LIVE: Luis Rivera testifies in Charlie Adelson trial

Jeff Burlew and Elena Barrera, Tallahassee Democrat
Updated ·12 min read

A day after denying she had any involvement in her ex-husband Dan Markel's murder, Wendi Adelson took the stand again Friday in the murder trial of her brother, Fort Lauderdale dentist Charlie Adelson.

Wendi Adelson spent a grueling couple of hours answering tough questions from Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman, the longtime lead prosecutor in the Markel case Thursday and Friday morning. She testified under a limited immunity deal for the third time since Markel was murdered on July 18, 2014.

Her brother, Charlie 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.

Prosecutors have along alleged that members of the Adelson family were behind the plot, which grew out of a bitter child custody battle between his sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel, who split up acrimoniously in 2012 after six years of marriage. The Adelson family wanted her to relocate to Miami with the two boys she shared with Markel, though a judge had denied the request. The Adelsons, who were linked to the murder through wire taps and other communications, have denied involvement.

Scroll on for live updates from the courtroom.

Day two of trial begins: Wendi Adelson takes the stand

The courtroom reconvened for the second day of Charlie Adelson's trial, and his sister was the first to take the stand with Daniel Rashbaum, Adelson's lawyer, picking up where he left off the night before.

Rashbaum directed his questions towards Wendi Adelson's book. She testified she had written a book and that it had been selected to be required reading for all incoming freshmen at FSU the fall of 2014. She was set to speak at FSU's convocation in August 2014.

"It was a highlight of my career," she said. "I was super excited."

Adelson and her then-boyfriend met with her brother and his then-girlfriend

Rashbaum asked about Adelson's trip to South Florida with her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Lacasse in March 2014. They had dinner at Yardbird with Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua.

"Were you aware Sigfredo Garcia was watching you at that dinner?" he asked. "No," she said.

She also said she didn't know Garcia, who was one of the men hired to kill Adelson's ex-husband, was considering running over her brother outside the restaurant.

A meeting before the murder

Adelson said she met with Lacasse, on July 13, 2014, five days before the murder.

"It was not a good meeting, is that fair to say?" Rashbaum asked.

"It was uncomfortable?" "Yeah," she replied.

Where Wendi was the day of the murder

Rashbaum asked about her trip to a liquor store in the early afternoon of July 18, 2014, after Dan Markel was murdered.

She said she bought a bottle of Bulleit bourbon because she was going to a "stock-the-bar" party hosted by friends who had asked her to buy that brand of bourbon.

After stopping at the ABC Liquor store, she joined her friends at the Mosaic restaurant around 1 p.m. that day. Their lunch was interrupted by Craig Isom, a detective from the Tallahassee Police Department, who came to tell inform her about the murder.

She immediately left to the restaurant to be interviewed at TPD's headquarters. She testified that during the interview, she agreed to let police search her phone, car and computer. She also agreed to be fingerprinted and tested for gunshot residue.

In the wake of the murder

Adelson said she talked with her mom that day and told her to call her brother and tell him what happened. Rashbaum asked if she remembered speaking with him the day after the murder and she said she didn't.

Wendi Adelson said she went to Miami on July 21, 2014, the day after her ex-husband's memorial. She realized she couldn't take care of the boys.

"I hadn't slept in days," she said, "I was terrified."

State calls its next witness

TPD Officer Bill Brannon took the stand following Adelson. He said he saw a red Honda Odyssey, the type of car Adelson drove, approach where he was positioned a few houses down from Markel's home in the early afternoon the day of the murder. He said the van stopped and turned around but the driver never inquired what was going on.

Wendi Adelson's ex-boyfriend takes the stand

Lacasse said he was aware of the "nasty divorce" and learned early on while on a group date that she wanted to relocate to Miami and that she she felt "stuck in Tallahassee."

Lacasse was having dinner with Adelson, her brother and his then-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua. Lacasse said during that dinner Magbanua had a common law husband who had a criminal history "that seemed very serious."

He said Adelson "seemed to be bragging" about people he knew from "both sides of the tracks," from doctors and lawyers to people from the criminal world.

'Sick to her stomach'

Lacasse went to Adelson's house the night of June 4, 2014.

"She was a nervous wreck to the point she was sick to her stomach," he said.

He went to the store to get her Pepto Bismol and said she had been particularly nervous that entire week in early June.

He also testified about the broken TV at Adelson's house saying it looked as if someone had punched it with their fist.

"It didn't seem plausible that the children broke it," he said. "I just couldn't see how the kids could have done it."

Multiple times he offered to buy her a new TV, but she repeatedly turned him down.

Argument breaks out

Rashbaum argued with state prosecutors and Judge Stephen Everett to not allow Lacasse to testify about comments Adelson made about her brother legitimately looking into hiring a hit man.

"My ears work perfectly well, you don't have to raise your voice," Everett said as Rashbaum escalated.

Everett said Lacasse is allowed to testify about Adelson's statements. Cappleman countered saying "it's not hearsay but rather impeachment of Wendi Adelson's testimony."

It was decided that Judge Everett won't permit the impeachment testimony from Lacasse right now, though the issue may be revisited.

"I think it's unfair to the state but I understand the judge's ruling," Cappleman said.

Lacasse testifies with jury out of the room

Lacasse said five days before the murder, Wendi Adelson confided in him that Charlie Adelson had told her he looked into hiring a hitman and that it would cost $15,000 or $50,000, he wasn't sure which.

"She was dead serious about it," Lacasse said.

Rashbaum asked him why he didn't immediately go to the police if it was such a serious issue. Lacasse said because of the way it was talked about, it seemed like it was long in the past and not a current situation. He consulted with someone else about it "because it freaked me out," Lacasse said.

"Maybe I should have called the police," he said.

Court resumes, state calls next witness

Stephen Webster, an attorney who represented Markel in post-divorce proceedings, kicked of the witness testimonies following lunch break. Webster said he read all the divorce filings before taking Markel on as a client.

"I could tell from the tenor of the papers that it was really, really litigious," he said. "I liked him. I liked him a lot. I decided I'd take the case."

Webster said Markel was on a Skype call with his kids and heard Donna Webster say "Stupid" is on the phone.

"He was livid about that," Webster said.

Markel also wanted an arrangement where he could kiss his boys goodnight every night even when they weren't with him. He wasn't "vindictive" or "vengeful," it was almost as if Markel was looking at it as a business deal, Webster said.

Webster said he thought Wendi Adelson should have been held in contempt of court for failing to disclose certain financial matters.

Charlie Adelson's ex-girlfriend testifies

June Umchinda kicked off her testimony by admitting she still had feelings for Adelson.

"He's my last serious boyfriend, so I would say yes, I still care about him," Umchinda said in response to Cappleman's question.

The pair flashed big smiles across the courtroom at one another periodically throughout her testimony.

She testified that Adelson started acting strangely around May 2016.

"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."

Umchinda had told police that Adelson always kept a change of clothes by his bed in the event that law enforcement would come for him. He also kept a gun nearby

Cappleman asked if Adelson ever expressed sympathy about Markel's murder, and Umchinda said yes, but her response conflicted with a former interview with police. In her interview, Umchinda said "he wouldn't ever show any sympathy or anything," which she thought was "weird" at the time.

Umchinda said Charlie Adelson's behavior changed around October 2016, after Katherine Magbanua was arrested. She said his behavior was like someone "who had been accused of murder." But all Adelson ever told her was that Markel was shot and they didn't know who did it.

In their time together, Umchinda said she never felt like he would hurt her. Following that, Rashbaum asked her if ADelson had ever asked her to lie. Misunderstanding the question, Umchinda said he had told her a lie, but then clarified he had never told her to lie.

Wendi Adelson makes a brief return

Cappleman brought Adelson back to the stand to ask her about a get-together she had with Lacasse five days before the murder.

She said that Adelson said she confided in him that Charlie had "explored all options to resolve the problem including hiring a hit man." Adelson denied that she had said that.

'Made my stomach flip': State also calls Jeffrey Lacasse back to the stand

Lacasse said what Wendi Adelson confided him was "chilling."

Adelson had asked to speak with him confidentially, he said. That night, she told him that her brother had "seriously explored the option of hiring a hitman after her plan to relocate with her two kids was stopped.

Her comments were nothing like the "joke" he had heard prior about the TV and the hitman, he said.

"This was chilling, scary, it made my stomach flip," Lacasse said.

Days before the murder, Adelson probed Lacasse with questions about his plans for Friday — the day of the murder. He was headed to Tennessee that day in the same car that the killers drove when they murdered Markel. In a last minute change of plans, Lacasse chose to go to Tennessee the night before the murder.

Had he not, his life would have been a lot more complicated, he said. Surveillance footage from a K-Mart in Tennessee around the time of the murder eliminated him as a suspect.

Rashbaum asked Lacasse if he believed Adelson tried to frame him for the murder.

"I'm suspicious that there was an effort made in that way," he said.

In a second interview with police, Lacasse told them he would still go back to Adelson.

"I was still under her spell to some degree," he said. "I would say I was pretty pathetic."

He said he hoped and prayed both Wendi and Charlie didn't have anything to do with the murder, but he was willing to provide whatever evidence he had if it helped get to the bottom of Markel's untimely death.

Charlie Adelson's old friend appears before the court

Ryan Fitzpatrick was Adelson's old friend a business partner, and he testified the Adelson family was "not fond" of Markel. The two friends had a falling out in the summer of 2018 when Adelson sued Fitzpatrick.

The lawsuit was dropped but Fitzpatrick said he isn't a "big fan." He was subpoenaed to come before the court.

"I don't want to be here at all," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick said Adelson told him about "the bump," when an FBI agent posing as a blackmailer attempted to extort Donna Adelson. But he said Adelson never told him that Katherine Magbanua was extorting him.

He snickered when Rashbaum began reading messages he sent Adelson saying he'd be on the phone with the FBI before he could blink and used epithets to refer to him.

Luis Rivera, one of the two convicted hitmen, testifies last

Rashbaum opened the round of questioning by asking Luis Rivera if he was a member of a the violent gang Latin Kings. Rivera said no, it's a family.

Rivera was under Cappleman's questioning shortly after and said that in exchange for his cooperation in Markel's murder investigation, he got 19 years in prison.

"I've got to testify," he said.

Rivera, one of the two convicted hitmen, said he was hired by Sigfredo Garcia who was hired by Katherine Magbanua to do the murder. He said Magbanua was paid by "Wendi and her brother."

The threesome was paid $100,000 to do "the job," and the money was unevenly split between them. Rivera sad he got $35,000, though Garcia gave him an extra $2,000, bringing his total to $37,000.

Rivera bought a motorcycle with his share of the murder money.

It took two trips to Tallahassee, in June 2014, before they were able to execute their plan. They had tried to follow Markel but lost him, he said. Rivera couldn't remember why the weren't able to kill him on the first trip.

Rivera said that during their first of two trips to Tallahassee, in June 2014, they tried to follow Dan Markel "but we lost him." He said he can't remember why they couldn't carry out the murder on the first trip.

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 andYouTube 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.

Chronicling the case:

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: WATCH LIVE: Charlie Adelson trial Day 2 - Luis Rivera testifies