Dan Markel case: New judge assigned a month before start of Charlie Adelson murder trial

With roughly a month to go until jury selection, a new judge has been assigned to preside over the murder trial of Charlie Adelson, the accused ringleader in the plot to kill Florida State law professor Dan Markel.

On Friday, Chief Judge Frank Allman of the 2nd Judicial Circuit assigned the high-profile case to Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett, who replaces Leon Circuit Judge Robert Wheeler. The one-page order, entered in chambers, did not offer any explanation.

“From what I understand, it’s because Judge Wheeler is no longer assigned to criminal court,” said Elizabeth Garber, trial court administrator for the 2nd Circuit. “He’s assigned to Family Court.”

Garber said an administrative order signed more than a year ago in June 2022 by then-Chief Judge Jonathan Sjostrom moved Wheeler to the Family Division, where he now is assigned full time.

Wheeler was handed the Adelson case shortly after the South Florida dentist’s arrest in April 2022. During a February hearing, Wheeler agreed to continue the trial from April until October after one of Adelson’s attorneys, Daniel Rashbaum of Miami, asked for more time. He set a trial date then of Oct. 23, which remains unchanged.

Adelson is accused of orchestrating the murder-for-hire plot that led to Markel’s execution-style shooting in 2014 in the garage of his Betton Hills home. The killing happened amid a bitter custody battle between Adelson’s sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel over their two sons.

The hit men, Sigredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, along with Katherine Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s children who also dated Charlie Adelson, were all previously convicted on murder charges. Wheeler presided over Magbanua’s second trial in May 2022.

On Thursday, Wheeler ordered Magbanua, a potential witness for the state, transported from the Lowell Annex state prison in Ocala to the Leon County Detention Facility by Oct. 9. In August, Wheeler ordered Rivera, another potential state witness who testified against Magbanua last year, transported from FCI Marianna to the county jail by the same date.

Neither Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman nor Rashbaum had any comment on the change in judges.

Everett, a former assistant state attorney and assistant public defender, was appointed Leon County judge in 2016 by then-Gov. Rick Scott to fill a vacancy created by the appointment of Wheeler to the circuit bench.

In 2018, Everett was elected without opposition; he was appointed to the circuit bench in 2019 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. In July, Everett began serving as administrative judge for the circuit court’s criminal division.

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

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel case: New judge to oversee Charlie Adelson murder trial