One week following an arrest at Miami International Airport before she could use a one-way ticket to Vietnam, 73-year-old Donna Sue Adelson has a new mug shot out of Leon County, the Florida jurisdiction up north where she was indicted in the 2014 murder of Dan Markel, her former son-in-law.
Adelson, who previously appeared in bond court and waived extradition, was booked early Tuesday on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder, Leon County Sheriff’s Office jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
The Adelson family matriarch’s airport arrest came only one week after her dentist son Charlie Adelson, 47, became the fourth person convicted of the July 18, 2014, murder of 41-year-old Florida State University law professor Dan Markel.
Jurors were persuaded that Charlie Adelson had the means and motive to make the Adelson family’s “problem” go away, by orchestrating Dan Markel’s murder after the victim had asked a judge to enter an order preventing Donna Adelson from having unsupervised contact with his sons, her grandkids.
Prosecutors said Donna Adelson “hated” Markel and that her emails with her daughter Wendi Adelson, Markel’s ex-wife, showed the grandmother was “desperate to find a way” to overcome the murdered law professor’s “adamant” opposition to relocating his sons from Tallahassee to South Florida.
Dan Markel (Law&Crime Network file photo), Donna Adelson (Leon County Sheriff’s Office)
One email that Donna Adelson sent her daughter on July 2013 said, for instance: “It’s time to take control of your life and not let Jibbers think he’s just ‘won’ anything by having you remain in Tallahassee, eight hours away from the only family you have, and lose out on what will be a job that will afford you and your children advantages that they will never otherwise be able to enjoy.”
“Let’s show this [expletive] what will make him absolutely miserable,” the email added. “You know his weak points; money, religion, control.”
A probable cause affidavit walked through the state’s theory of the Dan Markel case, that Donna Adelson, Charlie Adelson, and Charlie’s ex-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua arranged for the murder and that Latin Kings leader Luis Rivera and triggerman Sigfredo “Tuto” Garcia carried it out.
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Near the end of the affidavit, authorities said that jail calls Donna Adelson made after Charlie Adelson’s conviction were telling.
Donna Adelson (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation mug shot)
“Jail calls from after Charles Adelson’s guilty verdict include multiple calls in which Donna Sue Adelson is telling Charles Adelson that she is getting things in order, creating trusts, and making she her grandchildren are taken care of,” the affidavit said. “Donna discusses plans for a suicide, but also discusses plans to flee to a non-extradition country.”
“Donna Sue Adelson has considerable financial resources to accomplish this,” the affidavit continued.
On Nov. 7, the day after her son’s conviction, Donna Adelson allegedly booked a Nov. 13 flight with her husband Harvey Adelson to Vietnam, a one-way flight that would have a layover in Dubai (Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates do not have bilateral extradition treaties with the United States).
Courts records said Donna Adelson was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning.
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