'Can you be fair?' Jury selection begins in Charlie Adelson murder trial

Jury selection continues Tuesday in the murder trial of Charlie Adelson, the Fort Lauderdale periodontist charged as the mastermind in the 2014 murder-for-hire killing of Dan Markel.

Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett, who is presiding, told the first batch of jurors Monday morning that jury selection could run through Thursday and that the entire trial could last for three weeks.

He gave an overview of the allegations, telling them that on July 18, 2014, Markel, a Florida State University law professor, was shot while seated in his car in the driveway of his home in Betton Hills.

“The killers traveled to Tallahassee from Miami to commit the murder in a rented, silver green colored Prius,” Everett said. “The defendant, an alleged conspirator in this murder, was the former brother-in-law of Dan Markel and has entered a plea of not guilty.”

Everett noted that the trial received “a fair amount of publicity,” and that prospective jurors would be asked individually about their knowledge of the case, the sources of their information and whether they have an opinion about his guilt or innocence.

“Can you set aside your present knowledge and disregard it and render a verdict solely on the evidence that is presented in the courtroom?” Everett asked. “Can you be fair and impartial?”

On Monday, Adelson and his attorneys, prosecutors and the judge sat in a small conference room off Courtroom 3G, where the trial is being held, as potential jurors were brought in to answer questions that Everett posed earlier. The selection process lasted into the evening, with the court going into recess around 7:30 p.m.

Present were Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman, who for years has served as lead prosecutor in the Markel case; Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan; and members of Adelson’s defense team, including Daniel Rashbaum of Miami, a former federal prosecutor; and Josh Dubin, president of New York-based Dubin Research & Consulting, a firm that specializes in jury selection and trial strategy. Adelson, wearing a gray suit rather than the shackles and jail jumpsuit he had on in pre-trial hearings, sat beside his lawyers and observed.

“Let’s start off with what you know about this case,” Everett told the first prospective juror, a woman, during individual questioning.

She said she saw a lone TV news report about it perhaps last year but hadn’t formed an opinion about Adelson “because I don’t know who he is.” She said she would “absolutely” be able to serve as a fair and impartial juror in the case.

Rubin asked her to describe what she could recall from the news report. She said it involved a trial “but other than that, I really didn’t pay it any attention, because I didn’t know who they were talking about actually.” She added that she didn’t connect the news report to her summons for jury duty until Everett described the case that morning.

The next potential juror, another woman, said she could recall only a still image from a TV news report from the outside of a house. But she wasn’t sure whose house it was.

“I don’t recall much about it,” she said.

Everett asked that both individuals return for a later round of group jury selection.

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

Some 900 people were summoned to serve on the jury, which will have 12 members and three alternates. As many as 360 jurors were expected to report between Monday and Wednesday, or roughly 120 a day. Everett said during a Friday hearing that his plan was to bring in groups of about 50 jurors each morning and afternoon until a jury is selected.

Adelson was the fourth person to be charged in the plot to kill Markel, which prosecutors said grew out of a bitter divorce and ongoing child custody battles with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, the defendant’s sister.

The two hit men, Sigredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, and the woman who connected them to Adelson, Katherine Magbanua, have already been convicted in his murder. Rivera took a plea deal in 2016 that saw him rat out his former close friends, Garcia and Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s children who was also dating Adelson. Rivera is serving a 19-year term; Garcia and Magbanua are serving life sentences. All three could be called to testify in the trial.

Ruth Markel, Dan Markel's mother, will tell her story publicly during Wednesday event

The trial, which will be live-streamed on Tallahassee.com, is drawing statewide and national media attention, including an upcoming report on ABC’s “20/20” and coverage on Court TV and “Dateline NBC.”

Ruth and Phil Markel, the victim’s parents, and Shelly Markel, his sister, will watch the trial from inside the courtroom as they have during the two previous trials.

In an interview with the Democrat, Ruth Markel said she hopes that everyone involved in the murder is held accountable. She thanked police, prosecutors and the public for their support.

“We hope that justice prevails,” she said. “There’s a tremendous loss and each trial reactivates that — the grief that you have for a lost child. So this is a very intense time. But we’re also grateful for how much support we’re blessed with.”

Ruth Markel, an author who has been published since the 1980s, will share her story publicly at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Congregation Shomrei Torah, 4858 Kerry Forest Parkway. She will also sign copies of her book, “The Unveiling: A Mother’s Reflection on Murder, Grief and Trial Life" during the event, which is co-hosted by Midtown Reader.

For years, the Markel family pushed for legislation in Florida giving grandparents more visitation rights after the death of a parent. The bill failed to pass two years in a row before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law last year.

In a news release, Sam Kimelman, treasurer of Shomrei Torah, said the synagogue was honored to host Ruth Markel and members of the public “who would like to hear from her themselves.”

“Dan was a prolific legal scholar and much-loved professor at Florida State,” Kimelman said, “and even more importantly, he was a dear friend to so many.”

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. Realistically, you only end up identifying jurors aligned to the opposite side,  so you can strike them for cause or a peremptory challenge. Each side has limited peremptory challenges. Thus, each side is trying to excuse bad jurors for cause since they not limited.

This jury selection is 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.

Even if the defense wanted a change of venue because of the publicity over the last nine years and including three separate trials, Florida law requires the parties must attempt to pick a jury and the court must find it would be impossible to pick a jury in Tallahassee. I do not see that happening in this case, especially with a jury pool of 900.

In 2000, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle granted our change of venue motion in U.S. V Larry Lombardi (FAMU bombing case). That’s how rare change of avenue motions are granted."

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. Follow him for court updates on X at @JeffBurlew.

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