Charlie Adelson wasn't even on the line when Donna discussed suicide, Vietnam extradition

Donna Adelson talked for hours on end with her son before her arrest in the Dan Markel murder probe — and in one particular jail call, she kept talking even after he dropped off the recorded line.

During the 25-minute call, which Charlie Adelson initiated from the Leon County Detention Facility, Donna Adelson spoke about the Markel case, read an upsetting text message from her daughter, Wendi Adelson, and offered up conflicting comments about whether she might kill herself.

Her statements came after her son was apparently disconnected from the call and as she conversed in person with someone else, presumably her husband, Harvey Adelson, though prosecutors couldn’t confirm that.

“Am I suicidal?” she can be heard asking. “No. Do I want to go to sleep and not see my son? I do. Perfectly honest, I do. We could do it together. Leave a note. They’ll know when to come get us. And we’ll do it together.”

She also mentioned looking up Vietnam over and over to figure out whether it had an extradition treaty with the U.S.

The call happened on Nov. 7, the day after Charlie Adelson was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the 2014 killing of his former brother-in-law and just days before his mom was arrested on the same charges. It’s among 35-plus hours of conversations between Charlie Adelson, his mom, his dad and others that investigators are still poring over.

He was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of release. He has since been transferred to the Department of Corrections' Northwest Florida Reception Center in Chipley. From there, he will be taken to a state prison to serve his sentence.

An 'isolated' Charlie Adelson gets disconnected

Charlie Adelson, calling from the county jail, talked with his parents in Miami more than a dozen times the day after his conviction, according to records obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat. They kept getting disconnected, prompting him to repeatedly call back.

He told his mom that he was sitting in a “box” at the jail with a see-through mirror for jail officials to observe him. Apparently on suicide watch, Charlie Adelson said a psychologist came to see him and that he was hoping to be transferred elsewhere in the jail the next day.

“It’s like you’re just isolated,” Charlie Adelson said. “It’s like you’re doing the opposite of what I need to have done.”

“You’re going to be OK,” Donna Adelson told him. “You’re going to get out of that stupid room. Once you do, you’ll start to feel a little bit better. I know that.”

She said she had something else to tell him but would “speak to Dan,” an apparent reference to his Miami defense attorney, Daniel Rashbaum. But her son never replied.

“Can you hear me Charlie?” she asked. “(Expletive). You can’t hear me again, right. Charlie? Charlie?"

He never responded. But the call — and the recording of Donna Adelson talking to someone with her — continued.

"I'm sure he'll call back," she said.

She went on to say that Charlie Adelson was confined to a room with little human contact and florescent lights that stayed on day and night. She said he told a psychologist who visited with him that, “If you leave me here, I’ll kill myself.”

Donna Adelson 'shocked' when Wendi Adelson didn't call after her brother's murder conviction

Charlie Adelson, 47, a wealthy periodontist from Fort Lauderdale, was found guilty Nov. 6 of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation after an eight-day trial at the Leon County Courthouse. His mother was arrested on the same charges a week later after she and her husband tried to board a one-way flight to Vietnam but were intercepted by the FBI.

In between those two key moments in the nearly decade-long Markel probe and prosecution, Charlie Adelson called his mom from jail 86 times, racking up more than 35 hours in conversations with her and others using her cellphone.

Prosecutors said the calls "forced our hand" and sped up their timetable in arresting Donna Adelson.

The Democrat obtained copies of the recordings from the State Attorney’s Office through a public records request.

On the Nov. 7 phone call, Donna Adelson read aloud from a text exchange with her daughter that began several hours after the guilty verdicts were announced. She told her daughter that after speaking with Charlie Adelson, the first thing he asked was ‘How’s Wendi holding up?’

“I didn’t have the heart to tell him that you never called us,” Donna Adelson said. “Everyone looks to protect you. I bet you’ve got a lot to think about.”

Markel was fatally shot in the garage of his Trescott Drive home on July 18, 2014, as he and Wendi Adelson, who abruptly left him two years earlier, were battling in court over their two sons. Prosecutors have long said that the Adelsons wanted Markel out of the picture so Wendi Adelson could move back to Miami to near her family.

Donna Adelson, on the Nov. 7 call, read her daughter’s response to her text: “Dear mom, I know you were upset by the verdict, but the anger directed at me is not justified. I’m not responsible in any way for Charlie’s situation. I am not guilty because I did not do anything wrong and I was not involved in any way with Danny’s death.”

Wendi Adelson told her mom to go through their lawyers if she wanted to talk about the case and that “right now, I have to be singularly focused on taking care of the boys during this difficult time.”

Donna Adelson replied: “We are your parents. We are and have always been there for you and the boys. None of what we wrote matters about the case. That’s over. I just want you to know how many times Charlie is asking about you.”

Charlie Adelson: 'I felt in my bones ... what I'm going to have in Tallahassee'

The phone calls were released just days after Donna Adelson made her first in-person appearance in a Leon County courtroom. She pleaded not guilty during her arraignment before Circuit Judge Stephen Everett, who presided over her son’s trial.

Her attorney, Marissel Descalzo, said her client had been in solitary confinement and on suicide watch since her arrival at the jail but that she wasn’t at risk for taking her own life. In court filings, she alleged the jail was mistreating her and violating her constitutional rights.

But jail officials told Everett that she was being housed in an observation unit based on comments she made about suicide in the jail calls and while she was being booked. Everett declined to intervene in the jail’s handling of her incarceration.

In other jail calls, Charlie can be heard talking to his mom and dad and others on a variety of topics, including what to do with his boat and other possessions. In a different conversation Nov. 7, he and his mom talked about Markel’s murder, "coincidences” that put the family under suspicion and the state’s relentless pursuit of them.

Donna Adelson asserted that two alternates who were dismissed from the jury would have voted to acquit him. “How did that happen?” she asked.

“I hate to tell you, but it’s exactly f------ what I knew I was going to be dealing with when I came up here, and I felt in my bones this is what I’m going to have in Tallahassee," Charlie Adelson said. "When an Adelson comes up here ... it’s going to be like a f------ shit show.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel murder: Listen to the call that led to Donna Adelson charges