rashbaum provided his analysis and opinion on which witnesses were good, bad or truthful, but it's your job to determine that, Cappleman said to the jury.
The players in this case are smart, she said, and he's had several years to think about the case before it ever came out.
"As long as you can keep your mouth shut, you can get away with murder," Cappleman said. "But thankfully for us he didn't take his own advice."
“Don’t let the way the defendant thought he could get away with it be the reason he gets away with it.”
Defense presents closing statement
Daniel Rashbaum, Charlie Adelson's attorney, said they didn't have to prove Adelson's innocence, but he said he believes they did prove he is innocent.
"Sometimes the simple answer is the wrong answer," Rashbaum said. "Sometimes things aren't so simple."
Rashbaum presented nine "puzzle pieces" that don't make sense at the beginning of his closing statement: The motive, who had the kids, Sigfredo Garcia threatened Adelson, the hitman joke, payment evidence, Katie's lies, immunity, security cameras and that the wires support Adelson.
Adelson didn't have a motive to "upend his life," Rashbaum said, he was just living his life. The state presented the issue of relocation as a motive for the murder. But Rashbaum said that the move was denied a year before the murder and that the move would have no direct effect on Adelson's life.
"Use your common sense," he said. "It's a puzzle piece they can't explain."
Rashbaum told jurors that they don't have to like Adelson and that there are many reasons not to, but that doesn't make him a murderer.
He pointed out how FBI agent Pat Sanford testified that he's worked many murder-for-hire cases, but none of the hitman were paid over time. Rashbaum said Sanford testified that he has seen extortions executed like this.
Katherine Magbanua's testimony was then questioned by Rashbaum. He noted how she lied throughout her proffer and trials, but came and testified that she was now telling the truth.
"The one thing I hate is when someone comes in this courtroom and lies," Rashbaum said. "I hate even more when a murderer comes in this courtroom and lies."
Adelson thought Magbanua was protecting him and not involved, but she lied to him and everyone else.
"They're going to have you base this man's freedom on her word?" Rashbaum asked.
The state didn't ask her one question about the wire from the Dolce Vita meeting. The state also didn't call her back to the stand after Adelson's testimony because they don't trust her, he said. He asked the jury to consider all her lies.
"These puzzle pieces and others, do not fit the state's theory," Rashbaum said.
The people who killed Dan Markel are "animals," Rashbaum said. He said he couldn't even bring himself to look at the horrible photos of Markel following the murder when the state displayed them during their closing statement.
Luis Rivera was an animal, Rashbaum said, but he at least told the truth. Rivera testified that everything had to be cleared through Magbanua and that everything they knew about the job came from her. When the state asked Rivera if the involved parties could have lied to him about it actually being an extortion and not a murder-for-hire he said yes.
"That ladies and gentleman is the very definition of reasonable doubt," Rashbaum said.
Rashbaum moved on to the landline calls that are used as evidence in the case. He cited this as "the craziest" piece of evidence presented. He said Adelson was just using his cell phone to call his parents on a landline number that has been the same since he was born.
Rashbaum reiterated to the jury that Adelson traveled frequently to places that extradition is usually difficult, but he always came back. Adelson never fled.
The state only knows part of the story, he said regarding the FBI recording.
Prosecutors said Adelson used a code to talk. Rashbaum said he didn't speak in code, he spoke carefully. He didn't want anyone to know about the first extortion because it would've put his family in danger.
"He did not participate in the murder of Professor Markel," Rashbaum said.
When you have two reasonable explanations, you go with the one that presumes his innocence, he told the jury. The evidence is consistent with innocence.
"Remember in our system, they don't get the last word. You do," Rashbaum said to the jury. "End this nightmare. Send him home."
State presents closing statement
Sometimes when a defendant can't dispute the facts, they try to distort the facts you are seeing, Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman said to the jury.
A defendant will create an explanation, their own version of the story, in an attempt to make it go away, she said.
"To find it reasonable you have to buy a lot of things he’s selling," Cappleman said.
Under Adelson's story, "these stone cold killers" let him go on a payment plan to pay the extortion he said they demanded.
"I have no way of knowing if this stuff sounds ridiculous to you," she said. "But they only need to get one of you confused enough to derail this whole thing."
Cappleman took the jury through the case from the very beginning, evaluating key points of evidence and testimonies for the last time.
She said the "trash talk" — Adelson's joke about a TV being cheaper than a hitman — would have been meaningless had Markel not actually been killed by a hitman.
“Dan Markel remains the only victim in this case" Cappleman said. "The only thing he is guilty of is fighting like hell for those kids. And he lost. He didn’t lose in court, but he lost.”
Wendi Adelson denied her mother's involvement in her divorce with Markel, but emails between the mother and daughter show otherwise, Cappleman said.
Cappleman read emails to the jury that urged Wendi to do whatever she could to show Markel he wasn't in control and to put on the "performance of a lifetime."
Wendi also denied that she ever felt "stuck" in Tallahassee even though she wrote an entire book about being stuck in the city because of her Canadian husband's job, Cappleman added.
Text messages between Charlie and Donna Adelson were reintroduced to the jury, as well as motions that were filed from the proceedings following the divorce.
Cappleman reminded jurors of the motion Markel filed to limit Donna's visits with the two kids, which she said happened four months before he was killed.
"Could the defendant have cared enough about his sister's marital problems to commit the murder?" Cappleman asked. "Maybe, maybe not."
She said that even if he didn't, his mother certainly did, and she was in his ear all the time.
On Halloween 2013, Adelson began soliciting Katherine Magbanua to orchestrate the hit, Cappleman said. The conspiracy spread when he got in contact with a person who could get the job done.
With Markel out of the picture, she said, relocation was no longer a problem. Wendi took her kids and moved them just a few days after the murder and changed their last name from Markel to Adelson.
"And just like that, their father was erased," she said.
Cappleman said Adelson might have gotten away with the murder were it not for a few things, including Jim Geiger, Markel's next door neighbor who heard the gunshots and caught a glimpse of the Prius the killers had rented.
"If push came to shove, who are you going to believe?" Cappleman asked. "An oral surgeon or a gang member? He's banking on that."
It's "not reasonable" to believe that the killers found out where Dan Markel would be the day of the murder from the victim's professor blog, she said.
Markel was executed, close range, in his garage and left for dead. If it wasn't for Geiger, who knows how long he would have suffered there alone and unaided, Cappleman said.
"You've heard wildly different versions of how this thing went down and they both can't be right," Cappleman said.
The defense lies on the theory that Adelson was extorted for the money paid out to Magbanua and the killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.
Adelson testified that his relationship with Magbanua grew stronger during the alleged extortion. She was taking his money, so it defies logic that they'd become closer, Cappleman said.
She also pointed out that the payments to the involved parties stopped after the bump, and that this is most likely because they suspected it was law enforcement and were spooked. Why else would the payments stop if he was being extorted like he said?
“The players in this case are smart," Cappleman said. "They have given a lot of thought to their preparations before and their explanations after. They really thought of almost everything.”
The "bump" is a direct example of how Adelson acts when he's threatened, she said. He doesn't keep quiet about the "bump," and he investigates his suspicions.
Cappleman reminded jurors of the Dolce Vita recording and Adelson's comments to Magbanua.
“If they had any evidence, we’d already be at the airport,” Adelson said on the recording.
“Does that sound like an innocent man?” Cappleman asked.
He never paid the $5,000 that the blackmailer wanted, which is a "pittance" to what he already paid out to the killers. Adelson then said on the recording that if Garcia can't take of the undercover agent, he would find somebody else who could.
After the murder, Adelson had the best year of his life in 2015, Cappleman said. His sister was happy, his mother was happy, he was making money "hand over fist" and he just began a new relationship with June Umchinda, who described the beginning of their relationship as "a fairytale," she said.
Umchinda and Ryan Fitzpatrick, a former friend and business partner, both testified that his behavior changed around the time of the "bump."
"And why on earth would he be more stressed out with his extortionists arrested?" Cappleman asked.
Cappleman said when she presented the extortion theory to Luis Rivera he laughed and said, "That's a good one."
"Their jigsaw theory is a pile of pieces that just don't fit together," she said. "How many coincidences can there be until they are no longer coincidences?"
Judge Stephen Everett instructs the jury for deliberation
As the eighth day of Charlie Adelson's trial for the murder of Dan Markel begins, Adelson's fate is on the horizon.
Judge Stephen Everett told jurors that the state must prove three elements beyond a reasonable doubt for a guilty verdict on first-degree murder. They must find that Dan Markel is dead, that the death was caused by the criminal act of Adelson and that it was premeditated.
"It's up to you to decide which evidence is reliable," Everett said to the jury.
He advised them that some witness testimonies should be considered with more caution than others, and that Adelson's testimony should be considered like any other witness' statements.
"All of us are depending upon you to make a wise decision," Everett said.
Chronicling the Charlie Adelson trial:
Pre-trial: What we learned from jury selection
Walkthrough of witnesses: Those making the case for, against Charlie Adelson
Case primer: Everything to know about the murder-for-hire case
Day 1 opening statements: Defense says ex-girlfriend was murder 'mastermind'
Day 1 testimony: Wendi Adelson says she was surprised to learn Charlie knew Dan Markel's murderer all along
Day 2: Charlie Adelson murder trial sees twists, turns as his sister and a hit man testify
Day 3: Magbanua flips: Web of lies and phone records dominate Day 3 of Charlie Adelson trial
Day 4: Enter the FBI: Surveillance, wiretaps and phone records dominate Day 4 of Adelson trial
Day 5: Charlie Adelson announces he will take the stand amid bombshell wire taps
Day 6: 'My life depends on it': Charlie Adelson testifies prosecutors 'wrong' about Markel murder
Day 7: 'Extortion layaway' and the grilling of Charlie Adelson in Dan Markel murder-for-hire
GAVEL-TO-GAVEL COVERAGE:
The Tallahassee Democrat will livestream each day of the trial of Charlie Adelson from the courthouse in Tallahassee. Watch on Tallahassee.com and the Tallahassee Democrat's Facebook and YouTube pages. For best viewing experience: Download the Tallahassee Democrat app to watch and receive text alerts on when to watch – from opening arguments to the verdict. The Democrat will keep the livestream rolling as the jury deliberates.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: VERDICT live: Charlie Adelson murder trial is found guilty
