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The Murder of Dan Markel

The Murder of Dan Markel

Released Monday, 12th February 2024
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The Murder of Dan Markel

The Murder of Dan Markel

The Murder of Dan Markel

The Murder of Dan Markel

Monday, 12th February 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
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0:00

Praising a good mystery. Then.

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set in the Nineteen twenties. Players

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June Parker and her quest to

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solve the truth behind her sisters

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alone. You. Can chat or

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mystery, murder and romance. Can you

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on Ios and Android. Oh

1:22

everyone and welcome to Episode Three Hundred

1:24

and Seventy The True Crime Overtime Podcast

1:27

On my version with me as always

1:29

is my partner and Jerome. My.

1:31

Gibson giving our you the i'm doing good

1:33

about you I'm doing great man. Three seventy

1:35

but a big number. just seems like a

1:37

big number. Done yeah was my way when

1:39

I was in the. Fifth, Grade is

1:42

Huskies and when you are a husky

1:44

boy yo! Yo. I

1:46

can remember doing episode two.

1:49

Three. and

1:51

outs three seventy like a rerouted

1:53

one through hello the three hundred

1:55

and sixty nine they did you

1:58

don't emerge had for breakfast And

2:00

I didn't even eat breakfast. I'm like, did I have breakfast?

2:03

Let's go ahead and give our

2:05

patreon shout outs We had Catherine

2:07

Christian. Hey Catherine KV. What's going

2:09

on KV? Babette. Hey Babette Mark

2:11

and Angela Well, thanks mark and

2:13

Angela Catherine Volibach. Hey Lisa

2:16

Thrasher jumped out our highest level.

2:18

Oh, you're awesome Lisa Melissa. Hey

2:21

Melissa J sledge Hey sledge. Rianne

2:23

hitching. What's going on? Rianne. Tasha

2:25

minority jumped out our highest level.

2:27

Thank you minority Kimberly Harris, what's

2:29

going on Kimberly? Charr jumped out

2:31

our highest level. Hey Charr. And last

2:34

but not least Thomas Roger What's up Rogers?

2:36

And then if we go back into the

2:38

vault This

2:40

week we selected Laura Sparkman. Look

2:42

at Sparkman in the house Yeah,

2:44

appreciate the new support the continued

2:46

support on patreon We also had

2:48

a couple of great PayPal donations

2:51

from Terry Laleo.

2:53

Hey Laleo and Maxine Rebecca Kretz.

2:55

Look at that Kretz Yeah, so

2:57

we had just appreciate all the

3:00

support we get you

3:02

know that Laleo that sets back in Elementary

3:05

school and they sing that song. Hey

3:07

Lalee. Hey Lalee. Hey Lalee Laleo. No

3:11

No, I was gonna sing if I don't want to do that. No,

3:14

I didn't go to grade school in the 50s So

3:17

I don't know. Okay, that's that

3:19

will not Play

3:22

well with anybody I don't think

3:25

no, I just don't remember I

3:27

remember lollipop lollipop Yeah, that's

3:29

a different song. You just wanted to pop

3:31

your cheek when you do that. Yeah, Oh, boom So

3:35

gives we have an episode out right now and

3:37

unsolved where we're tackling the

3:39

the outlaw of paths Incident,

3:42

you know big unsolved Kind

3:44

of mysterious case goes

3:47

back to 1959

3:49

we're in Russia. Yeah, so there

3:51

are some rough Pronunciations

3:54

to try to get through but

3:56

such a fascinating case. It really is

3:59

and You know i'm in when

4:01

i was in Siberia that i heard people talking

4:03

about it from your jail cell yeah

4:06

you think about nine hikers and they

4:08

were said to have been experienced hikers.

4:11

Wind up dead and then

4:13

the mystery is just kind of cascade

4:16

from there you know how their

4:18

tent was found how they were

4:20

found. I'm a little

4:22

ton of theory there are people opposed

4:25

over the years some more

4:27

plausible than others but it's

4:29

been talked about for a long time it has and

4:32

will continue to be. I buddy are

4:34

you ready to get into this episode

4:36

of true crime all the time i'm

4:38

excited we're talking about dan markel. 41

4:42

year old dan markel was a

4:44

well known law professor at florida

4:46

state university on july 18 2014

4:50

dan was fatally shot inside his home within

4:52

months of the murder. Investigators

4:55

uncovered a murder for

4:57

hire conspiracy involving his

4:59

in law. Oh those

5:01

are in laws i know we talked

5:03

about in laws before i know

5:06

i've said this i have a

5:09

great relationship with my. Why

5:11

parents get along well we spent

5:13

a lot of time together i did

5:16

you know second guess some things as

5:18

i was researching this case i'll be

5:20

honest with you. Like that specialty

5:22

they make you every night yeah

5:25

yeah the fact that my mother in law

5:27

drives it over here. Does

5:29

seem strange but you drink

5:32

it anyway yeah i drink it so

5:34

far so good. Dan markel was

5:36

born on october 9th nineteen seventy

5:38

two he grew up in the city

5:41

of toronto you're been to toronto

5:43

i have been to toronto i've

5:45

never been when i wanted to go

5:47

seems like a very cool city yeah

5:49

i've been to canada some places in

5:51

canada but never toronto. It's

5:54

a very large city yeah dan

5:56

was known as a highly intelligent

5:58

man he graduated. from Harvard

6:00

in 1995. Afterwards

6:02

he studied political philosophy at

6:05

the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and

6:08

then earned a master's degree at

6:10

the University of Cambridge

6:12

in England. He graduated in 1997 and

6:16

then returned to Harvard for law school which he

6:18

completed in 2001. It's

6:20

almost like maybe I would have passed them along

6:22

this journey. Well that's what I was thinking. I

6:25

know you studied at Harvard. I

6:28

know you were at Cambridge. I don't think you ever

6:30

made it to the Hebrew

6:32

University of Jerusalem but it

6:35

seems like you would maybe have

6:38

passed in the hallways at some point.

6:40

Yes, I did to Cambridge then I

6:42

went to Oxford to do

6:44

some lecturing and then Harvard.

6:47

Dan started off his career

6:49

practicing white collar criminal

6:51

defense and civil litigation

6:53

in Washington DC. In

6:55

2005 he was offered

6:57

an assistant professor position

6:59

at Florida State University.

7:02

So career wise he's doing good. Yeah

7:04

he was. I always

7:06

wonder why someone like

7:08

that would give up

7:10

maybe a successful career

7:13

in law to teach law.

7:15

Not that they don't make good money,

7:17

professors they do, but I just

7:20

sometimes wonder what's the driving motivation.

7:23

Maybe they just have the desire to make sure people

7:25

learn it so they can practice

7:27

it as best as possible. I

7:30

mean sometimes that's people's passion right

7:32

is to teach. Yeah that

7:34

definitely could be it and I think

7:36

a lot of people don't know what they

7:38

want to do. You know think

7:40

back to being in college. It's

7:42

like how do you pick your major? I don't

7:45

know this sounds cool or my

7:47

buddy's doing this so I'm going to

7:49

do this. Now there are other

7:52

people who know what they want to do from

7:54

Jump Street. That's true. But that's

7:56

not everyone. No. I can see you

7:58

going to law school. If you could go back

8:01

10 years, yes, I could see you making

8:03

that, that decision. Yeah. I think

8:05

it would be very interesting

8:07

for sure. But I think

8:09

I would try to parlay it into,

8:11

you know, maybe some type of

8:14

job with the FBI, criminal

8:17

forensics, something, something, I don't know.

8:19

Dan taught classes on criminal

8:22

law, upper level criminal

8:24

procedure, sentencing law and

8:26

policy, tort theory, and punitive

8:28

damages. Tort theory. You

8:31

like a good tort. I know that. Dan

8:33

was tenured in 2010 and

8:36

promoted to associate professor. In

8:38

2012, he was made full

8:40

professor. He was well liked by

8:43

students and faculty, and he was

8:45

known for his kindness and generosity.

8:47

So we're getting a picture of Dan here,

8:49

right? Obviously he's a very intelligent guy. Went

8:52

through, you know, some of the more

8:55

prestigious schools in the world. And

8:57

then kind of launches into

8:59

this teaching career. And it

9:01

just seems like everybody thought he was a, he was

9:03

a really good guy. Dan's

9:06

articles and essays were displayed in

9:08

top law reviews. He had opinion

9:10

pieces published in the New York

9:12

Times and the Atlantic. Dan's

9:15

work focused on retributive

9:17

justice, which is the study

9:19

of punishment in proportion to the

9:22

crime. And I'm a big fan of that. Well,

9:24

you and I talk about it so often,

9:26

right? In the cases that we, that

9:28

we do. Now, things

9:31

have changed over the years. I,

9:33

a lot of times when we're talking about

9:36

cases from the fifties and sixties, we're kind

9:38

of shocked at the sentences

9:40

that people got or the, the actual

9:42

amount of time that they did. But

9:45

then I think you can also go to

9:47

like the eighties and into

9:49

the nineties where, you know, a

9:51

lot of people were going

9:53

to prison for

9:56

like marijuana offenses, you know, the

9:58

whole three stripes. and all

10:00

that so yeah I just

10:02

want the punishment to fit

10:05

the crime. Yeah I think

10:07

that's exactly where we're at and also we

10:10

know in some areas sometimes the punishment

10:12

was harsher on certain people. Absolutely.

10:16

You know so I

10:19

think when you get into the discussion of

10:22

race, gender, and also

10:24

economic status. Of

10:26

course yeah. You know whether or not

10:28

you had the money to hire a

10:30

good attorney. Yeah, yeah makes a difference.

10:33

In 2009, Dan published a book

10:35

titled Privilege or Punish? Criminal

10:38

Justice and the Challenge of Family

10:40

Ties. I used to love family

10:42

ties. With the Keaton's? The

10:44

Keaton's. Yeah. Michael J. Fox. That was a great show.

10:47

He also ran a law blog

10:49

called Prof's Blog, which

10:51

he started around the time he joined FSU.

10:54

It was meant to be a forum

10:56

for young law professors and academics. The

10:59

blog was popular and

11:01

professors from all over the

11:03

US contributed articles. Dan

11:05

was married to Wendy Adelson, who was

11:08

also a faculty member at FSU. They

11:10

had two boys who were three and five

11:13

at the time that Dan was murdered. They

11:15

got married on February 26, 2006. Wendy,

11:19

who was about six years younger than Dan,

11:22

also earned her master's degree at

11:24

Cambridge and was earning her law

11:27

degree from the University of Miami

11:29

in 2006. That's

11:31

some smart individuals there. Yeah, kind of

11:33

a power couple, right? She

11:35

previously directed the Human Rights

11:38

and Immigration Law Project at

11:41

FSU Center for the Advancement of

11:43

Human Rights. At the time

11:45

of Dan's death, she was director

11:47

of the Medical Legal Partnership with

11:49

the FSU College of Law Public

11:51

Interest Law Center. So Wendy

11:54

and Dan were married for six years,

11:56

but she initiated a divorce

11:59

in September. September of 2012. Dan

12:03

returned from a business trip and

12:05

found Wendy, the children and most

12:07

of their belongings missing from their

12:09

home. Wendy moved out with

12:11

the help of her parents while he was away.

12:14

He found divorce papers sitting on the

12:16

bed. That's a pretty rough

12:18

way to find out, you know,

12:20

coming home, you know, when you're

12:23

on the road, any trip, you just want

12:25

to get home and get into your

12:27

nice comfortable bed at night. Oh,

12:29

I was gonna say I can't wait to get home,

12:31

see my family. Well, that too. You just want to

12:33

get into your jammies. So

12:36

it had to be shocking, right? Even

12:38

if the marriage was on the rocks

12:40

and they'd been talking about it, still

12:43

would be shocking to come home from a trip

12:45

and just find everyone and

12:48

almost everything gone. Yeah, and see

12:50

those papers sitting on your bed.

12:52

According to court documents filed by

12:54

Dan, Wendy took almost everything from

12:56

the house as well as hundreds

12:59

of thousands of dollars in cash

13:01

and equities from their bank and

13:03

investment accounts. Okay, that

13:05

might be a little shocking as well. Yeah,

13:08

I mean if your savings

13:11

and cash is all gone, you

13:14

know, I mean, it could be a

13:16

problem. The divorce was finalized on July

13:18

31st, 2013. The agreement included 50-50

13:24

custody and shared

13:26

parenting guidelines. Dan would

13:28

have to pay Wendy over $800 a month in

13:32

child support and a

13:35

$120,000 lump sum payment. He kept

13:37

the house and their accounts,

13:39

vehicles and other property were divided.

13:42

So the only question I

13:44

have is how do you

13:46

divide the accounts when she's

13:49

already rated them? Yeah,

13:52

I'm sure they did an accounting. They must

13:54

have of everything and said, hey, you know,

13:56

you got to put that back

13:58

in or we have to factor it in. after all this

14:00

in. I remember when I got divorced, I mean,

14:04

you have to put everything

14:06

on those disclosure sheets because

14:09

if you fail to, it does

14:11

not bode well for you. Yeah, so you had

14:13

to put your Rex West

14:15

income in there and

14:18

your $1 bills, you had to add all them

14:20

up, pull them out of your G-string.

14:24

There's $37, that'll put that down. Dan

14:28

and Wendy continued having

14:30

conflict over financial disclosures,

14:32

family heirlooms, and the

14:34

children's activities and school.

14:37

And is that unusual? There

14:39

are divorces that go fairly

14:41

smoothly, it's what

14:43

you would consider amicable. And

14:46

then there are others where it's

14:48

not at all. And everything is

14:51

contentious, down to which

14:53

CDs are mine and which are yours

14:56

and which albums do I get, which

14:58

photos, everything. And sometimes the other party

15:00

wants those things just to spite you.

15:03

Sure. A month and

15:05

a half before the divorce was

15:07

finalized, Wendy asked for permission to

15:09

move with the children to Coral

15:11

Springs in South Florida for familial

15:14

support. And so

15:16

that she could accept a new job opportunity

15:19

at a law firm. She wanted

15:21

to have majority custody of the children

15:24

and argued that Dan traveled often

15:26

and was not their primary caretaker.

15:29

So we just got done kind of talking about stuff,

15:34

whether it was pictures,

15:36

CDs, paintings, furniture. That's

15:41

one thing. Right. But

15:44

then when you have kids and

15:46

you talk about custody, that's

15:48

a completely separate issue.

15:51

Yeah, I mean, one, you're cutting into

15:54

my potential time with my

15:56

kids, looking at it from Dan's

15:58

side. But. It also can

16:01

make a difference on the financial aspects right

16:03

if you don't have your kids fifty

16:05

fifty now it's gonna be more

16:09

of the other spouse having them than that could

16:11

change what your child support payments are. When

16:14

he claimed that she was stuck

16:16

in tallahassee until dan decided to

16:18

leave and alleged that he

16:20

made life difficult for her at

16:22

fsu by telling her colleague she

16:25

had mental health issues and stole

16:27

money from him. So i

16:29

use the word contentious it's

16:32

still multiplied but we might

16:34

be passing that point into

16:37

maybe the area of nasty

16:40

things are getting a little nasty. Dan challenge

16:42

the motion arguing it was vague

16:44

and filled with false a

16:46

judge denied wendy's request to move

16:49

because she couldn't prove relocation was

16:51

in the best interest of the

16:54

children. Yeah i think most courts prefer

16:56

the kids to be an area where

16:58

both mom and dad are

17:00

located if both mom and dad can

17:02

find reasonable work. Yeah

17:05

i can see why that would

17:07

be right important to have

17:09

both parents in a

17:12

child's life. Dan started a

17:14

new relationship about a year after

17:16

wendy initiated the divorce he

17:19

was seeing a law professor at new

17:21

york university. He visited the school

17:23

often as part of his work dan

17:25

and wendy were still having conflicts over

17:27

the divorce by two thousand fourteen. In

17:30

february of that year dan

17:32

found a motion to enforce

17:34

the financial provisions of their

17:36

marital settlement agreement he claimed

17:38

wendy filed a false and

17:40

misleading financial disclosure form. That

17:43

shorted her assets by more than

17:45

two hundred and forty thousand dollars

17:47

it's a problem if it can

17:49

be proved. Well it goes back to

17:52

your point right you have to be

17:54

accurate with these disclosures he

17:56

said she took a diamond ring

17:58

belonging to his great. and

18:01

helped herself to over $600,000

18:03

in cash, liquid equities, and

18:05

other assets upon separation. So

18:08

this goes directly back to

18:10

my question. If

18:12

she did kind of raid some

18:14

of the accounts prior

18:17

to the settlement agreement,

18:19

how was that factored in? And it's kind

18:21

of sounding like maybe it wasn't. As

18:24

reported by the Tallahassee Democrat,

18:27

Dan argued that Wendy's parents

18:29

paid her legal fees, which

18:31

allowed her to take the

18:33

most aggressive and unsubstantiated legal

18:36

posture as possible. Wendy's

18:38

attorney filed a request to dismiss the claim

18:40

and told the judge that Dan only paid

18:42

$50,000 of the $120,000 he owed her. Don't

18:48

you just love it when two attorneys are going

18:50

out after each other because they're going

18:52

to have a hard time letting the other side

18:54

win? Well, because the people paying

18:56

them don't want the other

18:58

side to win. Exactly. And,

19:01

you know, when you get into an area of

19:03

a contentious divorce, then

19:05

you're going to have some savvy

19:09

legal attorneys battling it out. I

19:11

almost think as a divorce attorney,

19:14

you probably don't like

19:16

it when your client's an attorney because

19:19

they probably feel like they know as much

19:21

as you and how you should probably

19:23

do it instead of how you know it needs

19:25

to be done. That's a great point. We really

19:27

haven't discussed that, the fact that they're both attorneys.

19:30

And so I'm sure they're

19:32

more involved than the

19:35

normal person. In

19:37

March, Dan filed a motion to

19:40

enforce the parenting rule stipulated

19:42

in the divorce agreement. His

19:44

motion stated that Wendy's mother,

19:46

Donna Adelson, was the source

19:48

of what he

19:50

called parental alienation efforts.

19:53

Dan claimed Wendy violated the agreement

19:55

by letting Donna take care of

19:58

the boys without first asking

20:00

if he could watch them. I've

20:02

heard of that. I have not. And that,

20:04

you know, seems strange to me. You

20:06

would have to ask if

20:09

the boys could spend time with their

20:12

grandparents. Well, I think what he was

20:14

saying, you know, say you decided to

20:16

go out of town for a

20:18

long weekend, instead of letting

20:20

your parents watch them, you should

20:22

first come to me and say, Hey, I'm

20:24

going out of town. I'm going to have mom and

20:27

dad watch the boys or girls unless

20:29

you want to. Yeah. I, okay. I see what

20:31

you're saying now on three

20:33

occasions after the boys spend time

20:35

with Donna, they told Dan grandma

20:38

says you're stupid when

20:40

Dan asked why she said that the boys

20:42

told him, she says you're

20:45

trying to take her sunshine. From

20:48

her. Well, a little family drama. You're going

20:50

to have that. Well, and you're

20:52

also going to have each side's

20:55

parents taking their

20:57

side. Sure. Because they're

20:59

probably only hearing that

21:02

one side, right? So the Adelson's

21:05

are hearing Wendy side

21:07

and nothing else. Dan

21:10

wanted the court to prohibit Donna

21:12

from having unsupervised time with the

21:14

boy. I get it.

21:16

Okay. She shouldn't say that you're

21:18

stupid, but I do

21:20

think it's a little rough to

21:23

say that grandparents can't

21:25

have unsupervised time. Yeah.

21:28

Unless they've proven in the past

21:30

that they've done something wrong. I

21:32

can't see why you would want to enforce

21:34

that besides the fact that you don't like

21:36

the fact that, uh, they called

21:38

you stupid. Yes. There's gotta be more to it

21:41

than that. Sure. A hearing was

21:43

originally scheduled for May 15th, 2014, but it was

21:45

continued because

21:48

of a request from Wendy. Dan

21:51

was killed before the hearing took

21:53

place and you and I have

21:55

done a number of cases kind of

21:58

in this vein. It

22:01

could be divorce. It could be

22:03

you know business, but there's a

22:05

big hearing Getting

22:07

ready to happen and a

22:10

person ends up dead right before that hearing

22:12

is set to take place Oh, yeah, timing

22:15

is everything. Well, I

22:17

sure think it definitely means

22:19

something I think when someone

22:21

is killed right before a divorce

22:24

hearing It's really hard

22:27

to think that that doesn't have something

22:29

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24:51

July 18 2014

24:54

Dan was fatally shot in the head Inside

24:56

the garage of his Tallahassee

24:59

home. He spent that morning running

25:01

errands around 9 a.m He

25:03

dropped his sons off at preschool He seemed to

25:06

be in a good mood and spoke

25:08

to the staff briefly before he left afterwards

25:10

He went to the gym Dan was

25:13

shot at 11 a.m The

25:15

police report stated that his keys were

25:17

still in his vehicle and the car

25:19

was not locked Dan left

25:21

the gym at 10 38 a.m He

25:24

was talking on the phone as he returned

25:26

home and abruptly told the caller Someone

25:29

he didn't recognize was in his

25:31

driveway his last words were

25:33

hold on a second There's someone in

25:36

my driveway that is unfamiliar to

25:38

me The person on the phone heard

25:40

a loud grunt and muffled

25:42

background conversation followed by

25:44

labored breathing One of

25:47

Dan's neighbors heard the gunshots and called

25:49

the police the neighbor saw

25:51

a suspicious vehicle Leaving Dan's home at

25:53

the time of the shooting the

25:55

caller saw the garage door open and

25:58

thought Dan was going to pull out soon He

26:00

went to the house because he was

26:02

curious due to recent break-ins in their

26:05

neighborhood. He entered the garage and

26:07

saw Dan sitting in his car, bleeding

26:09

from his head. Dan was

26:11

moving, but not talking. The

26:14

driver's side window was bashed out, according

26:17

to the neighbor. He wasn't sure

26:19

if someone shot Dan or he

26:21

shot himself. What a scene to

26:24

walk up to. Yeah, that's what I was

26:26

thinking. A really grisly, nasty scene. And

26:28

it also sounds like there's some

26:31

confusion because this guy

26:33

doesn't really know what he's saying.

26:36

Is he looking at a person who's

26:38

been murdered, shot in the

26:40

head, or is he looking

26:42

at a person who decided to end their

26:44

life and shot themselves in the head? Yeah,

26:47

and you've got to take stock

26:49

of the situation pretty quickly to see,

26:52

am I safe being here and

26:55

what I got to do about Dan? Yeah, got

26:57

to get him help, right? Dan

26:59

was rushed to the hospital and died around

27:01

1 a.m. the following day.

27:04

On July 1st, the police issued

27:07

a statement to Quash Speculation about

27:09

the shooting and helped neighbors feel

27:11

safe. They announced that Dan

27:14

was the intended victim of the

27:16

shooting. There was no evidence

27:18

that the murder was connected to a

27:20

random burglary or a robbery. Well,

27:23

that's one way to quash it. Well, it's a

27:25

way to try to quash it. I think

27:27

as a resident of the neighborhood, you might,

27:29

you know, you're still going to be a

27:32

little scared, especially if you had had a

27:34

lot of break-ins recently. But

27:36

the other thing is, how did they know

27:38

that? It

27:40

sounds like pretty quickly, right? Because this is three

27:42

days later, they put it together.

27:45

That someone purposefully intended

27:47

to kill Dan. At

27:50

this time, Wendy's attorney said she

27:52

was cooperating with the police and

27:55

was distraught, devastated and scared to

27:57

death. The police sought information

27:59

on the silver or light green compact

28:01

car seen in the area of the

28:04

shooting. The neighbor who reported the

28:06

shooting described it as

28:08

a newer Toyota Prius or similar

28:10

vehicle. Just wonder if that's the

28:12

right getaway vehicle. It is because

28:15

of silence. That's very quiet. Like

28:17

I'm thinking it is probably not the

28:20

fastest getaway vehicle, but. Actually, a

28:22

lot of the electric cars are quick. Can't get

28:24

up and go. They can get up and go.

28:27

The technology. I don't know. I don't

28:29

know about a Prius, but I know

28:31

that all electric, some of the all

28:34

electric vehicles are very fast from takeoff,

28:36

but you remember the episode where Andy

28:39

keeps it under five miles an hour and he

28:42

sneaks up on Dwight in his Prius.

28:45

That's true. Because it's, it's silent. So

28:47

why at that point during

28:49

the early stages of the

28:51

investigation, the Tallahassee Democrat reported

28:53

that it took an ambulance 19

28:56

minutes to arrive at Dan's home due

28:58

to an error. The dispatcher

29:00

filed the incident as priority

29:03

three instead of priority

29:05

one. As the dispatcher

29:07

gathered more information, the priority

29:09

was upgraded. It was

29:12

unknown. If the slow response contributed

29:14

to Dan's death, you know, 19

29:16

minutes is a long time. I mean, in

29:18

a life or death situation and could

29:22

have contributed. Maybe, maybe they could

29:24

have. Stop the bleeding, did something

29:27

to save his life. His life.

29:29

Well, I don't know how you could

29:31

ever know that for certain, but

29:33

this is like the

29:35

second dispatcher error

29:37

that we've had in, in recent

29:40

weeks. Again, I know it's

29:42

a very tough job, but it's also

29:44

a very important job. You

29:46

think about making a mistake could

29:49

be life or death. Yeah. You know,

29:51

I know we have great listeners that

29:53

are dispatchers dispatcher. I think. Yeah, absolutely.

29:56

And I'm sure she would say, yeah,

29:59

timing is everything. thing when we get

30:01

these calls. What an accuracy and all

30:03

that together. On July 31st,

30:06

2014, the consolidated dispatch

30:08

agency admitted that human error

30:11

contributed to delays and responding

30:13

to the shooting. A

30:15

report issued in September of that year

30:18

found that technological errors played a

30:20

role in the delay. The

30:22

CDA eventually settled with Dan's

30:24

family in August, 2016 for $40,000. Months

30:30

passed with no updates from the

30:32

police. A year later

30:34

on July 17th, 2015, the

30:37

police released new information about the Toyota

30:39

Prius seen at the crime scene. Surveillance

30:42

photos showed it was a 2006 to 2009

30:44

model painted silver. The

30:49

Tallahassee police said the vehicle may

30:51

have been used by the shooter

30:53

and then returned to the original

30:55

owner. Wendy Adelson resigned

30:57

from the FSU law school in

30:59

January, 2015, and

31:02

moved to the Miami area. So

31:05

I said within a matter of

31:07

three days, they somehow figured

31:09

out the Dan was

31:11

the intended target, but now

31:13

we're a year on. Yeah. And

31:16

no arrests have been made. So

31:19

it kind of makes you wonder what

31:22

they knew or what made them so

31:24

confident. Or were they

31:26

just trying to reassure

31:28

the public? Well, I think they would

31:31

for sure trying to reassure the public,

31:33

but could they have known

31:36

or felt pretty good about the

31:38

case, but just didn't have everything they needed yet

31:40

and it's just going to take time. Yeah,

31:42

that's absolutely true. To pull it all in, wrap it

31:44

all up, put in this little bow on it. In

31:47

December, 2015, Wendy

31:50

appeared on a podcast called

31:52

Writing Class Studio, which

31:54

features stories of students in a

31:56

writing class. She said she

31:59

wanted to tell her. side of the story. She

32:01

spoke about what happened after the

32:03

murder and claimed she was interrogated by

32:06

the police for eight hours. She also

32:08

revealed that she never felt passionate

32:10

love for Dan, but thought he would

32:12

be a good father. She

32:14

claimed Dan did not view her as

32:16

an equal, and that he used to

32:19

tell her he was the only one

32:21

who saw that she was secretly a

32:23

bad person. She also described

32:25

how the media treated her like

32:27

a suspect. Nothing like putting this

32:29

all out on a recording, huh? Yeah, I

32:31

did think it was a little strange that

32:35

you would decide to go on a podcast. Now,

32:37

I don't know how many people are listening to

32:39

a podcast called Writing Class Studio.

32:43

I don't think it's in the top 10 or anything like that,

32:45

but... But it's out there. It's

32:47

out there, and it's out there

32:49

and of record. Exactly. And

32:52

so, is

32:54

it smart to make

32:57

statements that the

32:59

police can go back and look

33:01

at, analyze? We'll

33:03

have to see. It would be months

33:06

before another major development in the case.

33:09

On May 25, 2016, 34-year-old Siegfredo Garcia

33:11

was arrested for possession of cocaine

33:18

in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Garcia

33:20

pulled up to a pump at a

33:22

gas station and was soon surrounded by

33:25

at least 10 cars from the FBI,

33:27

DEA, and Hallandale

33:29

Beach Police. That's a lot

33:31

of cars. That is a lot

33:33

of cars. You're like, what? I

33:36

just wanted to get some gas. What's

33:38

going on here? And from three

33:40

different agencies, he was

33:43

a main suspect in the Dan

33:45

Markell shooting. Garcia was

33:47

quickly charged with first-degree murder, and

33:49

the cocaine charge was dropped. You

33:52

know, cocaine charges are pretty

33:54

serious, but not compared

33:56

to first-degree murder. Garcia

33:58

had a lengthy... the criminal record.

34:01

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, he

34:03

was first arrested in April, 1997

34:06

when he was 15 years old. He was

34:08

arrested at least 21 more times

34:11

after that. Most of his

34:13

crimes were misdemeanors. Other

34:15

charges included assaulting an officer,

34:17

breaking into cars or

34:19

making or attempting to make an explosive

34:21

device. Yeah, that's a lot of trouble

34:23

to be in in a short period

34:25

of time. It

34:27

seems like it. Now, as

34:30

an adult, his charges included

34:32

trafficking, amphetamines, aggravated assault

34:34

with a weapon, criminal mischief,

34:37

and possession of cocaine and

34:39

marijuana. But some of those charges

34:41

were later dropped. But you can see, right,

34:44

it seemed like as he got older, his

34:47

offenses got bigger. Yeah,

34:50

I think they escalated as, like you said, as he

34:52

got older. Which is not unusual.

34:55

He was last arrested on October 9, 2012 for robbery

34:57

and resisting an

35:01

officer with violence. He was

35:03

sentenced on October 22, 2014. He received credit

35:05

for time

35:08

served and spent one extra

35:10

day in jail. His codefendant

35:12

received an eight-year sentence. I

35:15

really wanted to find out why the codefendant got

35:17

a lot more time, but there wasn't

35:19

much in the research about it. Sources

35:21

close to the investigation told

35:24

the Tallahassee Democrat that Garcia

35:26

was part of a murder-for-hire

35:28

plot and more arrests were

35:31

expected. Okay, if

35:33

you're part of this murder-for-hire plot

35:36

and you see this in the media or

35:38

the paper or on TV, you

35:40

got to be worried. Oh, I think

35:42

you're shaking. They're

35:44

going to be knocking on my door any

35:46

day now. After the arrest,

35:49

Wendy Adelson sent an email

35:51

to the Tallahassee Democrat saying,

35:53

these past two years have been

35:56

an extraordinarily difficult time for our

35:58

family. Although my children were will

36:00

always live with the tremendous loss of their

36:02

father. My hope is that

36:04

these new developments will finally bring

36:06

some closure. So is

36:09

she really happy and that, uh,

36:11

there might be some closure and the

36:13

family can finally move on or is this just

36:16

a smokescreen? Yeah. Well, that's what we're going

36:18

to have to find out. Right. Because the

36:20

way she's writing this email

36:22

is almost hopeful

36:25

that number one, they got

36:27

this guy, but they're also about ready to

36:30

get the other people involved. Then

36:32

in early June, Wendy Adelson's

36:34

family was implicated in the murder

36:36

for hire plot. The police

36:39

announced that Garcia and

36:41

accomplice Luis Rivera, a top member

36:43

of the Latin Kings gang, drove

36:46

a rented Prius from North

36:48

Miami to Tallahassee on

36:50

July 16th, 2014, and

36:53

arrest warrant was drafted, but not

36:55

yet served for Rivera, who was

36:57

serving an eight year federal prison

37:00

sentence for racketeering. So they knew where

37:02

he was at. Yeah, probably not a

37:04

great sense of urgency there. Rivera

37:06

known as King Tato

37:10

was the head of the North Miami branch

37:13

of the Latin Kings gang, which is

37:15

based in Chicago and operates in 39

37:18

different states. The group

37:20

distributes narcotics and commits

37:22

crimes, including assault, robbery,

37:24

burglary, and identity theft.

37:27

Gang members have also committed

37:29

witness tampering, murders, and kidnapping.

37:32

It's a pretty big gang. It is. It

37:34

also sounds like they're into just

37:36

about a little bit of everything. Like

37:39

Garcia, Rivera had a

37:42

long criminal history and received five

37:44

convictions in drug cases before he

37:46

was even 17 years old. His

37:49

attorney in the racketeering case

37:51

said his client was uneducated

37:53

and illiterate and was

37:55

diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age

37:57

of 10. The two alleged. were

38:00

linked to Catherine Magbineau, who was listed

38:03

as an associate of Garcia. Catherine

38:06

and Garcia have two children together. According

38:09

to unsealed documents, Garcia called

38:11

Catherine 2700 times in the two and

38:16

a half months before and after Dan was killed. That's

38:19

a lot of calls. I

38:22

don't think, in fact, I

38:24

know that I don't make 2700 calls in a year. To

38:27

anyone, I mean to everyone, let alone one person. Even

38:32

if you're in a relationship with that person,

38:34

that just seems too much. I

38:39

know my wife calls me every day

38:41

on her way home from work. She

38:43

doesn't work 365 days a year. Other

38:46

than that, I mean, I call you sometimes, I call a few other

38:49

friends, call my parents, but I know

38:51

I'm not making or even having 2700 calls in

38:53

a whole year probably. I

38:57

mean, you take that 75 days and divide it into this, what is

38:59

it? That's just a crazy amount of

39:01

phone calls per day. Well,

39:05

10 calls per day would only

39:07

be 750. Yeah. So you're

39:10

in the area of like 30, 25 to 30 calls a day. I

39:15

would be like, what now? I'm like, what

39:17

now? I would be like, what now?

39:22

Well, I say that anyway, when you call me, what do you want now? Yeah. Investigators

39:26

learn that around the time of the

39:28

murder, Catherine was in what they

39:31

called a very personal relationship

39:33

with Charles Adelson, who is

39:35

Wendy Adelson's brother. You

39:37

can make of that what you will,

39:40

very personal relationship. That

39:43

could be they were boyfriend, girlfriend. That

39:45

could be they were having, you know, rumpus

39:48

room time. I mean, it could be all

39:50

over the place. Rumpus room time. Sure.

39:53

Time spent in the rumpus room. Oh, okay. Just

39:55

want clarity. But let's go

39:58

back and talk about. this

40:00

fight between Dan and Wendy over

40:02

the custody of the kids. And

40:05

we said it right. Wendy wanted to

40:07

move the boys to South Florida to

40:09

be closer to her family, but

40:12

the judge wouldn't permit it. Emails

40:14

showed that Wendy's parents, especially her

40:16

mother, Donna, wanted her

40:18

to coerce Dan into allowing the

40:21

move. Charles Adelson disliked Dan

40:23

and didn't get along with him. Charles

40:26

was a cosmetic dentist and had

40:28

his own practice. Donna

40:30

worked with him. So I'm

40:33

assuming he had some money. They

40:35

were doing okay. Yeah. And a little

40:37

bit of money. Catherine MacBannua

40:39

also worked at the practice

40:42

and was the president of Garcia's

40:44

company, S Garcia

40:47

Solutions, Inc. Now I

40:49

don't know what kind of company that was.

40:51

I mean, I guess if you're a hit man, I

40:54

don't think you're going to incorporate, are you?

40:57

Maybe you need to have a type

40:59

of front to help him

41:01

wander some of the payments. That's true. That's

41:04

true. According to the

41:06

probable cause affidavit, investigators believe

41:08

the motive for this murder

41:10

stemmed from the desperate desire

41:13

of the Adelson family to relocate Wendy

41:15

and the children to South Florida, along

41:18

with the pending court hearing that

41:20

might've impacted their access to the

41:23

grandchildren. At a press

41:25

conference, Tallahassee police chief Michael

41:27

DeLeo did not call the

41:29

family formal suspects, but

41:31

said more arrests were expected. You

41:34

know, if you are the family and you

41:36

know your involvement in this, you've

41:38

got to be scared. Yeah. I

41:40

think every night, right? You're just

41:42

sitting on the couch wondering, are

41:44

they going to figure it out? When are

41:46

they going to figure it out? The Tallahassee

41:49

Democrat reported that in June, 2014, a

41:51

witness met Garcia and Rivera

41:54

at a motel. The

41:56

police did not locate their key

41:58

witness until January. 2015.

42:01

This witness identified himself as

42:03

a drug dealer and said he

42:05

sold cocaine to Garcia. The

42:08

witness said Rivera had a silver

42:10

short barrel revolver with him during

42:12

the June meeting. That

42:15

same month Rivera rented a 2008 Toyota Prius from July

42:17

15th to July 21st. His and Garcia's

42:23

cell numbers were written on the

42:25

contract. And when I saw that, I thought

42:27

that was a little string. If you

42:29

were going to get paid to go

42:31

kill someone, would you not buy

42:33

a burner phone? Would you put your

42:35

real cell phone number down on this

42:37

contract? I mean, I guess you

42:40

have to put your real name because you

42:42

have to show an ID unless you have a

42:44

fake ID. Yeah, I don't know if I'd even rent

42:46

a car. I would. Why not

42:48

just steal one if you're going to murder someone,

42:50

I guess. Yeah, I don't know. On

42:53

July 16th, the two men left

42:55

North Miami and traveled to Tallahassee

42:58

they arrived after midnight on

43:00

July 17th. They checked into

43:02

a hotel at 1am. Later

43:04

that day, Rivera called the witness they met

43:06

in June and had him book a

43:08

hotel room for the night in

43:11

his name. The Prius was captured following

43:13

Dan on the morning of July 18th, 2014.

43:15

He was seen in the parking

43:19

lot of Premier Health and

43:21

Fitness while Dan was there

43:24

exercising. Garcia's phone was

43:26

recorded near Premier

43:28

Fitness and was used

43:30

to call Catherine Magbineau. Garcia's

43:32

second phone, which was being used by

43:35

Rivera, was also detected in the area.

43:37

This is why you got to use

43:39

those with fray bags or whatever. You

43:42

put your phone in on airplane

43:44

mode, seal it up. Yeah, I

43:46

don't know what that is. That sounds like some

43:48

Jason Bourne type stuff. But again,

43:50

if you're using your real phone,

43:53

I mean, how much does a burner

43:55

phone cost? I don't know. I've never

43:57

bought one, but $39. Okay. I

44:00

assume you've used them quite

44:02

a bit, but we're also

44:04

in the area of technology

44:07

because this is, you know,

44:09

not even 10 years ago. So

44:12

cell phone technology was pretty good.

44:14

They're able to attract these people.

44:17

The Prius was captured at a

44:19

government building, a bank, and

44:22

a store on Dan's morning errand

44:24

route. And it was seen at

44:26

an apartment complex behind Dan's home.

44:29

So again, technology comes

44:31

into play because you have

44:33

all of this camera

44:35

footage, right? Surveillance type

44:37

footage that you

44:39

wouldn't have had years prior. A

44:42

witness at the apartment complex behind Dan's

44:44

house saw Prius parked in the corner

44:46

of the parking lot one morning. The

44:49

witness saw men walking down a path

44:51

that runs behind Dan's house along

44:54

a storm water drainage ditch.

44:57

They returned 10 minutes later. One

44:59

of the men was carrying something and was wet,

45:01

as if he fell into the ditch. So

45:04

I think to police, this indicated that

45:06

the two men were scouting the area

45:08

before the murder. Dan's neighbor

45:11

also saw the Prius backing out

45:13

of Dan's driveway after the

45:15

shooting. Right? We talked about that. I'm

45:18

sure at the time, it meant

45:20

very little to this guy. Number

45:23

one, he didn't know Dan was shot in the

45:25

head yet. No, he just heard

45:27

a shot though. Yes. So I'm

45:29

sure he, you know, he paid attention to

45:31

it, but didn't understand the gravity of

45:34

what he had seen. Now, later on, I'm

45:37

sure he did. Garcia and Rivera's

45:39

phones ceased activity at 10 a.m.

45:41

on the morning of the shooting.

45:44

Investigators believe they turned their phones off,

45:47

killed Dan, and drove back

45:49

to North Miami. Garcia's phone powered

45:51

on at 12 29 p.m. after

45:54

the shooting. At 12 30,

45:56

he called Catherine Magbineau after

45:59

July. 19th Garcia's phone

46:01

was not used again. So

46:04

I think, you know, like they thought they

46:06

were being smart. Okay. The

46:08

morning of the murders before we do

46:10

it, we're going to turn our phones

46:12

off. That way they can't prove we

46:14

were at the murder scene. Yeah. Yet

46:17

they've been all around

46:19

Tallahassee with these phones

46:21

on. In a car that they

46:23

run it with their telephone numbers on the

46:25

rental contract. So again,

46:27

think criminals thinking that

46:30

they're being smart, but not

46:32

really fully understanding the capabilities

46:35

of what law enforcement can do. The

46:38

Tallahassee police believe the two men

46:40

were hired to kill Dan and

46:42

noted that there was a transaction

46:44

in Rivera's checking account on

46:47

the evening of the murder, and that

46:49

never looks good. What money coming

46:51

into your account after someone

46:53

is murdered and you're thought to be

46:55

the hit man, that's like the police

46:57

witnessing you bringing me, you know, a

47:00

whole bunch of cocaine. And

47:02

that night I transfer a whole

47:04

bunch of money into your account. One

47:06

it's talcum powder. Okay. So it's

47:08

this expensive talcum powder. That'd

47:11

be some really good stuff. On

47:13

July 17th, 2016, the

47:15

grand jury indicted Siegfredo

47:17

Garcia and Luis Rivera

47:19

for first degree murder.

47:22

After his arrest, Garcia claimed he'd

47:24

never been to Tallahassee and

47:27

never made any trips with Luis

47:29

Rivera. And I'm sure when

47:31

he made that statement, he didn't

47:33

know all of the evidence

47:35

that the police had against him.

47:38

Yeah. I'm sure he's thinking deny, deny,

47:40

deny. Luis Rivera was first interviewed

47:42

on May 24th, 2016, and he too denied traveling

47:48

to Tallahassee or having any knowledge

47:50

of the crime. Investigators learned

47:52

Rivera was not at work from July

47:54

16th to July 18th. Also

47:58

makes it tough to be a hit man. when you

48:00

actually have a job. It does,

48:02

because now you have to account for,

48:04

why were you at work? I

48:06

just needed some time off. But

48:09

it wasn't to go to Tallahassee. He

48:11

was interviewed again on May 27. Once

48:14

again, he denied traveling to

48:16

Tallahassee. But this time,

48:18

he was shown a picture of himself

48:20

and Garcia at an

48:22

ATM sitting in the Prius.

48:25

So he admitted he was in the

48:27

car and said that they did

48:29

rent the car and did

48:32

drive to Tallahassee, but it was

48:34

to visit Florida State University. But

48:36

never good when your story changes in a

48:38

murder case. Or never good

48:41

when you're caught in a flat out

48:43

lie. No, we did not

48:45

travel to Tallahassee. Well, yeah,

48:47

we did, because now you have a picture

48:49

of us at an ATM.

48:52

Oh, you met July 16, 17, 18. Oh

48:55

yeah. Yeah, I think that's when

48:57

we did that tour of FSU. Yeah, yeah,

48:59

that's right. Hey

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50:55

In late June, prosecutors revealed that

50:57

Garcia and Rivera failed at an

50:59

earlier attempt to kill Dan in

51:02

June 2014. Their

51:04

trip to Tallahassee was cut short because

51:07

a Miami rental car company found out

51:09

they left the area when the car

51:11

was rented for local use only. They

51:14

turned around and returned to Miami. That's

51:17

the other thing. You know, some of these cars today,

51:19

when you rent them, they have

51:21

tracking. Yeah. They know

51:23

exactly where you are, where you've gone, where you've

51:25

been. It was reported that

51:28

detectives began looking into the

51:30

Adelson family within days of

51:32

the murder, as well as Wendy's

51:34

ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Lacoste, who

51:37

was a fellow FSU professor.

51:39

Lacoste was cleared a few days later. However,

51:42

on August 12th, he contacted

51:44

the police to tell them

51:46

about texts between him and

51:48

Wendy. They had plans to

51:51

travel to California from July 11th

51:54

to July 17th, but she canceled on

51:56

June 4th, two weeks before

51:58

Garcia and Rivera. traveled to

52:00

Tallahassee for the first time. According

52:03

to Lacoste, about three weeks after

52:05

the murder, Charlie Ailsen

52:07

asked Wendy and others to go

52:09

out with him for a celebratory

52:11

dinner. Wendy vomited during the

52:14

dinner, which Lacoste found

52:16

suspicious. As quoted

52:18

by the Tallahassee Democrat, he

52:21

believed Wendy was indirectly responsible

52:23

for the murder. When he was told Wendy

52:25

was not a suspect, he said, well,

52:28

she should be. That's coming from

52:30

her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend? Ex-boyfriend,

52:32

yeah. And he's a professor too,

52:34

right? So probably a smart guy, not

52:37

making stuff up. Well, you wouldn't think

52:39

so. Now, are

52:41

there explanations why someone might

52:44

vomit during dinner? Yeah, there

52:46

are. You're sick, you don't realize

52:48

how sick you are, but

52:51

you can also understand why

52:54

when put with everything else that's going

52:56

on, this guy would find some

52:59

of this stuff suspicious. Yeah, I'm

53:01

wondering if Jeffrey just didn't

53:03

know a little bit more information, but

53:05

wanted to be careful, but also make

53:07

sure that they looked into her. No, and

53:09

maybe he wasn't real happy. We don't know how

53:12

that relationship ended. So maybe he wasn't a

53:14

big fan of hers at this time. I don't

53:16

know. Three days after the

53:18

murder, investigators got a warrant for

53:21

Wendy's phone and email records. They

53:23

found keyword searches for Amy

53:26

Adler, Dan's girlfriend at the time,

53:29

Adler's ex-husband, and

53:31

Adler's brother. You got to be

53:34

careful with your keyword searches. Yeah,

53:36

I got to probably throw my phone away now. I

53:38

think most people would

53:41

not be happy if their

53:43

keyword searches were exposed. It

53:46

could be a problem. It could be. Not

53:49

saying it's criminal, sometimes

53:51

it could just be embarrassing. I

53:53

mean, mine are all good. All philanthropic?

53:55

Is that what you're telling me? We're all

53:57

about how to give your money to... charitable

54:01

organization. Absolutely. On

54:03

the day Dan was killed, Wendy

54:06

told investigators that her brother joked

54:08

about hiring a hitman. It's

54:10

always people joking about hiring a

54:12

hitman. Have you ever once

54:14

made a joke about hiring a hitman?

54:17

No. I mean you would

54:19

probably just do it yourself, so, but I

54:21

think the majority of people, it

54:24

just doesn't seem like a

54:26

joking matter. The right subject

54:28

matter to make a

54:30

joke about. I'm really not sure how that would come up

54:32

during a party. Just everyday

54:35

conversation. Yeah, you know, by

54:37

the way. I'm thinking about hiring a

54:39

hitman. Yeah. A TV repairman

54:41

came to Wendy's home on the

54:44

morning of July 18th and her

54:46

brother joked over the phone that

54:48

buying a new TV was

54:50

cheaper than hiring a hitman. She

54:52

said in her interview that Charlie

54:54

knew Dan treated her badly and

54:56

it was always his joke. Okay,

54:59

buying a new TV, I would assume,

55:01

is cheaper than hiring a hitman. My

55:04

thought was buying a new TV nowadays

55:06

is, I think, cheaper than having them

55:08

repaired. I'm thinking if

55:11

your hitman would be cheaper than

55:14

a TV, you probably don't have

55:16

the right hitman. Like in horrible

55:18

bosses. Yeah. When he looked up

55:20

wet work. That's right. So

55:25

you're telling me nobody wants to be peed on.

55:27

That's what you're talking about. I'm saying that's not

55:29

going to do the job. In

55:31

response to the accusations, the Adelson

55:33

family attorneys issued a statement saying

55:35

per the Tallahassee Democrat, there is

55:38

a reason that the police have

55:40

not arrested any of the Adelson's.

55:42

They weren't involved in Dan's death. Okay,

55:45

well that's what you want your attorney to say.

55:47

Yeah, I don't think your attorney's going to put a statement out

55:49

that says they're all

55:52

took part in this and we

55:54

just haven't been arrested yet. Catherine

55:57

Magbineau was arrested on October

55:59

1st. 2016 in

56:01

charge with murder. Investigators

56:03

considered Catherine the go-between

56:06

for the Adelson family. Investigators

56:09

couldn't link Dan Markell to

56:11

Garcia and Rivera until

56:14

they found Catherine three days before

56:16

the murder. The rented Toyota Prius

56:19

was in the area of Catherine's condo

56:21

near Miami. So again, I'm

56:23

telling you, they knew where this car

56:25

was. Yeah, they could track it. And it was

56:27

a big part of

56:29

the investigation. Now whether

56:32

that was through the cell

56:34

phones of these two guys or

56:36

through the Prius itself in

56:39

some way or just different

56:42

cameras or the cameras that we

56:44

talked about. In August

56:46

2016, prosecutors sought medical records

56:48

showing that Charles Adelson paid

56:51

half the cost of a

56:53

breast enhancement surgery for Catherine

56:56

Magbunua in October 2014. Family

56:59

discount, family, family.

57:02

Why don't think he did the

57:05

breast enhancement surgery? He was

57:07

a cosmetic dentist. I

57:09

mean maybe he took a shot at

57:11

it, but it didn't say he did

57:13

it for free. It said he paid

57:15

half the cost. I got you. But

57:17

if you're going to pay

57:20

someone for a hit,

57:23

instead of, you know, let's

57:25

say dropping five, ten

57:27

thousand dollars into

57:29

their account, wiring it, writing

57:32

a check. Well, what

57:34

about paying for a large chunk of

57:37

a surgery,

57:39

a breast enhancement surgery? That's one way to

57:41

go. You know, if that's something that she

57:43

already planned to do. Yeah, I don't

57:46

know how they were able to figure out it came from

57:48

him, but obviously he needed to do

57:50

a better job of paying

57:52

his half. Yeah, I'm assuming he probably

57:54

used a credit card or something

57:57

like that because he probably

57:59

never. Figured that

58:01

this would all come back around and

58:04

even if it did He would just

58:06

say you know, this is this person works for

58:08

me. I wanted to do this for them It

58:11

was my gift to them. Yeah after

58:13

the murder Rivera and Garcia

58:16

purchased several cars and Motorcycles

58:19

and around this time Catherine

58:21

began receiving paychecks from the

58:23

dental practice The checks were

58:25

signed by Donna Adelson I

58:28

always remember that movie With

58:31

De Niro good fellas. Yeah,

58:34

where they pull out that big heist they

58:36

say don't buy anything Exactly, and

58:39

there's a reason for that. You know, I

58:41

don't think these were wealthy individuals Who

58:44

before this were able to go

58:46

out and buy? Multiple cars

58:48

first of all who buys multiple

58:50

cars these guys rich

58:52

people maybe but yeah You

58:55

once you start showing off once

58:57

you get flashy when? Just

59:00

prior to this you had no

59:02

means to be flashy whatsoever You're

59:05

just sending out, you know, the

59:07

the bat signal like hey, come get me come

59:09

look at me Then that

59:11

spotlight on you and then

59:14

you have Catherine receiving

59:16

you know checks from

59:18

the dental practice between

59:20

July 2015

59:22

and November Catherine

59:24

deposited over $56,000

59:28

into her bank account That

59:30

is a lot of money no way

59:32

in the world. Was she making

59:34

that kind of money? working

59:38

legitimately with the Adelson's

59:40

active at the practice. Yeah,

59:42

it's no just not gonna happen. That's

59:44

gonna happen According to court records.

59:46

There was a phone call system in

59:48

place Catherine typically

59:51

called Charlie Adelson

59:53

he called his mother Donna and

59:56

Catherine called Garcia the

59:59

group continue continued exchanging calls on the

1:00:01

night of the murder and the day

1:00:03

of the murder. So then they've

1:00:05

got a call tree established essentially.

1:00:09

Yeah. Investigators

1:00:11

said Charlie did everything he could

1:00:13

to keep Catherine happy. She

1:00:15

purchased a car belonging to Harvey

1:00:17

Adelson, his father, for a bargain.

1:00:21

In 2016, he offered to sell her

1:00:23

his boat and offered her

1:00:25

his Range Rover. Hey,

1:00:27

I got a boat over here. I'll sell it to you. You

1:00:29

know what? I'll even throw in my Range Rover so you can

1:00:31

pull it. Well, you know who you

1:00:33

have to keep happy? Someone

1:00:36

who knows you did something very,

1:00:38

very bad. Yeah. I wonder if

1:00:40

they think about that. Well, I

1:00:42

think a lot of people incorrectly assume. If

1:00:45

you're involved in it with me, then

1:00:48

you're going to keep your mouth shut. But

1:00:51

we've seen in so many cases, that's not

1:00:53

always how it works. No, they extort you.

1:00:57

Yeah. Investigators also revealed that

1:00:59

an undercover agent gave Donna

1:01:01

Adelson a press release, referring

1:01:04

to the murder, and tried to

1:01:06

blackmail her for $5,000. Well,

1:01:09

it seems like a pretty smart tactic to use. Yeah,

1:01:12

because investigators then wiretapped the

1:01:14

calls between the Adelson's and

1:01:16

Catherine. On April 20, Charles

1:01:20

and Catherine talked about the black man.

1:01:22

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Charles

1:01:25

told her, paying someone

1:01:27

off is not an admission

1:01:29

of guilt. He said

1:01:31

he would pay Catherine to call the

1:01:33

blackmailer, tell him she would donate to

1:01:35

a charity, and ask him

1:01:37

not to contact them again. Now,

1:01:39

I would argue with the paying someone

1:01:41

off is not an admission of guilt.

1:01:45

Now, there are celebrities who

1:01:47

ultimately pay people. Yeah. It's

1:01:50

in their best interest, even though

1:01:52

they may not have done whatever it is

1:01:54

they're being blackmailed for. That's happened. I mean,

1:01:56

you could argue with it for sure, but...

1:01:58

Yeah, you can. I don't

1:02:01

understand this. Call the

1:02:03

blackmailer. Ask him not to

1:02:05

contact them again. Oh,

1:02:07

well they've asked me not to contact so

1:02:09

I must stop doing

1:02:11

whatever I'm doing. Since you asked me,

1:02:14

I'm sorry for bugging you. Charlie

1:02:16

said that if that person was not an

1:02:18

officer, you better kill him because he's going

1:02:21

to be a big problem. He

1:02:23

added, if you can't do it, I'll

1:02:25

have someone else do it. Okay,

1:02:27

the stuff before, not all

1:02:30

that incriminating. This part, that

1:02:33

doesn't look good. Catherine asked

1:02:35

Garcia to track down the

1:02:37

blackmailer. They argued when Garcia said

1:02:39

he wouldn't do it. Well,

1:02:42

no, he's already got his cars and motorcycles

1:02:44

and he's good for a while. And

1:02:47

maybe he had a sense

1:02:49

that maybe the police were watching

1:02:51

or part of this plot. Well,

1:02:54

and Charlie must have had that sense too, because he

1:02:56

said if that person was not an officer, then

1:02:58

you better kill him. Donna eventually called

1:03:00

the undercover agent and said she had nothing

1:03:02

to do with the murder. On

1:03:05

May 24th, the FBI attempted to speak

1:03:07

to both Garcia and Catherine. Catherine

1:03:09

never came out of her house. Later

1:03:12

that day, Garcia told her

1:03:14

he was questioned by law enforcement.

1:03:16

They bought new phones at a

1:03:18

Walmart. Oh, now they're buying new

1:03:20

phones? You should have bought the new phones at a

1:03:22

Walmart in the very beginning. On

1:03:25

October 4th, 2016, Luis

1:03:27

Rivera pleaded guilty to second-degree

1:03:29

murder in exchange for a

1:03:31

19-year sentence that would only add seven

1:03:33

more years to his current sentence. He

1:03:37

agreed to provide information about the

1:03:39

murder. So, you know, really, if you think

1:03:41

about it, it's a pretty good deal for him. It's

1:03:43

a really good deal for him. You know, he's already

1:03:46

serving a federal sentence.

1:03:49

They say, hey, if

1:03:51

you cooperate, you only have

1:03:53

to do seven more on top of

1:03:55

what you already have, as long

1:03:57

as you provide us the information we need.

1:04:00

In his October 4th interview,

1:04:03

Rivera said he supplied the gun and

1:04:05

drove the car to the crime scene, but

1:04:08

Sigfredo Garcia was the

1:04:10

shooter. Rivera claimed that when he traveled

1:04:12

with Garcia in June 2014, he didn't know they

1:04:17

were going to Tallahassee to commit

1:04:19

murder until he got into the

1:04:21

car, and Garcia showed him

1:04:23

a photo of Dan Markell. He

1:04:26

thought they were going to commit a robbery.

1:04:29

Now for me, it's always a

1:04:31

matter of, do I believe what these people

1:04:33

are saying or not? But

1:04:35

there is this added component that

1:04:38

he can pretty much say whatever he

1:04:40

wants. Yeah, he has the

1:04:43

deal. The deal's already in place, so

1:04:46

does it mean he wouldn't try to soften

1:04:48

up his role a little bit? No,

1:04:50

not absolutely, but there's really no need for him

1:04:52

too. Garcia told him

1:04:54

he was hired to kill Dan because

1:04:57

of a custody dispute. Rivera

1:04:59

said he didn't know the names of those

1:05:01

who hired him. Garcia told him they

1:05:03

would be paid $100,000 in total, with Garcia taking

1:05:06

$40,000, Rivera taking

1:05:12

$35,000, and

1:05:14

the rest going to Garcia's on

1:05:16

and off girlfriend, Catherine. One

1:05:19

of the better paydays we've had for

1:05:22

hit men in some of our episodes. It's

1:05:24

quite a bit of money, right? $100,000, but let's break it

1:05:26

down. Garcia,

1:05:29

who was said to have been the shooter,

1:05:32

was going to get $40,000. Rivera

1:05:35

is going to get $35,000 for what? Supplying

1:05:38

the gun and driving the car? Yeah,

1:05:41

and the girlfriend's getting $25,000 just

1:05:43

because she arranged it. Brokered

1:05:45

the deal. The day before the

1:05:47

murder, they were in the Prius and

1:05:49

drove past Wendy walking with the kids.

1:05:52

Garcia told him Wendy came

1:05:54

to make sure everything was

1:05:56

alright. Rivera was nervous about

1:05:59

the way Wendy was. looked at their

1:06:01

car. He asked Garcia to call Catherine

1:06:03

and ask why she was there. Catherine

1:06:05

told him over the phone that Wendy

1:06:07

was there to make sure they were

1:06:09

not lying and she wasn't paying him

1:06:11

for nothing. So this really

1:06:14

implicates Wendy. Sure does. Polls are

1:06:16

right into it. Rivera

1:06:18

was three to four feet away

1:06:20

from Dan's car during the shooting.

1:06:23

They left immediately after and never spoke

1:06:25

about it again. Garcia threw

1:06:27

the gun off a bridge into the water

1:06:29

when they fled. The next day

1:06:32

they arranged a meeting with Catherine

1:06:34

Magbineau to get their money. Rivera

1:06:36

told the police Katie was in

1:06:39

the middle doing everything per

1:06:41

the Tallahassee Democrat brokering

1:06:43

then. Yeah. So she not only set

1:06:46

it up, she helped

1:06:48

make the payments and transfer

1:06:51

the money, all of that. Catherine

1:06:53

Magbineau was indicted for first

1:06:55

degree murder on November 29th,

1:07:00

2016. Well, she did make sure this happened the way

1:07:02

it did. Yeah. She was a very big part

1:07:04

of it. No doubt. In the

1:07:06

following months, the defendants scheduled trials

1:07:09

were delayed on February 7th, 2018

1:07:11

Garcia and Magbineau were both charged

1:07:14

with conspiracy and solicitation to commit

1:07:19

murder. In June, 2018

1:07:21

a judge ruled that they would be

1:07:23

tried together. Jury selection for

1:07:26

their trial started on September

1:07:28

23rd, The

1:07:31

defense sought to distance their respective

1:07:34

clients from the crime. And

1:07:36

this is what I always think is strange

1:07:38

about, you know, when two people are tried

1:07:41

at the same time, you know, most often

1:07:43

they have two different defense attorneys. Right. And

1:07:47

not only are they fighting the state or

1:07:49

the federal government, but

1:07:52

they're also kind of fighting each

1:07:54

other. Well, now it's time to save their own

1:07:56

ass. Right. According to the

1:07:58

Tallahassee Democrat, attorney

1:08:00

said, the only thing she's guilty of

1:08:02

is terrible taste in men. Basically

1:08:05

saying she had nothing to do with it.

1:08:07

Her boyfriend just happened to be a cold

1:08:10

blooded killer. Don't pay attention to

1:08:12

the fact that she got paid and

1:08:15

she broke her to deal because we have

1:08:17

proof of that. She got

1:08:19

new fake boobs and that was

1:08:21

part of the deal. Her defense argued

1:08:23

there was no direct evidence of her

1:08:25

involvement in the crime. Prosecutors

1:08:27

alleged that the Adelson family paid

1:08:30

a hundred thousand dollars for the

1:08:32

hit. They argued that Wendy

1:08:34

viewed Dan as a problem and

1:08:36

Catherine was hired to solicit

1:08:39

Sigfredo Garcia, who in

1:08:41

turn solicited Luis Rivera to

1:08:43

help kill Dan. Garcia's

1:08:46

attorney told the jury that Luis

1:08:48

Rivera's statements were inconsistent

1:08:50

and Rivera was the only one who could

1:08:53

put Garcia at the scene of the murder.

1:08:56

Wendy Adelson testified under

1:08:58

immunity at trial. She

1:09:00

testified that she knew some of her

1:09:02

family members were angry with Dan, but

1:09:05

she was not involved in the plot

1:09:08

to kill Dan and had no knowledge

1:09:10

of the conspiracy. Luis

1:09:12

Rivera testified about how he

1:09:14

was hired to participate in

1:09:16

the murder. Wendy's ex boyfriend,

1:09:18

Jeffrey Lacocks testified that on

1:09:20

July 13th, 2014, she

1:09:24

told him her brother Charlie looked

1:09:26

into hiring a hit man. He

1:09:28

first looked into hiring a hit man in

1:09:30

2013 after Wendy

1:09:32

was denied permission to move to

1:09:34

South Florida. Lacocks testified

1:09:36

that this conversation occurred as they

1:09:39

were breaking up. He didn't give

1:09:41

it a lot of thought at the time. And

1:09:43

I get that, right? People talk

1:09:45

about all kinds of strange things.

1:09:48

You know, they're in the process of

1:09:50

breaking up. She's talking about

1:09:52

something. Does he believe it or

1:09:54

does he even care? Yeah. But why even

1:09:56

talk about it if you know that you're not going to

1:09:58

be together? Well, that's all why. Why would you

1:10:00

talk about it anyway? Even if you are

1:10:02

together? The less people know, the better off

1:10:04

you are. But that doesn't seem to be

1:10:06

how people operate. Again, now

1:10:08

we're not talking about mastermind criminals

1:10:11

here. No, we're not. Catherine

1:10:13

Magbineau also testified at trial and denied

1:10:15

having anything to do with the murder.

1:10:18

She did tell the court that she

1:10:20

thought Charles Adelson was

1:10:22

involved. So again, you know,

1:10:25

this is so funny. Not

1:10:27

in the context that

1:10:29

somebody was murdered, obviously, but in

1:10:32

the context of these people trying to save

1:10:34

their own act. Right. I

1:10:36

mean, they'll do anything. They'll say anything.

1:10:39

Well, Charles Adelson was involved. We know

1:10:41

that. Sure, we do. But how

1:10:43

are you going to get around the fact that he

1:10:45

paid for half of your breast enhancement

1:10:48

surgery just because he liked

1:10:50

you, he was a good guy. The

1:10:52

employee of the month. How are

1:10:54

you getting around this $56,000 deposited

1:10:56

into your account within a matter

1:10:58

of, you know, four months or

1:11:00

whatever it was? This new Range

1:11:02

Rover, maybe you're driving, not driving.

1:11:04

I don't know. The boat. In

1:11:08

closing, Catherine's defense argued

1:11:11

she should be acquitted because

1:11:13

Rivera was an unreliable witness.

1:11:16

And obviously they have to

1:11:19

discredit Luis Rivera. Right.

1:11:21

He is the one kind of tying

1:11:24

everyone together. As far as the

1:11:26

witness, they have evidence that that's

1:11:28

tying a lot of these people

1:11:30

together. Garcia's defense told the

1:11:33

jury that it was

1:11:35

Luis who killed Dan Markell.

1:11:37

They questioned why Garcia would go to

1:11:40

the shooting if Rivera was

1:11:42

the real killer. I kind of

1:11:44

questioned why Rivera would go to the

1:11:46

shooting. Now, according to him, he didn't know he was

1:11:48

going to a shooting. I

1:11:51

still don't know why you have to pay this guy $35,000. You

1:11:55

can drive the Prius yourself. Take an

1:11:57

Uber. From Miami to

1:11:59

Tallahassee. I guess you could.

1:12:01

That's another record though. Keep

1:12:05

it running buddy. The prosecution reiterated

1:12:07

that they believed the Adelson

1:12:10

family, hired the killers, and

1:12:12

suggested Wendy planned her

1:12:15

alibi. On October 11, 2019,

1:12:19

Garcia was convicted of first degree

1:12:21

murder, jurors deadlocked, and

1:12:23

a mistrial was declared for cloth.

1:12:26

On October 15, the jury voted for life

1:12:29

in prison for Garcia rather

1:12:31

than the death penalty, and

1:12:33

prosecutors confirmed they would retry

1:12:36

Catherine Magbineau. The case moved

1:12:38

slowly for the next year. It

1:12:40

was kind of unclear if or when

1:12:43

anyone else would be arrested. Then

1:12:46

on April 21, 2022,

1:12:48

Charlie Adelson was arrested and charged

1:12:50

with first degree murder, conspiracy

1:12:53

to commit murder, and

1:12:55

solicitation of murder. That's a

1:12:57

lot of serious charges. It is,

1:13:00

but it's also kind of hard to believe

1:13:02

that with what kind of

1:13:04

came out, he wouldn't be arrested.

1:13:07

Now, maybe they just thought a lot

1:13:09

of it was so circumstantial that

1:13:12

they didn't know if they had enough because

1:13:15

it was all circumstantial. A

1:13:17

few months later, Catherine's retrial started

1:13:19

on May 16, 2022. Once

1:13:23

again, prosecutors argued Catherine was the

1:13:26

middleman between the family and the

1:13:28

killers. It's pretty much the

1:13:30

same testimony at this trial. Catherine's

1:13:33

attorneys argued she was being wrongfully

1:13:35

prosecuted. Catherine testified

1:13:37

about her son's disability, getting

1:13:40

sick with COVID while awaiting trial, and

1:13:42

her mother's death. I get

1:13:44

that those are all horrible things. They are.

1:13:47

I don't really know what they have to do

1:13:49

with being on trial for

1:13:52

murder or solicitation of

1:13:54

murder or being the go-between in

1:13:57

a murder. The prosecution presented

1:14:00

the wiretapped conversation where

1:14:02

Catherine and Charlie discussed

1:14:04

killing the undercover agent,

1:14:07

the pattern of phone calls between

1:14:09

the Adelson's Catherine and Rivera and

1:14:11

Garcia, and the payments made

1:14:13

to the suspects after the murders. Doesn't

1:14:15

look good. It doesn't. That's kind of

1:14:17

what I was saying. I

1:14:19

get it. You know, Charlie was

1:14:21

arrested, but it seemed like it took

1:14:24

a long time. And to me, they

1:14:26

had quite a bit of evidence. I

1:14:28

don't know what they were waiting on on

1:14:30

May 27, 2022. Catherine

1:14:33

Magbineau was found guilty of first

1:14:35

degree murder on July 29. She

1:14:39

was sentenced to life plus 60 years. It's

1:14:41

a hefty, uh, sentence. Yeah. She

1:14:43

actually got more than Garcia. Well,

1:14:47

you can make the case saying if it wasn't

1:14:49

for her, there wouldn't ever have been Garcia. Yeah,

1:14:52

that's true. Um, I also don't

1:14:54

know. Garcia's might've been life without

1:14:56

parole and maybe she got life

1:14:59

with parole, but plus

1:15:01

60 years, it didn't actually say

1:15:03

that, but that could be later that year.

1:15:05

Catherine agreed to act as a state witness

1:15:08

in the prosecution of Charlie

1:15:10

Adelson. And this is one

1:15:12

of the things that, that I haven't talked about yet.

1:15:15

I did kind of say, well, I wonder why they

1:15:17

were waiting, but this is probably

1:15:19

why. They were probably waiting

1:15:22

for the resolution of Catherine's

1:15:24

trial. Yeah. Cause now maybe

1:15:26

they can offer her a reduction in sentence.

1:15:29

Or some incentive, you know,

1:15:31

ramen noodles, ding dongs, whatever,

1:15:33

a pack of smokes here

1:15:35

and there jury selection for

1:15:37

Charlie Adelson's trial started on October

1:15:39

23rd, 2023. Pretty

1:15:43

recent. Yeah. No, this is

1:15:45

a very recent case. Parts of

1:15:47

it in opening statements, Charlie's defense

1:15:49

told the jury he was innocent

1:15:51

and he blamed Catherine and her

1:15:53

associates for the murder. So

1:15:56

I understand you have

1:15:58

to say you're, you're innocent. You have

1:16:00

to blame somebody else. But here's

1:16:02

my question. Gibbs, why

1:16:05

would Catherine Garcia

1:16:08

and Rivera want

1:16:10

Dan Markell dead? What,

1:16:12

where's the connection? Yeah. The only connection

1:16:14

is. The Adelson, right.

1:16:17

And Wendy. Defense attorney,

1:16:19

Daniel Rasbaum brought up

1:16:22

the bad joke Charlie made about

1:16:24

buying his sister a TV because

1:16:27

it was cheaper than a hit man.

1:16:29

He also told the joke to Catherine,

1:16:31

who was aware of the family's plan

1:16:33

to pay Dan $1 million to move

1:16:36

to Miami and commute

1:16:38

to Tallahassee. This allegedly

1:16:40

gave her ideas to plan the

1:16:42

murder. So again, right. I

1:16:45

said, what is the tie between

1:16:47

Catherine Garcia Rivera

1:16:50

and Dan Markell? Well, Charlie's

1:16:53

defense team is saying Catherine came up

1:16:55

with, with this idea because

1:16:58

we got a million dollars possibly

1:17:01

floating around, but think about

1:17:03

this family potentially offering

1:17:05

Dan Markell a million

1:17:07

dollars to move down to

1:17:10

Miami and commute to Tallahassee.

1:17:12

You know how far it is from Tallahassee to

1:17:14

Miami. That's a long trip. It is. Yeah.

1:17:18

As we learned from Garcia taking the Prius

1:17:20

from Miami. But if you

1:17:22

have the option to pay somebody a million

1:17:24

dollars or take them

1:17:26

out for a hundred thousand. By my

1:17:28

math, you save $900,000. Yeah.

1:17:32

According to defense attorney rash bomb, Catherine

1:17:34

admitted to Charlie that a friend of

1:17:36

hers shot Dan. She claimed she had

1:17:38

nothing to do with it, but talked

1:17:41

too much. And her friend learned about

1:17:43

the family's problems with Dan and

1:17:45

the $1 million payment. She

1:17:48

wouldn't give him any names, but told

1:17:50

Charlie he needed to pay her friend

1:17:52

within 48 hours or his family

1:17:54

would be next. So here

1:17:56

again is her diabolical

1:17:59

plane. I'll have these

1:18:02

guys shoot Dan and

1:18:04

then force the family

1:18:06

to pay us the money. Yeah.

1:18:09

Not that the family wanted us to

1:18:11

shoot Dan and then gave us the

1:18:13

money. I recognize you had a problem. I

1:18:15

took care of the problem. I know you have

1:18:17

the money to pay us. So pay

1:18:19

us or we're going to do you next. But

1:18:21

if that's the case, you had

1:18:24

a million dollars, why would you only ask for

1:18:26

a hundred? Well, you don't want to be greedy. No,

1:18:28

it's because it's already been established that

1:18:30

that's how much money changed

1:18:33

hands. Yeah. So, you know, if you're

1:18:35

crafting a story, it has

1:18:38

to align with the

1:18:40

evidence. Prosecutors argued that Charles

1:18:42

was the one who hired Garcia

1:18:44

because the family wanted Wendy to

1:18:46

move. Wendy Adelson testified that

1:18:48

her family had nothing to do with

1:18:50

the murder and she was surprised to

1:18:52

learn at trial that her brother knew

1:18:54

who the killer was. Catherine

1:18:56

Magbineau had testified she and Charlie

1:18:59

went to a Halloween party in

1:19:01

October 2013. Afterwards,

1:19:04

Charlie asked her if she knew

1:19:06

someone who could harm someone else.

1:19:09

They didn't discuss it further at that time. He

1:19:11

then started planting seeds in her head

1:19:14

to do the job and became

1:19:16

more adamant about it in the summer of

1:19:18

2014. Charlie

1:19:21

testified that he had nothing to do

1:19:23

with planting the murder and did not

1:19:25

hire anyone to kill Dan Markell. Again,

1:19:27

what else are these people going to testify

1:19:29

to? Well, of course, they're not going to

1:19:32

say, yeah, yeah, I did this and that

1:19:34

and you got me. I got so nervous

1:19:36

on the stand, I just admitted to it. He

1:19:38

testified that Catherine was panicked after

1:19:40

the murder and told him it

1:19:42

was all her fault because she

1:19:44

talked too much about the

1:19:46

million dollar payment. He agreed to

1:19:48

pay her friend and gave her all the

1:19:51

cash he had in his safe, which

1:19:53

was one hundred and thirty eight thousand dollars. He

1:19:55

later told his mother about this, but

1:19:57

never anyone else. He thought he would.

1:20:00

The killed if he went to

1:20:02

the police suicide pay the blackmailer

1:20:04

off. Now sensually. They.

1:20:06

Didn't have anything to do with the

1:20:08

murder. He didn't pay to have damn

1:20:10

killed. He. Just paid because he

1:20:13

was. In. Fear of His

1:20:15

Life. On November Six, Two Thousand

1:20:17

Twenty three, Charlie Eight Olson was

1:20:19

convicted of first degree murder, conspiracy,

1:20:22

and solicitation. On. Nov. Thirteenth.

1:20:25

Done. A loss. Was arrested

1:20:27

for first degree murder, conspiracy

1:20:29

and solicitation. Center. Has

1:20:31

been hard. Were. Intercepted at

1:20:33

the airports before they boarded a

1:20:35

flight to Vietnam. They. Purchased

1:20:38

one way tickets after their

1:20:40

son was convict. It. So

1:20:42

interesting that their own to Vietnam. Because.

1:20:44

Us doesn't have a. Extradition

1:20:47

Treaty. With. The In:

1:20:49

I'm. So you have that. you also

1:20:52

had though the one way tickets. Who buys

1:20:54

one way tickets to Vietnam? you not staying

1:20:56

there. Most. People here is a

1:20:58

place to visit, maybe for a little while

1:21:00

and in your coming back home. And.

1:21:03

The timings did. This is

1:21:05

a whole occurring after Charlie

1:21:07

was convicted. That. Tallahassee Democrat

1:21:10

reported that in monitor jail

1:21:12

phone calls with Charlie. Donna.

1:21:14

Discuss trying to flee the country

1:21:16

to a place with no extradition

1:21:19

treaty. So. They knew what they were

1:21:21

doing. Oh absolutely. Dominate Olson was

1:21:23

indicted on these charges. Two days

1:21:25

later. On December twelfth, Charlie Eight

1:21:27

or Son was sentenced to life

1:21:29

in prison. He. Found a

1:21:31

notice of appeal on December Thirty

1:21:34

first. Two thousand, Twenty three. So.

1:21:37

He knows we ramp this one

1:21:39

up. Gibbs. Like you said, it

1:21:42

is still pretty. Recent.

1:21:44

That. Events. Of have

1:21:46

been there are still some events

1:21:48

that are are going on. The

1:21:50

individuals who traveled to Tallahassee. And

1:21:53

Kill Dance have been convicted

1:21:55

and sentenced. But. Nine years

1:21:57

later, This. case istanbul You

1:22:00

have the recent arrest of Donna

1:22:02

Adelson, it's possible that

1:22:05

these charges could be dropped. Maybe

1:22:07

due to lack of evidence or

1:22:10

we may see another conviction in

1:22:13

the coming months. You know

1:22:15

this family decided to

1:22:18

take this action because they wanted

1:22:21

to make sure their grandkids were in their lives.

1:22:24

And now as some of them are not found

1:22:26

guilty, but they're mixed up in this and eventually

1:22:28

these grandkids are gonna be old enough to have

1:22:30

a better understanding of

1:22:33

what happened. I think it

1:22:35

just ruins that relationship. How can

1:22:37

you be involved with individuals

1:22:39

that may or may not killed

1:22:42

your dad? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely

1:22:44

either way, right? So they're either

1:22:46

gonna spend so much

1:22:49

time in prison that they'll never see

1:22:51

their grandchildren or they

1:22:54

may go free but

1:22:56

be so implicated in everything

1:22:58

that these kids

1:23:01

wouldn't want to have anything to do with them

1:23:03

or may not be allowed to have

1:23:05

anything to do with them. I don't know. I think

1:23:08

we have to go back to Wendy though.

1:23:11

We haven't talked about Wendy much

1:23:14

because she was never

1:23:17

arrested. I think when

1:23:19

you look online, you have a

1:23:21

lot of people questioning what

1:23:23

was Wendy's role in this

1:23:25

whole thing? Did she know anything about

1:23:28

it? Was she the catalyst for

1:23:30

it? Or was

1:23:32

it just her family that

1:23:34

said, like you just mentioned, we

1:23:37

have to do something in order to

1:23:39

be able to see our grandchildren. And

1:23:42

took it upon themselves. And took it upon

1:23:44

themselves. And where's Harvey in all this?

1:23:46

So Don has been arrested, but

1:23:49

Harvey was fleeing with her

1:23:51

to Vietnam. He's not

1:23:53

been arrested yet. That's why I think this

1:23:55

case is a little bit far from over.

1:23:58

But as a grandchild when he... get older when you

1:24:00

want to know when you want to look at your grandfather,

1:24:04

if he's still alive and say, I read

1:24:06

all the transcripts. I read all

1:24:08

this stuff. Tell me, what did

1:24:10

you know about the murder of my

1:24:13

dad? Yeah. If he's never charged or

1:24:15

anything like that. Yeah. I, it's

1:24:17

just a very, very interesting case, but

1:24:19

it is one, um, unlike

1:24:22

a lot of solved cases that we do, this

1:24:24

is one that you still have to keep an

1:24:26

eye on. Oh, of course. Yeah, for sure. But

1:24:29

that's it for our episode on the

1:24:31

murder of Dan Markell. We've got some

1:24:33

voicemails, Gibbs. You want to check those out? Yeah. Let's hear them. Oh,

1:24:36

hi guys. It's Rhonda from Carson,

1:24:38

Washington. And I'm just listening to

1:24:40

the latest episode and Mike, you

1:24:42

said that if you went skiing,

1:24:44

you would probably tear every

1:24:46

ligament in your knee. Well, I

1:24:48

actually did that in 2014. I've

1:24:51

skied my entire life. And for some reason

1:24:53

on this particular day, it was

1:24:56

not going my way. And I

1:24:58

tore my ACL, my TCL, my

1:25:00

MCL, my meniscus. I

1:25:03

did it all. So I haven't been back to the

1:25:05

mountain since then. And, um,

1:25:07

sadly we'll never do that again. But

1:25:09

anyways, uh, love you guys. Keep your

1:25:12

own time thickens. Yeah. I remember when

1:25:14

that happened to me and I had to take that roll duct

1:25:16

tape out and just duck it, just

1:25:18

duck it. If you can't fix it, duck it.

1:25:20

That's right. Um, I

1:25:23

think this is just more fuel on

1:25:25

the fire of my resistance.

1:25:27

While you'd ever go skiing to

1:25:29

do certain things. She

1:25:32

mentioned it. She was an experienced

1:25:34

skier. Yeah. I am

1:25:36

not an experienced skier. So

1:25:39

the risk for me is even that much

1:25:41

greater. And how bad must that

1:25:43

have been for her to not ever go

1:25:46

back again? Oh yeah. That would be tough.

1:25:48

Kind of like me having to give up

1:25:50

golf. Like I can't play golf anymore because

1:25:52

of my shoulders, but how many CLs are

1:25:54

there in The knee? She Named

1:25:56

off a lot. Yeah. Didn't she? Yeah. There There's a

1:25:58

lot of them in there. In she door everyone

1:26:01

is equal to get back to. Sell.

1:26:03

It you need pretty my years in big trouble

1:26:05

here. Is

1:26:07

T V. I am from Columbus,

1:26:09

Ohio, Montana. I am listening to

1:26:11

the Rod Matthews case which is

1:26:13

just awful assassinate his arm and

1:26:16

machine to the part where we're

1:26:18

listening to the Ah that people

1:26:20

are talking about ritalin and the

1:26:22

litter Ritalin withdrawn how can impact

1:26:24

you I have been a special

1:26:26

educator and. Working. In but. Specifically

1:26:28

is all Not and A

1:26:30

D C and Attention That

1:26:32

disorders. Or different orders about to

1:26:34

call it. I'm also someone who has

1:26:37

a D H. The. End though it's

1:26:39

not brittle and I say that another form

1:26:41

as to me on top of that nice

1:26:43

didn't for tastes are a number of different

1:26:45

than he wants to help. With their

1:26:47

agencies armor and essentially issues and

1:26:49

I will say that Be A

1:26:51

First can say definitively that from

1:26:54

one person to the next that

1:26:56

there is or is not such.

1:26:58

A thing as this rental income down

1:27:00

or ritalin raids we call it adderall

1:27:02

rage. The people who take Adderall the

1:27:05

isn't. That awful he can happen or

1:27:07

why have been So am I mad because

1:27:09

that is a big problem is all couple

1:27:11

days and it can be a catastrophic what

1:27:14

happened to your body and your mind whereas

1:27:16

lot of people sometimes I didn't have an

1:27:18

impact and different brain chemicals in our for

1:27:20

the new medicines and what other medicines. Nike.

1:27:23

Taking food intake. all that. So

1:27:25

I've been watching as of situation for

1:27:27

and one to murder and one it

1:27:29

as it is a can be a

1:27:31

very real thing. Isn't that

1:27:33

much sense as a slow Love you

1:27:35

guys and our kids! Young, talented and.

1:27:39

Yeah. Thanks for colon in. Finding.

1:27:41

Some information another are certain drugs

1:27:43

that I do. That. If

1:27:45

I forget to take them one day.

1:27:49

As the day goes on start to

1:27:51

realize. This. Field This. Is.

1:27:53

What you blue pill know enough

1:27:56

to some. Of them. As.

1:27:58

a doctor prescribes stuff for

1:28:00

my health. Oh, okay. No,

1:28:02

not that. But, uh, now

1:28:05

you got me all flustered. I don't even

1:28:07

know what to say. So let's end it

1:28:10

on that. We had no mailbag. So that

1:28:12

is it for another episode of True Crime

1:28:14

All the Time for Mike and Gibby. Stay

1:28:17

safe and keep your own time ticking. The

1:28:56

wait is over. So far you're

1:28:58

not losing. The only thing you're losing is

1:29:00

my patience. Quickly, I see that. See ya!

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