Charlie Adelson, one of the five convicted individuals in the murder-for-hire of Florida State University professor Dan Markel is expected to appear in court for the first time since being sentenced to life in prison. The victim’s ex-brother-in-law is fighting for a new trial after a jury convicted him on all charges. These charges included conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit murder.
Murder-for-Hire
In 2014, Dan Markel was fatally shot in the head by two men. He and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, were in an intense custody battle at the time, and she was trying to move 400 miles away with their two sons. Since Markel refused to relocate to South Florida, where Wendi’s family was, the judge restricted her from moving due to the custody arrangements.
Markel’s murder went unsolved for nearly a decade before Charlie Adelson was arrested in April 2022. Police records show that Charlie and his former girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, hired two gang members to take out his brother-in-law. On the morning of July 18, 2014, the two men stalked Markel and waited for him outside his home. They shot him at point-blank range in the head, inside his garage. The gang members were arrested as well and found guilty. One is serving life in prison, while the other is serving 19 years after accepting a plea deal.
Appeal for Retrial
Florida’s First District Court of Appeals scheduled the first oral arguments in Charlie’s case on February 3, 2026. The prosecution and defense will each have 20 minutes to address the court and explain why he should or should not be retried. In his appeal, Charlie’s defense attorney cites four issues that they claim prevented a fair trial.
During jury selection, the defense requested the trial be moved, but the judge denied the motion, and Charlie’s attorney says “it was not possible to convene a fair and impartial jury because of the extensive pretrial publicity.”
Prosecutors have insisted since the beginning that there was no issue in seating an impartial jury, but Charlie’s attorneys differ. They claim the media coverage surrounding the murder-for-hire case was extensive, and it was discussed for nearly a decade before he was tried. “Leon County residents did not simply recall the case,” the appeal reads. “They had lived with it, discussed it, theorized about it, and absorbed it into a shared cultural understanding of a local tragedy.”
The appeal also accuses the court of failing to strike jurors who allegedly discussed the case before the trial started and refusing to allow the defense to offer evidence that would have swayed the jury in finding the defendant not guilty. Their arguments will be difficult to substantiate since they may never have been able to find a fully impartial jury to rule on the Adelson family murder.
Adelson Matriarch Convicted
Earlier this year, Donna Adelson, the matriarch of the whole murder-for-hire plot, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After she was caught in November 2023 attempting to flee the country, she was arrested and charged with her role in Markel’s murder. She had little to no control over her emotions as the verdict was read and the judge ordered her to collect herself before they continued.
Donna maintains her innocence to this day and has filed a notice of appeal in her case. She plans to appeal the guilty verdict and life sentence. The notice also indicates she is planning to appeal pre-trial and evidentiary rulings. Her husband, Harvey Adelson, backed her up, stating her sentencing was a failure in the justice system. “This is not justice. It is vengeance, and it is wrong,” he said.
