- Donna Adelson went in front of a judge Thursday for a final pre-trial hearing before her trial starts September 17.
- The judge ruled to allow an edited summary of phone records to enter evidence.
- Watch the video to hear what one local criminal defense attorney thinks of her case.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Donna Adelson heard from Judge Stephen Everett on what will be shown to a jury days before her trial begins Tuesday.
He ruled on her attorney's motion to exclude a summary of cell phone and business records from evidence.
Adelson's attorney Dan Rashbaum said the summary is not evidence but is an argument.
"They're taking text messages and homes and cell locations and they're all making their argument of what it means," Rashbaum said.
State prosecutor Sarah Dugan said the summary is based on the large amount of data found and is not opinion.
"These are maybe 50 texts narrowed down from hundreds and thousands that show certain relevant issues in this case," Dugan said.
The judge will allow the summary to be shown, but said some items need to be removed before going back with the jury for deliberations.
He also ruled to uphold a subpoena for Donna's son's attorney to testify about representing other co-conspirators.
Donna Adelson is accused of conspiring with her son Charlie to murder her ex-son-in-law and Florida State Law Professor Dan Markel.
Charlie was convicted last year for hiring two gang members to kill Markel in 2014.
Donna Adelson was arrested at the Miami International Airport in line to board a flight to Vietnam late last year.
Jailhouse phone calls between Charlie and Donna reveal that she was researching countries that do not extradite to the U-S and had plans to flee.
I spoke with local criminal defense attorney Don Pumphrey about what to expect ahead of the trial.
He said Donna's flight could be a big hurdle to overcome.
"The best weapon for the state is consciousness of guilt and I think there's a lot of that from what we've seen so far," Pumphrey said.
The defense motioned for the recorded talk of travel to be excluded from evidence and cited Charlie's portion is hearsay.
Pumphrey said motions like that one are meant to help the defense shape their case.
"The defense is saying we're wanting to steer our theory this way and we want to put guard rails up to make sure the state doesn't go outside those boundaries," Pumphrey said.
Pumphrey said he does not think they will have an issue seating a jury.
"I think the defense and the state are already working on who those persons are even before they step into the courtroom," Pumphrey said.
Stick with us on ABC 27 for courtroom coverage of the entire Adelson trial with live updates on air and online.
