'This is insane': Miami-Dade PD releases video of Donna Adelson's airport arrest
Donna and Harvey Adelson appeared stunned on police body-cam video when officers unceremoniously arrested her last year and put her in cuffs outside a jetway at Miami International Airport.
“You’re under arrest for the murder of Dan Markel," said Pat Sanford, the FBI’s lead agent in the nearly decade long case.
Donna Adelson pulled away as Sanford tried to take her cell phone — a detail revealed in previously released arrest records.
“No,” she said. “I don’t want to give it to you. My attorney said not to.”
She and her husband pleaded with officers as they put her in handcuffs and took off her earrings and jewelry.
“Please don’t do this,” Harvey Adelson said.
“Please,” Donna Adelson said. “This is insane. This is insane.”
In response to public records requests, the Miami-Dade Police Department began releasing videos of Adelson’s arrest, her visible “perp walk” through the airport and her arrival at a county jail.
The videos went viral as followers of the Markel case and true crime devotees posted clips on social media. National media picked up on the videos, with Dateline NBC planning a special report Friday night around the footage.
Donna Adelson was arrested Nov. 13, as she and her husband, a retired dentist, tried to board a one-way flight to Vietnam with a layover in Dubai. She was taken into custody by the FBI, which has assisted the Tallahassee Police Department in the nearly decade-long case, and Miami-Dade police.
Her arrest happened a week after her son, Fort Lauderdale periodontist Charlie Adelson, was found guilty in the murder-for-hire shooting of Markel, their former in-law, on July 18, 2014, in the garage of his Trescott Drive home.
Prosecutors had been planning to charge Donna Adelson following her son’s conviction, though her attempted flight to the non-extradition country sped up their timeline. A couple of days after her arrest, a Leon County grand jury indicted her on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder.
Markel, a Florida State University law professor, was gunned down in the garage of his Trescott Drive home on July 18, 2014, in the midst of a bitter court battle with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, over their two sons and other matters. Prosecutors have long said that the Adelsons wanted Markel out of the way so Wendi Adelson and the boys could relocate to South Florida, which a judge had barred.
The Miami PD footage shows Harvey Adelson denying his wife and son’s involvement in the murder.
“You’re making a mistake,” he told law enforcement. “That’s two mistakes.”
The video from the airport shows Adelson being escorted through the terminal and into the back of a squad car. At one point, an officer held a water bottle as she drank from it with her hands behind her back. She sat calmly in the vehicle, asking a few questions of a law enforcement officer.
“When did they issue a warrant?” Donna Adelson asked. “I didn’t know there was a warrant. How would I have known that? Aren’t they supposed to inform me if there was a warrant?”
“I don’t know the details,” an officer said.
“I don’t either,” Donna Adelson replied.
Donna Adelson pleaded not guilty during her arraignment last month in the same Leon County courtroom where her son was tried and convicted. She is being held without bond in the Leon County Detention Facility. She is expected to appear via Zoom for her next court appearance, set for Monday before Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett.
Charlie Adelson, who filed notice of appeal earlier this month, is still being held at the Northwest Florida Reception Center Annex in Chipley while he awaits assignment to a state prison.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Donna Adelson airport arrest video released by Miami-Dade police
