TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Monday, a judge set a trial date for Donna Adelson. She is the former mother-in-law of Dan Markel. Markel was an FSU law professor who was murdered in the Betton Hills neighborhood of Tallahassee in 2014. Donna's trial is set to begin September 30, 2024.
Adelson was arrested in South Florida in November of 2023. You can watch that body camera video here. The state attorney's office said at the time of that arrest, Donna was on her way to Vietnam, a country that does not extradite to the U.S.
She was arrested just one week after her son, Charlie, was convicted for the murder of Markel.
In addition, Sigfredo Garcia was found guilty of murdering Markel in October 2019, while Luis Rivera pled guilty in 2016 of second-degree murder as part of a plea deal in the death of Markel.
After a mistrial in October 2019, on May 27, 2022 Katherine Magbanua was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder in a retrial for her role in Markel’s death for allegedly being a link between Garcia and Charlie Adelson.
