Dan Markel murder: Jury selection in Charlie Adelson trial enters second day

Jury selection in the first-degree murder trial of Charlie Adelson, the accused ringleader of the murder-for-hire plot to kill Dan Markel, entered its second day on Tuesday at the Leon County Courthouse.

As he did on Monday, Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett continued to meet with prospective jurors individually in a conference room off Courtroom 3G, where the trial is being held, to ask them about their knowledge of the case and whether they can weigh the evidence fairly. Also present were prosecutors and Adelson's defense lawyers, who asked jurors questions about their feelings about the case.

Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman asked that the judge include mention of burden of proof, presumption of innocence and the right to remain silent in his instructions to possible jury members.

"Those seemed like things that were coming up in our individual voir dire," Cappleman said of the interviews with potential jurors.

"I don't have a problem doing that," Everett said. "I was assuming it could hold until we got to group voir dire. But given some of the issues that were raised by prospective jurors, I certainly believe that's proper."

Some 41 prospective jurors made it past individual questioning on Monday, when selection lasted well into the evening, while another 14 or so cleared that hurdle Tuesday morning. The court was hoping to get about 60 prospective jurors lined up for group jury selection, which started Tuesday afternoon.

Mayor John Dailey was among the first group of prospective jurors called Tuesday morning; he sat quietly reading a book in the courtroom waiting for his name to be called but was eventually excused.

A handful of jurors were excused in the morning for health reasons and other issues. Jurors can be dismissed for a number of reasons, including if they are 70 years of age or older, expecting mothers, parents of children under 6 or have performed state jury service in the last year. On Monday, jurors were dismissed for a host of reasons, including their social media posts about the case.

A man who served last year on the second trial of Katherine Magbanua, one of three people convicted in Markel's murder, was dismissed earlier. On Tuesday, another man was excused after he shared with the court that he knew Markel personally.

"To this day, when I drive down Trescott, it's hard not to think about him," the man said. "And hopefully he didn't suffer."

Markel, then a 41-year-old law professor at Florida State University and the father of two boys, was shot twice in the head on July 18, 2014, after returning from the gym and pulling into the garage of his home on Trescott Drive. The two hit men, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, along with Magbanua, were later convicted in his murder. Garcia and Magbanua are serving life in prison; Rivera, who cooperated, got 19 years in prison.

FSU professor Dan Markel's killing: Everything to know about the murder-for-hire case

Prosecutors allege that Adelson arranged for the hit because of ongoing child-custody battles between Markel and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, who is the defendant's sister. Charlie Adelson pleaded not guilty to the charges; members of the Adelson family have long denied any involvement.

Everett told prospective jurors on Tuesday that jury selection could continue through Wednesday or Thursday and that the entire trial is expected to take three weeks. More than 900 people received summons to appear as the judge and prosecutors work to winnow down the pool to 12 jurors and three alternates.

In other developments, the defense moved for a change of venue because of publicity in the case. But Everett ruled against the request.

Tallahassee attorney Tim Jansen's take:

Tim Jansen, partner in Jansen & Davis, P.A., is a prominent criminal defense attorney in Tallahassee and former assistant U.S. attorney who worked major white collar crime cases as senior fraud prosecutor. He has represented numerous high-profile clients for years and is offering daily analysis on the Charlie Adelson trial to readers of the Tallahassee Democrat.

"The goal of jury selection is to get jurors that will align with your side. The first phase of jury selection in a high-profile case is the weeding out phase. This is done individually in chambers to allow the judge, the state and the defendant to have a relaxed setting for a confidential vetting of the jurors bias, personal knowledge of the case, and any media coverage they have seen or heard regarding the case.

This is a slow and time-consuming process, but it allows jurors to be more forthcoming and honest about their knowledge of the case, any media reports, or other potential biases they may have formed.

This is done in chambers to prevent a juror from announcing their opinions or media coverage that other jurors may not have been aware of prior to the time. In essence, this it to prevent the juror from tainting all the other jurors. In this small setting, jurors are more open and forthcoming with their true feelings about the case and the parties. However, a juror that is clever can still hide their partiality and it’s the job of the judge and the parties to carefully weed out persons that should not move to the second phase.

Once the weeding out phase is complete all remaining jurors will be called to the courtroom for the phase where the lawyers will attempt to obtain jurors favorable to their case. By this phase, the State and the Defense have a list of jurors they want and those they want removed.

Lawyers carefully determine the placement of the good and bad jurors and then determine when and how to use their limited peremptory strikes. Coincidentally, each side must remember the opposite side has peremptory strikes also. So, the bad juror way down on the list might be the next juror if you cannot challenge them for cause and you're out of peremptory challenges. An experienced trial lawyer always keeps 2 peremptory challenges in their pocket just in case.

Most judges requests the parties make their challenges for cause first. This helps both parties know which are being excused by the court. An opposing side may object to a cause challenge by one party even though they don’t want that juror.

The game is to cause the other side to use one of their peremptory challenges that are limited. Courts also want challenges for cause early, so they can see if they need additional jurors or whether they may not be able to panel a jury. Finally, the court doesn’t want that questionable juror to say something to taint the entire remaining panel at the end of the process.

Jury selection is a highly methodical process. Each side knows which jurors the opposition will strike. High-profile cases are tricky because jurors will lie or mask their true feelings because they want to be on this jury. Jurors want to be a part of high-profile cases for many reasons, including book rights, TV interviews or other personal motives.

You don’t normally win a case at jury selection, but you can certainly lose a case if you’re not prepared or careful in the selection process. So, the juror smiling at you during jury selection may be your worst juror at the trial."

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.

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

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel murder: Jury selection in Charlie Adelson trial enters second day