VIDEO: Mom, embroiled in murder-for-hire of FSU professor, detained trying to board plane to Vietnam
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — New body camera video shows a Florida woman involved in the murder-for-hire of a Florida State University law professor get arrested when she tried to board a plane in Miami.
In November, 73-year-old Donna Adelson was arrested by Miami-Dade police on charges of orchestrating a hit on her ex-son-in-law, before getting on a one-way flight to Vietnam via Dubai.
Family matriarch arrested days after son’s conviction in FSU professor’s murder
According to reports, Adelson is accused of arranging the 2014 murder of her former son-in-law, Florida State University’s law professor Daniel Markel. Markel had just dropped his sons off at day care and was in a car parked at his Tallahassee home when he was shot in the head twice.
The Adelsons immediately became suspects in Markel’s slaying after his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, told detectives that the killing could have been arranged on her behalf, saying her parents were “very angry at Markel.” She told them that her brother had joked about hiring a hit man to kill Markel as a divorce gift, but he bought her a TV instead.
Wendi’s brother, Charlie Adelson was convicted in early November for arranging Markel’s shooting through a girlfriend, who hired her ex-husband and his friend, both a part of a gang, to murder Markel.
The dentist was arrested last year after technicians enhanced a recording made of him in 2016 discussing the extortion attempt with his girlfriend, in which he said she would need to meet with the extortionist and agree to a one-time payment.
Florida jury spares life of man who killed FSU professor
He also told her he wasn’t worried about being arrested, but if he thought police had any evidence proving the family orchestrated the slaying, “we would have already gone to the airport.”
On Dec. 12, 2023, Charlie Adelson was sentenced to life in prison.
According to the Associated Press, the girlfriend and her ex-husband are serving life sentences after they were convicted of first-degree murder. The ex-husband’s friend is serving 19 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against the others.
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