Dan Markel murder: Phones seized during search of Donna and Harvey Adelson's Miami condo

The day after Donna Adelson was arrested in the murder of Dan Markel — as she and her husband, Harvey Adelson, tried to board a hastily arranged flight to Vietnam — investigators showed up at their Miami condo with a search warrant in hand.

They left with at least three electronic devices, all seized from Harvey Adelson: two iPhones, one white, the other dark gray, and an iPad, according to recently filed court documents. At the time of the search on Nov. 14, Donna Adelson was sitting in a Miami jail, though she has since been moved to the Leon County Detention Facility.

In search warrant applications filed later for the devices, prosecutors said they are looking for evidence not only in the murder-for-hire killing of Markel in 2014 but also in the Adelsons’ alleged flight from justice nearly a decade later.

“At this time the state would be seeking a search warrant for ... any applications or evidence of moving money, accessing financial accounts or scheduling and booking travel plans to evade apprehension," the affidavits say. “Also, any documents, files or other items pertaining to finances or financial adjustments made by the Adelsons or other communications, photos, videos or evidence related to the homicide of Daniel Markel.”

The devices are the latest pieces of Adelson family hardware that investigators are digitally combing through since Donna Adelson’s arrest Nov. 13 inside a jetway at Miami International Airport.

She was taken into custody abruptly after she and her husband tried to board a one-way flight that would have taken them to a non-extradition country across the globe a week after their son, Charlie Adelson, was convicted in Markel’s murder.

During her arrest, Donna Adelson tried to pull away from an FBI agent who tried to take her white iPhone, though it was seized eventually. Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett, who presided over Charlie Adelson’s trial, signed off on search warrants for Donna Adelson’s phone the day of her arrest and the other devices on Nov. 29.

Phones have figured heavily in the Markel case since the law professor was fatally shot July 18, 2014, in the garage of his Trescott Drive home. Investigators traced phone calls and location data to the two hit men hired to kill Markel and later listened in on incriminating conversations between Charlie Adelson and his mother.

Charlie Adelson’s recorded phone calls from jail with his mom just before her arrest appeared to have tipped off investigators about her attempted flight. Court records say that in “multiple” calls between them, she said she was getting financial matters in order and thinking about possibly killing herself or fleeing to a non-extradition country.

Records obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat showed that in the runup to Donna Adelson’s arrest, Charlie Adelson spent a whopping 35-plus hours in jail calls to her phone. Prosecutors acknowledged that her attempted flight, foreshadowed in the phone calls, sped up their time table to charge her.

On Monday, prosecutors filed discovery documents noting that its exhibits include jail calls from Nov. 9 to Dec. 1 and jail call record and summary reports for roughly the same time period. The calls alone consist of 67 files.

In the affidavit for one of Harvey Adelson’s phones, Jason Newlin, longtime investigator with the State Attorney’s Office, asked to search any data from 2012 to the present “that would further the investigation into the communications and actions of Donna Adelson during the crime and of any events related to this incident before the crime occurred.”

“The data may also serve to identify those subjects who carried out the act ... and the location of any outstanding evidence,” Newlin wrote.

At the time of the arrest, State Attorney Jack Campbell told the Tallahassee Democrat that the state did not have the evidence to arrest Harvey, a retired dentist and former owner of the Adelson Institute in Tamarac, where Donna served as office manager and Charlie Adelson, a periodontist, also worked.

Markel was murdered after a nasty divorce from Wendi Adelson, Donna and Harvey's daughter and Charlie's sister, and amid ongoing custody battles involving their two sons. Prosecutors said the Adelson family’s hatred of Markel and their desire for Wendi and the kids to move back to South Florida fueled the murder plot.

Charlie Adelson, a Fort Lauderdale periodontist, was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation Nov. 6 after an eight-day trial at the Leon County Courthouse. His former girlfriend, Katie Magbanua, was convicted on the same three charges after her second trial last year.

Sigfredo Garcia, who shot Markel, was convicted of murder in 2019. Luis Rivera, his close friend and a Latin Kings gang member, pleaded guilty in 2019. Garcia and Magbanua are serving life sentences; Rivera got 19 years in exchange for his cooperation.

Both Donna Adelson and Charlie Adelson are set to next appear in court on the same day, Dec. 12, though during separate proceedings before Everett. Donna Adelson is expected to be arraigned in the morning on murder, conspiracy and solicitation charges.

Charlie Adelson is scheduled for a case management hearing in the afternoon, during which his upcoming sentencing may be discussed. He faces a mandatory term of life in prison.

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

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Phones seized during search of Donna and Harvey Adelson's Miami condo