Charlie Adelson murder trial Day 2 sees twists, turns as his sister and a hit man testify

Two of the state’s star witnesses in the Charlie Adelson murder trial — the Latin Kings gang member who drove the getaway car after his childhood friend killed Dan Markel and the ex-boyfriend of the defendant’s sister — took the stand Friday.

The second day of testimony in the trial of Adelson, a Fort Lauderdale dentist accused of arranging the 2014 hit on Markel, saw high drama and potentially game-changing twists and turns.

Adelson’s younger sister, Wendi Adelson, and her ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Lacasse, both took the stand twice in the same day amid legal sparring between the prosecution and defense over his testimony. Luis Rivera, the former gang leader enlisted by his one-time “brother,” Sigfredo Garcia, to join him in the murder, also appeared.

Rivera in 2016 fingered Garcia for the hit, along with Garcia’s common law wife, Katherine Magbanua, and agreed to cooperate and testify as part of a plea deal. Magbanua was dating Charlie Adelson at the time of the murder, and prosecutors say she was the link between him and the hit men.

Just as he did during Garcia and Magbanua’s trial in 2019 and her retrial last year, Rivera testified that he and Garcia traveled to Tallahassee two times to kill Markel.

The first time, in early June 2014, ended unsuccessfully for the pair. Rivera said they followed Markel “but we lost him.” He couldn’t recall exactly why they couldn’t carry out the murder.

The second time ended with Rivera behind the wheel as the two stalked Markel, following him from his two sons’ daycare to the gym and finally his house on Trescott Drive. He told jurors that after Markel parked his car in the garage, they pulled in right behind him.

“Garcia jumped out and shot him,” Rivera said.

“How many times?” State Attorney Georgia Cappleman asked.

“Twice,” he said.

Rivera said Magbanua hired Garcia, who in turn hired him to carry out the hit. He said Magbanua was paid $100,000, which the three split between them, by a man he called “the dentist.”

He testified that he suggested to Garcia that they switch plans from murdering Markel to robbing “the lady,” whom he identified as Wendi Adelson.

“Did you believe at that time that Wendi was going to have this money to pay for the murder?” Cappleman asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Rivera replied. He said Garcia didn’t go for it.

“He told me he can’t — he just had to do this job,” Rivera said. “I just went with it because that was my friend.”

Rivera also dealt a blow to Charlie Adelson’s account of what happened — that he found out shortly after the murder from Magbanua that the killers had taken it upon themselves to kill Markel, then extorted the defendant for the cash.

“Is that true?” Cappleman asked.

“No,” Rivera said.

“Did you kill him and then try to get Katie to blackmail the dentist?” Cappleman continued.

“No,” he said.

Wendi Adelson testifies for second time, denies ex-boyfriend's account of hit man story

Wendi Adelson, who was married to Markel for six years before divorcing him in 2012 and fighting with him over custody of their two sons, returned to the stand. She and her parents, Donna and Harvey Adelson, are considered unindicted co-conspirators in the murder.

She testified Thursday that neither she nor her family were involved. On Friday, she denied ever telling Lacasse that her brother had explored the possibility of hiring a hit man to kill Markel.

Lacasse, who dated her for a while before their relationship ended around the time of the murder, took the stand after her. He said he was well aware of a “joke” Charlie Adelson had made about buying his sister a TV instead of hiring a hit man.

But before he could testify further about “chilling” comments Wendi Adelson had told him that her brother made, the defense objected. Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett sustained the objection, and the state’s questioning of Adelson ended shortly after.

Later, however, prosecutors called Wendi Adelson back to the stand and asked her specifically about the night of July 3, 2014. Cappleman asked whether she confided in Lacasse that day that, all of Charlie Adelson’s jokes aside, he had actually looked into hiring a hit man and that it would cost $15,000 or $50,000 dollars. She denied it.

Lacasse then came back to the stand to refute her testimony. He said Wendi Adelson was “very serious” when she talked about the hit man.

“I knew that joke,” he said. “This was something very different. This was chilling, scary, made my stomach quake.”

Charlie Adelson’s lead attorney, Dan Rashbaum of Miami, grilled Lacasse about his testimony and asked why he didn’t go to the police with that until March 2015.

“You still didn’t think that was important to tell the police?” Rashbaum asked.

“I didn’t come in right away because I was scared of your client,” Lacasse said.

Charlie Adelson's ex-girlfriend takes the stand: 'I still care about him'

Also Friday, June Umchinda, who began dating Charlie Adelson in 2015 and often stayed at his house in Fort Lauderdale, testified that he started acting strangely around May 2016, shortly after an FBI undercover operation designed to get suspects — the Adelson family and others — talking.

She said he was taking random walks, “acting like a crazy person” and back in touch with Magbanua.

“He was kind of running off to places without giving me an explanation,” she said. “It was getting to the point where he was running late, things were happening, and I didn’t really know the reason.”

She also confirmed that Charlie Adelson kept a large amount of cash in his safe, which was stapled together in bundles of $100 bills. She acknowledged that to Charlie Adelson, $100 bills were like $1 notes.

Umchinda, under questioning from Cappleman, said she still had feelings for him.

“He was my last serious boyfriend, so I would say yes,” she said. “I still care about him.”

Cappleman grilled her about comments she made about Charlie Adelson in a previous police interview. She said at the time, “If it wasn’t him, he never said 'Oh, I wonder who killed Dan?' ” She also said that he kept clothes by his bed “in case they came to get him and stuff.”

But Umchinda said the transcripts of the interview were wrong. Under cross-examination, Rashbaum asked if she knew he started keeping a gun in his nightstand as part of a “habit” that started the day of the murder.

She said she knew he kept a gun there but had “no idea” he started doing it after the murder. Rashbaum noted that during the same time she said Adelson had been acting odd, the case was drawing national media attention.

“I think he was just kind of ... stressed out,” she said.

Under redirect, Cappleman pointed out that in her police interview, she said he had been acting odd for weeks before the onslaught of media attention. She also said he never told her that he gave Magbanua a car but that she asked him about it after a “20/20” episode about the murder.

She said the car was an old one that had belonged to his father, Harvey Adelson. She also denied that Charlie Adelson paid for Magbanua’s breast augmentation surgery, though he had joked that he paid for “half” of it.

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

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

Attorney Tim Jansen's take: 'Extortion defense theory' may burden defense all the way through trial

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 defense may have made a huge mistake in introducing its "extortion defense theory" in its opening statement. The timing and specifics given to the jury has proven to become a huge obstacle for the defense. This burden will endure throughout the evidentiary portion of the trial, as well as the closing arguments.

It is unknown when, where and how the defense decided on this highly suspect defense. Coincidentally, the defense did have a highly acclaimed jury consultant, Josh Dubin, participate in the voir dire portion of the proceedings. These type of services usually include focus groups and mock trials. The problems with mock trials is that these sanitized trial scenarios cannot adequately duplicate the real trial. Moreover, unexpected issues, evidentiary rulings, witness malfunctions and other outside influences can affect the well planned and crafted defenses.

In the State v. Adelson the "extortion theory" was torpedoed by one of the state's early witnesses. No, it was not a law enforcement or biased witnesses that the defense could easily impeach. It was none other than the defendant's sister, Wendi Adelson. Yes, Wendi Adelson-the loving sister, alleged co-conspirator and beneficiary of the murder for hire plot against her ex-husband, Professor Dan Markel.

Her testimony put a gaping hole in this highly suspect "extortion theory" defense.

Wendi Adelson took the stand by way of a subpoena and with full immunity. As such, anything she said could not be used against her in the future, unless she commits perjury. Then, she could be prosecuted for perjury. While on the stand, Wendi Adelson stated that it was only ten minutes prior to her testimony that she learned that her family, including Charlie, Donna and Harvey were being extorted by Katie Magbanua and the killers immediately after the murders. Moreover, she was shocked to learn that Charlie knew one day after the murder of Professor Markel who committed the crime.

It is still unclear how Wendi Adelson learned of the "extortion defense" theory of defense since she was a state witness and was not allowed in the courtroom during the opening statements. When parties invoke the rule of sequestration all witnesses are excluded from the courtroom, except for limited circumstances, expert witnesses.

Lead Prosecutor Georgia Cappleman honed in on Ms. Adelson's response. As a result, the defendant had his own sister testifying that she was shocked to learn that her family was in danger and being extorted by Katie Magbanua right after the murder.

It also means the Charlie allowed Wendi Adelson and her sons to move to Miami which is closer to the murderers and didn't tell her. This could make the theory of defense even less credible.

Another witness for the state that undermined this theory of defense was Jeff Lacasse. He testified that he didn't immediately come forward with information because he was afraid of being killed. He waited six months before ultimately giving more damaging information against Charlie Adelson. Defense lawyer Rashbaum viciously and repeatedly attacked Lacasse for not coming forward sooner. He claimed he was afraid for his life from Charlie and the Adelson family. Rashbaum was unable to hide his disgust with this explanation.

Why is this a problem? Because Mr. Rashbaum claimed in opening statements that Charlie didn't mention the murder and extortion plot by Magbanua out of fear for the last nine years. On the other hand, Mr. Rashbaum viciously attacked Mr. Lacasse when he waited six months. Because of his specific theory of the defense, he cannot then ridicule and dismiss the state witness' testimony when his reasons and fears were readily apparent and more reasonable.

This potential credibility issue will travel throughout the trial. The best witness against Charlie Adelson and his defense so far was his sister Wendi Adelson!

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. 

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel murder: Charlie Adelson trial sees twist, turns on Day 2