Katherine Magbanua, previously convicted, testifies on Day 3 of Charlie Adelson trial
The murder trial for Fort Lauderdale periodontist Charlie Adelson continues on its third day in a Leon County courtroom. Adelson is accused of orchestrating one of Tallahassee’s most shocking crimes — the murder-for-hire killing of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel.
Luis Rivera, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to second-degree murder, is taking the stand again Monday morning.
Rivera pleaded guilty in exchange for a 19-year sentence to run concurrently with a federal sentence on an unrelated case for his statements and cooperation with prosecutors. In 2019 he testified that he was with Sigfredo Garcia when Markel was murdered.
Adelson, is accused of orchestrating the murder and paying two Miami men, Luis Rivera, a Latin Kings gang leader, his close friend, Sigfredo Garcia, to carry out the hit. Rivera, Garcia and Adelson's former girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, the other of Garcia's children, have already been convicted in the murder.
Scroll on for live updates from the courtroom.
Luis Rivera takes the witness stand
Before giving his testimony, Daniel Rashbaum walked the Luis Rivera and the jury through facts and specifics of Rivera's role in the 2014 murder-for-hire plot.
"Everything you knew about the murder plot came from Sigfredo?" Rashbaum asked.
"Yes, sir," Rivera said.
He added that everything they did in the murder had to go through Katherine Magbanua.
Rashbaum said Sigfredo Garcia and Magbanua lied to to Rivera from the start. They lied about the the purpose of the trip to Tallahassee, about the lady on the street and the money he received, Rashabum said.
Rashbaum asked if it was possible Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua lied about the extortion plot.
"I don't know," Rivera said.
He said he thought they were just going to rob Dan Markel, but Magbanua and Garcia said they had to murder him. Garcia told Rivera they were just going to watch Markel and not actually kill him on the first trip.
On the day of the murder, Rivera testified that he saw Markel drop his kids off at daycare that morning. He wanted to be sure the kids weren't around.
"I (didn't) want to do that in front of the kids," he said.
The initial plan was for Rivera to be the shooter, but he refused and didn't want to be the one to pull the trigger — Garcia stepped in.
As Rashbaum closes, he has Rivera clarify that he was in the Latin Kings gang.
"That was a criminal gang?" Rashbaum asked.
"That's what you want to call it, I call it a family," Rivera said.
The Latin Kings had "absolutely nothing to do" with the murder, he said.
"I can promise you that," he said. "I don't even know these people."
Before this trial, Rivera said he's never even laid eyes on Charlie Adelson.
Katherine Magbanua testifies for the third time about the murder-for-hire
Today marks the third time Katherine Magbanua has testified in the case of Markel's murder — but this is the first time she says she told the truth.
"I believe the truth needed to come out now because the family needed some type of closure," Magbanua said.
She said she lied to defend herself, but nobody promised her anything for her silence all these years.
The murder-for-hire plot was a favor to Charlie Adelson, she said, but the primary motive wasn't because of Adelson, but for the money.
"Who came up with the idea to kill Dan Markel?" Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman asked.
"Charlie," Magbanua said.
Adelson needed a man for the job, Magbanua knew a guy who could. She said Adelson told her his sister was having troubles with her ex-husband and struggling to get custody of her kids.
Even when Markel was killed, Magbanua didn't know his name — she only knew the man they were after was Wendi Adelson's husband.
"He painted this picture that this was a terrible man and he was making his family go through a lot," she said.
On a random night at Adelson's house, he gave her a sealed envelope and told her not to touch it or open it. He was wearing gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints
"He was very specific about me not opening it," Magbanua said.
Adelson started planting the seeds about getting the job done and was becoming more persistent close to the month of the murder, she said.
The money she eventually received for the job was stapled in the corner and carefully stowed away in a plastic bag, inside a brown bag with a grocery bag over it, she said. The $100 bills were moldy, and Magbanua said she believes it's because his mother washed the money.
Adelson never kept cash in his house, and his parents had just stopped by leading her to believe the money came from them.
Daniel Rashbaum grills Katherine Magbanua
Magbanua was offered a plea deal when she first was tried, but she denied it. Rashbaum asked her why.
"Because to give up Charlie, I had to give up the father of my children, and I couldn't do that," she answered.
Rashbaum said there's only two ways for her for get out of prison: a coffin or cooperating with the state. Magbanua said she was trying for an appeal.
"I lied in my trials to save myself," she said. "I’m not saving myself, I’m telling the truth this time."
Rashbaum grilled her asking if she's working with the state to go home, but she denied it and said she's doing this all on her own, that her attorneys aren't even in this room.
"Two hours into your first interview, you still were not admitting you were a part of the murder," Rashbaum said.
"Yes, it was hard for me to admit — it still is right now," Magbanua answered.
She said she did know of the "bad joke" about Adelson said buying a TV was a cheaper divorce present than a hitman.
"He feels like he is untouchable," she said. "He knew he was hiring a hitman."
Magbanua denied being the "mastermind" behind the murder plot, she said it was Adelson.
"You're hoping (the state) helps you right?" Rashbaum asked.
"Of course, I want to see my children again," she answered.
State calls Clariza Lebredo, Erika Johnson, who were longtime employees of the Adelson Institute
Clariza Lebredo worked with the Adelson family for 40 years, she said she only ever saw Katherine Magbanua in the office once.
Erika Johnson, another Adelson Institute employee, also testified that she never saw Magbanua work at the practice. Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan played a recording of a phone call between Adelson and Johnson after the FBI came asking for records.
Johnson worked with Adelson even after allegations of his involvement in Markel's murder came out. Johnson said she loved working with him.
Mary Hull, financial investigator, is next on the stand
Mary Hull reviewed bank and investment accounts of Charlie, Donna, Harvey and Wendi Adelson, as well as accounts for Luis Rivera, Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua. She had formerly testified that there were thousands of dollars in payments from the Adelson Institute to Magbanua, even though no records show she ever worked there.
The Adelson Institute wrote 44 checks to Magbanua every two weeks starting Oct. 17, 2014 — which was nearly two months to the day of Markel's murder. Every check was signed by Donna Adelson, and all but one check was written for $407.50 reaching a total of almost $18,000. The checks stopped around the time Garcia was arrested.
Hull's investigation revealed that Rivera had a "very unique" banking pattern. He operated mostly in cash and would overdraft until his next paycheck rolled in from Coastal Masonry, his place of work. Immediately after the murder of Markel, he no longer pulled out cash, but his normal banking patterns resumed about four months after the murder.
She testified that shortly after the Markel's murder, Luis Rivera bought a 2003 Suzuki motorcycle and a 1996 Toyota Camry, and Sigfredo Garcia bought a 1997 Honda Racer and a 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Katherine Magbanua got a 2001 Lexus sedan from Harvey Adelson in 2016. The title docs say she paid $1,700 for the car, but Hull could find no sign of that in Magbanua's or the Adelsons' bank records.
Sgt. Corey Hale is the state's next witness
Tallahassee Police Sgt. Corey Hale investigated the murder and reviewed Wendi Adelson's ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Lacasse's involvement in the crime.
Hale testified that Lacasse was ruled out as a suspect because he was in a different state at the time of the murder.
Second TPD Sgt. is the last witness to take the stand
TPD Sgt. Chris Corbitt, a supervisor of TPD's Technical Operations Unit, testified that he poured over messages recovered from Charlie Adelson's iCloud messages.
Corbitt said Dan Markel was in three different locations the morning of his death: his house, his son's preschool and the Premier Gym. Phone records trailing the hitmen show that they were likely in each of those locations at the same time as Markel.
Frequency reports show that Adelson had a significant amount of communication with all three of the convicted murderers Sigfredo Garcia, Luis Rivera and Katherine Magbanua. Nobody else from the Adelson family communicated with the three except for one 37 second call between Garcia and Harvey Adelson.
Data traced the hitmen's trip to Tallahassee on June 4, 2014, but Corbitt said they only have data on Rivera's phone in connection to specific pinpointed locations. However, he said Adelson was in contact with Magbanua 17 times while they were in Tallahassee.
Text messages between Adelson and Magbanua were displayed to the jury while Corbitt walked the jurors through their relevance.
""In all the messages . . . are there any where they discuss Charlie Adelson being blackmailed or extorted by violent people wanting to hurt his family?" Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan asked.
"None that I found," Corbitt answered.
Chronicling the case:
Pre-trial: What we learned from jury selection
Walkthrough of witnesses: Those making the case for, against Charlie Adelson
Case primer: Everything to know about the murder-for-hire case
Day One opening statements: Defense says ex-girlfriend was murder 'mastermind'
Day One testimony: Wendi Adelson says she was surprised to learn Charlie knew Dan Markel's murderer all along
Day Two testimony: Charlie Adelson murder trial sees twists, turns as his sister and a hit man testify
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: RECAP: Charlie Adelson trial Day 3 - Katherine Magbanua testifies
