On September 4, 2025, a Leon County jury found Donna Adelson, 75, guilty on all charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation in the 2014 murder-for-hire of her former son-in-law, Florida State University law professor Dan Markel2. The decision came after just three hours of deliberation, mirroring the swift conviction of her son, Charlie Adelson, in 2023.
Donna Adelson evaded charges for nearly a decade. That changed in November 2023, just days after Charlie was convicted. FBI agents arrested her at Miami International Airport as she and her husband, Harvey, attempted to board a one-way flight to Vietnam — a country with no U.S. extradition treaty.
Case Summary — The Murder That Shook Tallahassee
In July 2014, Florida State University law professor Dan Markel was gunned down in his driveway in Tallahassee in what prosecutors later called a murder-for-hire plot. The killing followed a bitter custody dispute with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, whose family opposed court rulings that kept her from relocating their two young children to Miami.
Investigators say the hit was carried out by Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, hired through a go-between, Katherine Magbanua, who was romantically linked to Donna’s son, Charlie Adelson
Over the next decade, investigators unraveled a web of conspirators, from hired hitmen to intermediaries, that ultimately led to the Adelson family’s doorstep. By 2023, three men, including Wendi’s brother Charlie Adelson, had been convicted. But prosecutors alleged the true architect was the family matriarch, Donna Adelson, who they say orchestrated the plot to “solve” her daughter’s custody problem once and for all.
Timeline
- 2013–2014 — Custody battle prevents Wendi from moving children to Miami.
- July 18, 2014 — Markel is killed.
- 2016–2023 — Two hitmen, an intermediary, and Charlie Adelson are convicted.
- November 2023 — Donna Adelson arrested at Miami airport en route to Vietnam.
- September 2025 — Jury convicts Donna on all charges.
The Adelson-Markel case is more than a true crime headline — it’s a study in family loyalty, privilege, and the long reach of justice. It has gripped legal analysts, true crime communities, and everyday readers because it blends the intimacy of domestic conflict with the cold mechanics of a contract killing.