Dan Markel murder: Walkthrough of witnesses making the case for, against Charlie Adelson

The fast-living Fort Lauderdale periodontist accused of orchestrating one of Tallahassee’s most shocking crimes — the murder-for-hire killing of law professor Dan Markel — goes on trial Monday in a Leon County courtroom.

Charlie Adelson, who turns 47 next week, faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation for allegedly hiring the two hit men from Miami who stalked and killed Markel, his former brother-in-law, nearly a decade ago. Those two people, one a Latin Kings gang leader, the other his best friend, along with the woman who connected them to Adelson, have already been convicted and sent to prison in his murder.

But until now, no one suspected of masterminding the crime has ever faced a jury — a moment Markel’s still-grieving family and their supporters have long anticipated. It marks the fourth prosecution and the third trial since Markel’s death the morning of July 18, 2014.

Then a 41-year-old law professor at Florida State University, Markel was shot twice in the head at point-blank range after he had dropped his two young boys off at daycare, gone to the gym and pulled into the garage of his Trescott Drive home. He died 14 hours later at a Tallahassee hospital.

The murder happened amid a bitter child custody fight between Markel and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, the defendant’s younger sister. The investigation by Tallahassee police and the FBI, which included wire taps, hidden cameras and undercover agents, led to her family, including her brother and their parents, Donna and Harvey Adelson, who have long denied involvement.

About 50 people have been called as potential witnesses, including Luis Rivera, the getaway driver and the state’s star witness in the two previous trials; Sigfredo Garcia, who Rivera testified pulled the trigger; and Katherine Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s children and Charlie Adelson’s girlfriend at the time of the murder.

Listen in on the conversation: Read the transcript and watch the video that prompted charges against Charlie Adelson

Still unknown is whether Charlie Adelson himself will take the stand, though his attorneys have alluded to the possibility in recent court hearings. Legal observers expect he may be forced to testify, a peril for any defendant, given the secretly recorded conversation between him and Magbanua at the Dolce Vita restaurant in Miami Beach — the state’s closest thing to a smoking gun.

During the 2016 conversation, Charlie Adelson suggested paying or possibly killing an FBI agent posing as a blackmailer and warned he would go “Nazi” on anyone who messed with his family. He also said that “if they had any evidence, we would have already gone to the airport.”

Tim Jansen, a Tallahassee prominent criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who has closely watched the case, called the Dolce Vita recording “the crux” of the state’s case. He noted, however, that it includes statements by Adelson that the defense could seize upon, including that he didn’t “know anything.”

“I think 100% he testifies,” Jansen said. “The government’s strongest thing is going to be the Dolce Vita tape. They (defense lawyers) have to neutralize it or try to turn it to their advantage.”

Here are all the individuals listed on state and defense witness lists for the Adelson trial. Many testified during Garcia and Magbanua's trial in 2019 and her second trial in 2022. It’s possible some of the witnesses won’t be called.

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

Wendi Adelson

Markel's ex-wife, the mother of their two sons and Charlie Adelson's sister, who has testified twice before under immunity deals with the state. Adelson, a lawyer, left Markel abruptly in 2012, filing for divorce and taking their two sons and most of their belongings with her. She was desperate to move to Miami with the kids to be closer to her family, though a judge had blocked her request to relocate in 2013. At the time of the murder, contentious post-divorce proceedings were dragging on, including a request by Markel to keep Donna Adelson from unsupervised visits with the boys because of disparaging things she'd said in front of them about their dad.

Adelson was at her house the morning of the murder, waiting for a Best Buy employee to arrive for a scheduled appointment to look at her television, which had a cracked screen. Not long after the murder, she drove near the scene, which was roped off, before going to a liquor store and buying a bottle of Bulleit bourbon. In her interview with police that day, she mentioned that the TV had been a "divorce present" from her brother, Charlie Adelson, and that he had joked that he had "looked into hiring a hit man" but that it was "cheaper" to get the television. She has testified that she didn't believe her brother was involved.

During her opening statement last year, Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman, the lead prosecutor in the case, said that days after the murder, Wendi Adelson and the boys, now young teenagers, moved to Miami and settled within walking distance of the Adelson family home. “Dan Markel’s sons’ last name was changed from Markel to Adelson,” Cappleman said. “And just like that, their father was effectively erased from their lives, and the Adelson family’s big problem had been resolved.” Wendi Adelson, who testified twice under immunity deals, said she doesn't know who killed her ex-husband. "I can only know that I have done nothing wrong,” she said last year.

Chris Corbitt

The supervisor of the Tallahassee Police Department's Technical Operations Unit who analyzed cell phone records of the suspects in the case. He testified in previous trials about data showing Garcia and Rivera's travels from Miami to Tallahassee and back, and a flurry of phone calls between Magbanua and Garcia and Magbanua and Charlie Adelson on the day of the murder and the day after, when Rivera, Garcia and Magbanua met to split up the $100,000 in proceeds from the hit, which came in stacks of stapled-together $100 bills. He also testified about a short call from Garcia to Harvey Adelson that happened 17 days before the murder.

Ryan Fitzpatrick

A former business partner of Charlie Adelson and a close friend around the time of the murder. He testified in 2021 that "nobody talked good about Dan" in the Adelson family and that Charlie Adelson never mentioned the murder of his former brother-in-law. He also testified that when Adelson made payments to him, he would staple the bills together, which he acknowledged was strange.

Sigfredo Garcia

The man identified by Rivera and prosecutors as the person who shot and killed Markel. A possible wildcard in the Adelson trial, he has never before taken the stand to say what happened. Garcia, who worked construction with Rivera before the murder, is serving a life sentence at Florida State Prison near Starke following his 2019 murder conviction. Just days before the trial, Garcia, who is known as "Tuto," was ordered to be transported to the Leon County jail for his testimony as a state witness.

Jim Geiger

Markel's next-door neighbor, who heard gunshots the morning of the murder and saw what appeared to be a Prius "rapidly" backing out of the driveway and speed away. Geiger, the state's first witness in the last trial, went to check on Markel and found him gravely injured in the front seat of his car, which was parked in the garage with the engine running. His description of the light-colored vehicle, which Garcia had rented in his name, helped police crack the case.

Mary Hull

A financial investigator who reviewed the bank records of the Adelson family, their dental practice, the Adelson Institute, and the trio of people already convicted. She testified about cars and motorcycles the hit men bought after the murder and a $1,000 flight to the Dominican Republic that Charlie Adelson bought for Magbanua in March 2015. She also described records showing the Adelson Institute wrote Magbanua a total of 44 checks, most in $400 increments, starting nearly two months to the day of the murder. She could find no evidence of time sheets or W2s proving Magbanua really worked there.

Craig Isom

A retired TPD detective who served as lead investigator in the Markel murder probe. He testified previously about how police tracked the suspect Priuus using surveillance and bus camera footage and SunPass and cellphone records. He also recounted the Markels' contentious divorce and custody battle and his interview of Wendi Adelson in the hours after the murder. His attention turned to the Adelson family after Wendi Adelson mentioned her brother's "joke" about the hit man and the television.

Oscar Jimenez

The retired FBI agent who played a direct role in "the bump" operation, which led to the Dolce Vita meeting between Charlie Adelson and Magbanua. Posing as a blackmailer, he approached Donna Adelson on the street in Miami Beach, handed her a newspaper article about Markel's murder with "$5,000" written on it and told her to "take care of" his "brother" in prison, a reference to Rivera. Surveillance video showed Donna Adelson put the paper in her bag before walking away. She later called Charlie Adelson, saying she "got some paperwork hand-delivered to me" and that she need to talk to him. She said it concerned "probably the two of us. So you probably have a general idea what I'm talking about."

Jeffrey Lacasse

An associate professor at FSU who dated Wendi Adelson after her divorce and was familiar with the "joke" about the TV and the hit man. Five days before the murder, he said Wendi told him a more serious version of the story, that in the summer of 2013, Charlie Adelson had "investigated multiple ways to fix this problem of Danny Markel," including hiring someone to kill him. She mentioned an amount it would cost, though he couldn't recall whether it was $15,000 or $50,000. Lacasse said that unlike the "joke," her comments were "chilling" and "disturbing." Several days before the murder, as their relationship unraveled, she questioned Lacasse about an upcoming trip he was taking to Tennessee, and he told her he was leaving around 11 a.m. on July 18, 2014 — roughly the same time the murder ended up happening. During her police interview, Wendi Adelson suggested Lacasse as a possible suspect, though he was later ruled out. Prosecutors suggested he may have been the target of a set-up given that his travel plans put him on the road at the same time as the killers, who fled in a similar sedan.

Katherine Magbanua

The mother of Garcia's two children who was dating Charlie Adelson at the time of the murder and provided the link between the dentist and the killers. She and Garcia were tried together on murder charges in 2019; the jury convicted him but deadlocked on her charges. Magbanua testified at both of her trials that she was not involved in the murder. Under questioning from her lawyer in 2019, she pointed the finger at Charlie Adelson. Asked whether she thought he was involved and had lied to her about it, she simply replied "yes." Her testimony was shakier in her second trial, which ended in guilty verdicts on all counts. Magbanua is serving life in prison.

Keith McElveen

A forensic engineer and founder of Wave Sciences who was asked by investigators to clarify the audio from Dolce Vita. He testified last year that the audio was initially "very poor" because of music, "dish clatter" and other loud restaurant noises and that conventional methods to improve it yielded "minimal improvement." He said he got better results using his company's technology, which focuses in on the speaker's location and "blurs" out other noises. The enhanced version of the recording prompted prosecutors to charge Charlie Adelson last year.

Jason Newlin

A longtime investigator for the State Attorney's Office who was called as a defense witness in the second trial. He testified about plea negotiations in 2016 that led to a deal with Rivera. He gave up Magbanua as an accomplice and revealed that the gun used to shoot Markel had been thrown off a bridge over an unknown body of water. The defense suggested Rivera did what prosecutors "hoped" he would do as part of the deal. "It's not what we had hoped," Newlin said. "He told the truth."

Luis Rivera

Also known as "Tato," Rivera was the former head of the North Miami tribe of the Latin Kings, a Chicago-based gang that operates in dozens of states. He agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and cooperate in exchange for 19 years in prison. The sentence runs concurrent to 12 years he got in an unrelated, eight-year-long federal racketeering probe that targeted 23 members of the gang.

Rivera testified last year that Magbanua "hired" Garcia, who in turn enlisted him in the murder plot and that the three of them were being paid $100,000 by a "lady" whose name he didn't know to help "get her kids back." He said he agreed to help Rivera, whom he considered a brother, and was willing to carry out the shooting himself. Instead, he testified, Garcia was the one who shot Markel. "It just worked out that way," he said in last year's trial. He also said that the cash he and his accomplices were paid consisted of $100 bills stapled in stacks by the thousands and packaged like a brick.

Jessica Rodriguez

A nail technician and mother of Rivera's children who was living with him at the time of the murder. She testified that before the murder, Rivera told her he was leaving town with Garcia "to get drugs" but didn't say where he was going. When he got back, she said he started crying and screaming in his sleep. She also testified about the day Garcia and Magbanua arrived at her house to drop off a brick-like package wrapped in paper Publix bags that contained Rivera's share of the money from the hit. She said she assumed drugs were in the package and that Rivera kept her in the dark about the murder.

Pat Sanford

A veteran FBI agent who worked closely with Detective Isom to solve the Markel murder. He was present during proffers with Rivera and went along with him twice as investigators retraced the killers' drive to find the place where the gun had been tossed. An FBI dive team searched one area near Tampa, but the weapon was never found. He also surveilled Magbanua's home and helped conceive of "the bump" operation.

June Umchinda

Another former girlfriend of Charlie Adelson who stayed with him off and on for years after the murder. She said he kept stacks of $100 bills stapled together at his house and that after arrests were made in the case, he changed and became "very depressed." "He just was never the same after this," she said.

Yindra Velazquez Mascaro

A childhood friend of Magbanua who previously testified about her work history, including jobs they had together at a nightclub and real-estate office. She testified last year that she didn't babysit Magbanua's children often but that she asked her to watch them one night in July 2014. The next morning, she said Magbanua told her on the phone that Charlie Adelson's brother-in-law had gotten into a car accident the day before. She didn't find out that Markel had been murdered until Garcia's arrest nearly two years later.

Other witnesses

• Kristin Adamson, a Tallahassee lawyer who represented Wendi Adelson in divorce proceedings. A hearing had been set for May 2014 on Markel's request to prohibit Donna Adelson from unsupervised time with his sons. But that was canceled when Adamson withdrew as counsel because of a conflict.

• Rob Adelson, a doctor and one of Harvey and Donna Adelson's three children who is reportedly estranged from his family.

• Amy Adler, Markel's girlfriend at the time of his death and a professor at New York University School of Law.

• Sgt. Sherrie Bennett, a TPD investigator who interviewed witnesses in the case, including a relative of Magbanua whom police suspected may have helped pay her legal bills and who had been arrested for embezzlement.

• Dr. Shelby Blank, a general surgeon at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare who operated on Markel after he was shot.

• Officer Bill Brannon, who previously testified that he saw a van matching the description of the vehicle driven by Wendi Adelson at the crime scene the day Markel was shot.

• Louis "Greg" Bronstein, one of two FBI special agents who recorded Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua at the Dolce Vita restaurant.

• Justin Carsten, an FBI special agent.

• Dr. Anthony Clark, a TMH pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Markel.

• Gary Cohen, a Miami lawyer on the defense's witness list.

• Brock Dietz, a detective with the State Bureau of Fire, Arson and Investigations who analyzed and clarified video of the cars driven by Markel and Garcia and Rivera as they followed him from Premier Gym down Thomasville Road to his house. The video came from StarMetro buses and security cameras around the gym.

• Michael Dilmore, TPD digital forensics investigator who analyzed Garcia's cellphone.

• Jonathan Grossman, a Miami-Dade Police Department homicide detective who backed up testimony by Rivera that during the hitmen's drive to Tallahassee, Garcia accidentally shot a hole in the floorboard of the Prius.

• Corey Hale, the TPD detective who first interviewed Lacasse. On the stand last year, Lacasse said he was afraid for his safety but "reluctantly" told detectives that they should look at Charlie Adelson as a suspect. "I got a feeling about Charlie," Lacasse said he told investigators. "I had a bad feeling."

• Erika Johnson, a dental assistant who worked at the Adelson Institute and called Charlie Adelson after FBI agents came to the office and asked for personnel records. During the call, which was recorded, Charlie Adelson, who was in surgery elsewhere at the time, said, "I would not speak to anybody."

• Brian Kendall, FBI special agent.

• William Kornegay, a TPD forensics specialist.

• Clariza Lebredo, a dental assistant who worked at the Adelson Institute in Tamarac before it was sold to another practice. She said that during her 40 years at the clinic, she saw Magbanua only once, as a patient, not an employee.

• JoAnne Maltese, a retired TPD forensic specialist, who documented and processed evidence at the crime scene. She collected samples from Markel's car for DNA tests and processed the vehicle for fingerprints, finding a single partial print on the rear passenger door. But there was not enough material to find a possible match.

• Michael Mintz, a physician and a cousin of Charlie Adelson who appears on the defense's witness list.

• Ramzi Naber, owner of the now-defunct Club Fate, located inside the Gulfstream Casino in Hallandale Beach. Magbanua worked there for several months as a cocktail waitress.

• Waldo Nunez, a state trooper who worked for Comfort Rent a Car near the Miami airport at the time of the murder. He confirmed the rental agreement for the car Garcia and Rivera used in their first of two trips to Tallahassee, in June 2014, to scout out Markel's house. The agreement was for local use only, and the killers were forced to return it after its GPS system pinged the rental company that the vehicle was in Tallahassee.

• Shoddrick Nobles, who sold cocaine to the killers in Tallahassee and helped get auto parts after the bullet Garcia shot inside the Prius punctured the gas line, making the car inoperable. Rivera said Garcia, who had experience fixing cars, got it running again.

• Dr. Jerome Obed, a dermatologist and Charlie Adelson's former roommate who employed Magbanua in 2015 and 2016.

• Elizabeth Richey, a crime lab analyst with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who examined the bullets that killed Markel.

• Marcia Rodriguez, a retired TPD digital forensic investigator who downloaded the contents of Wendi Adelson's iPhone 4 in 2014.

• Keri Rosana, an FDLE crime lab analyst who conducted DNA tests on swabs collected from the murder scene and concluded there wasn't enough data to make an identification.

• Stewart Schlazer, a music teacher who was on the phone with Markel when he was shot. Schlazer said Markel told him to hold on because there was "an unfamiliar person" in his driveway. "I heard a loud sound," he testified in the first trial. "He never spoke another word to me."

• David Sims, a retired TPD officer who was the first to arrive at Markel's house after the murder. He testified that he found Markel in his car, leaned over a little, with his cellphone in his left hand and a business card in his right. He was still breathing but unresponsive. He turned the car off as EMS arrived.

• Robert Swartz, the Geek Squad worker who went to Wendi Adelson's house to fix the television her brother had given her as a "divorce present." Wendi Adelson, testifying last year, said she made the appointment. Prosecutors noted, however, that there were texts between her and her mom about the appointment, which gave her an alibi for the morning of the murder.

• Stephen Webster, a Tallahassee trial attorney who began representing Dan Markel in June 2014 during contentious post-divorce proceedings.

• Shawn Yao, TPD forensics supervisor who testified during the 2019 trial and demonstrated for jurors the "gang style" for holding and shooting a gun.

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: Charlie Adelson murder trial: Breaking down the witness list