Donna Adelson hires new lawyers to defend against charges she murdered Dan Markel

Donna Adelson has hired new lawyers to defend her on charges that she conspired with her son, Charlie Adelson, and others to kill her former son-in-law, Dan Markel.

Adelson hired her son’s lead attorney, Daniel Rashbaum of Miami, along with a well-known Tallahassee criminal defense lawyer, Alex Morris, to represent her, according to court documents. Rashbaum handled the bulk of defense duties during Charlie Adelson’s trial, which ended with guilty verdicts on all counts.

Rashbaum and Morris filed a substitution of counsel motion Friday asking the court to approve them as counsel of record and replace her previous attorney, Marissel Descalzo of Miami. Circuit Judge Stephen Everett approved the motion Tuesday.

Donna Adelson was arrested Nov. 13 — a week after her son’s conviction — as she and her husband, Harvey Adelson, attempted to board flight out of Miami International Airport with one-way tickets to Vietnam. She was later indicted on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation, the same three crimes for which her son was convicted.

She is the matriarch of the South Florida family that has been under investigation since July 18, 2014, when the law professor was gunned down in the garage of his Trescott Drive home. The murder, which was carried out by two Miami hit men, happened amid bitter court battles between Markel and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, who is Donna Adelson’s daughter and Charlie Adelson’s sister.

Donna Adelson pleaded not guilty to the charges during her arraignment last month. Descalzo asked at the time that she be moved off suicide watch and out of an isolated cell at the Leon County Detention Facility, though Circuit Judge Stephen Everett declined to intervene.

In recorded jail phone calls after her son’s conviction but before her arrest, Donna Adelson, 73, talked about the possibility of suicide, though she also mentioned fleeing to a country with no U.S. extradition treaty.

She audibly scoffed during her court hearing after a Leon County Sheriff’s Office lawyer mentioned comments she’d made about suicide. Descalzo argued there was no reason she needed to be in observation and asked that she be moved to a “normal part of the jail.”

Donna Adelson was scheduled to have a case management conference before Everett on Tuesday at the Leon County Courthouse. But severe weather prompted the courthouse to close. The hearing was reset for Jan. 30.

Rashbaum, a former federal prosecutor in South Florida, is a partner with Marcus, Neiman, Rashbaum & Pineiro LLP of Miami. His focus includes white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations and regulatory enforcement, according to the firm’s website.

Morris is a criminal defense attorney who has handled cases from murder and sexual battery to drug trafficking and fraud. Last year, he and attorney Mutaqee Akbar successfully defended Sharon Lettman-Hicks on public corruption charges during her trial with co-defendant Andrew Gillum, former mayor of Tallahassee.

Donna Adelson is the fifth person charged in the nearly decade-long Markel murder investigation, conducted by the Tallahassee Police Department and the FBI.

The other four, her son, the two hit men, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, and her son’s ex-girlfriend, Katie Magbanua, have all been convicted of murder. Charlie Adelson, Garcia and Magbanua are serving life sentences; Rivera got 19 years as part of a cooperation deal.

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

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Donna Adelson hires lawyers Rashbaum, Morris in Dan Markel murder case