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True Crime Vault: First Divorced, Then Dead

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A beloved law professor's gruesome murder. (OAD 11/10/23) To get ad-free episodes, early access to new true crime podcasts, and exclusive bonus episodes, subscribe to 20/20 True Crime+ on Apple Podca...

Transcript

EN

Do you know that this place is the most important place to be able to find th...

Do you know that this place is the most important place to be able to find the place to be able to find the place.

But here, that's where you are. The new Masarati Krakale Grand Tourismo Grand Caprio. The other two people have to go to the park every day. And take the Masarati showroom in your nearer. Welcome back to the 2020 True Crime Vault.

He says I was sitting down and then I knew right away in his voice that this was not a good story. And what a story. Call this one a love hate triangle, husband, wife, and wife's family. They hate them in a way. I've never seen this kind of session.

This wasn't a normal divorce case.

β€œDid any of you ever think that it could get violent?”

Never. A murder mystery we've been following for years. Someone killed the fathers, my children. First we got divorced, and then he got murdered. Now, finally, a courtroom verdict.

I don't want him to think I'm the one convicting him or something. If I say yes, I saw them and then that put him in prison for life. The driver said window was all passed in. He's inside the car running and he's got blood all over his head. It looks like he's been shot at a very close range.

What if he does? I don't know.

β€œWould you ever ask someone to do something like this?”

I have something I want to tell you. I'm concerned about my safety with what I'm going to tell you. I do have some ideas. So who do you have here? Have a vote of a lot in Mark health ed.

His own family. They say the wheels of justice turn slowly. In this case, almost 10 years. In many murder trials, there's the deceased and the defendant. But this one is unusual because this is a story about a family.

Please say and spell your name when he needles in W-E-N. One that seemingly has everything, devotion, wealth, influence, and something else.

β€œBack in 2014, the needles and family had a big problem.”

And that's so-called problem leads this family here. From the very outset, the state suspected the needles and the family. While the defendant's choice has helped solve a problem within his family, they came in a very high price. That price, prosecutors say, was murder.

In the Bible, it says there's the Jews left Egypt.

And I always say the second Exodus of the Jews is from New York to South Florida.

Michael Weinstein is a criminal defense attorney who grew up in South Florida. My parents came out back in the 70s and it was 30 degrees in New York and 70 degrees here, and that was a pretty easy decision for them. They settled in coral springs, a community that an hour north of Miami Beach. Coral springs is kind of like a suburb of nowhere.

There wasn't really a big city that was attached to. Among the Weinstein families, many friends were the Adelsons. Here's the major Ardana Adelson appearing on Wheel of Fortune, 1989. I'm a domestic coordinator. I'm responsible for the activities, classes and lessons of my son Robert who was 16, Charlie who was 12,

Wendy who was 10, my husband Harvey who's in the audience. Harvey Adelson is someone I've known my entire life. He's a dentist and he's married to Donna, I only had three kids, Robert, Charlie, and Wendy. Harvey was extremely successful dentist. He runs at the Adelson Institute of Dentistry. Donna helped as the office manager.

Donna was always a bright smile. You know, you walk into the dental office and she was always warm.

You know, walking to her home, it was always clean and immaculate and the kids were always well behaved and appropriate and dress well. And she was always a bright light to those children. By all accounts, the Adelson children are exceptional. They're smart, athletic, and driven to succeed. The three Adelson siblings, Rob was the oldest. Rob goes to medical school and falls in love

With the fellow student there.

have a Jewish background. Rob marries his girlfriend, falls out of favor with his mother and becomes estranged from the Adelson's. So, focus shifts to the younger children, Charlie,

β€œand Wendy. They will be central to the story. They were closer and age, so I think Charlie and Wendy”

were a unit to a certain extent. Charlie and Wendy were at high school at the same time. Charlie was class of 95 when he was class of 97. So, two years apart. Darrell Gold went to high school with the Adelson siblings. Charlie was kind of a goofy kid in high school. He was a jokester and he was a, I guess, a social butterfly. Charlie went to dentist school. Got his degree, came back and then he was helping Harvey in his practice, so it was a

father and son practice, and Harvey was successful, but the Charlie helped bring it to a new level.

When he was always an all star, he was incredibly bright as a child. She did phenomenally well in

high school, incredibly smart, and gregarious, and well loved by everybody. Friends say she isn't only smart, but also a lot of fun, characteristics that were on display when she, like her mother, before her, appeared on a game show. What if you always wanted to do it? Week is slick. Wendy Adelson does something a little different than everyone in her family's. She goes into law. What he has an internship in Washington, D.C., where another young lawyer is

just starting out. Danny studied in Harvard undergrad. He went to Cambridge, England. He went to Israel for a year, and after that he finished law school, and went to live in Washington. Danny was

a very warm person to start with with everybody. He never greeted people with a handshake,

it was always a hug. Dan was raised in a conservative Jewish household in Toronto, Canada. So word in Yiddish, he would be a bench real guy with great character and great personality. A young woman named Wendy Adelson, searched him on Jay-Date, the Jewish dating service, and she was sitting with her mother Donna, searching for a candidate for her to meet, and so they're looking up Dan Markel. He and Wendy share a passion for the law and seem like a

great match. There was a really strong connection and it was really drawn to him. And what did you think of this young woman? She was a very warm, she's a very attractive person, and we were so pleased that Danny was happy. When this beautiful, she was adorable,

β€œshe was a bright. And it was a beautiful thing to see, Danny and love. You must have been”

related. Here is this beautiful, well-educated, bright, warm woman who comes from a great family who is in love with your son. They're going to make great grand babies, everybody should be happy. We were. Wendy and Dan's relationship moves quickly and, in less than a year, they're engaged. They decide to have their wedding in sound Florida. Donna Adelson was very involved in the planning of this extravaganza for her only daughter.

Danny Markel was developed in his Jewish faith. It was important for him to have a traditional Jewish marriage, specifically in the way that it would be entirely kosher. He was very invested in it being a kosher wedding so that the rabbis would be comfortable being there. Wooden's family and friends traveled down from Canada for the big day to import a surprise. Daniel Markel shows up at his own wedding and discovers that the catering is not kosher.

I think he sort of had the rug pulled out from under him because in the rabbis we're going to have to leave. And I think that was a very devastating moment for him. Donna approached me and she said, "Why is Danny so kosher? You're not even that kosher." And she already had started to move towards that as kind of a bit of a divisive issue. Do you think that this is malicious? No. I think that it was a bit of sabotage,

β€œa little bit of lack of respect. There was a third person in this relationship and that's what”

we have here. So Donna was the third person in the relationship between Wendy and Danny. Absolutely.

Lots of people who's in laws are paying for the wedding end up with not the w...

It's only in retrospect that it looks like a harbinger of things to cut.

β€œAfter their wedding, Wendy Adelson and Dan Markel settle into a life together. They moved to”

Tallahassee in the capital of Florida. Both Dan and Wendy get jobs at Florida State University Moscow. So if you're not from Florida, there's a saying, the further north you go, the more south you get. Northern Florida is really southern Georgia. When you think about Florida, maybe think about Disney World, do you think about Miami with the beaches in the nightlife? And Tallahassee is not seen as that sophisticated. It's a much slower pace here. Dan and Wendy start their life together

than this neighborhood called Baton Hills. It is a kind of upscale neighborhood. There's a quiet place.

This is where kids run around, you know, ride their bikes up and down the street. And they have from the outside was seems like a pretty a delicate life. They were very loving, happy. We went to dinner once at their house. And we left kind of going like, "Oh my god." In Agwood, as a married couple, because they were dancing and singing. And they called it to the bears. The bears, Mr. Bear, was Danny and Mrs. Bear was Wendy. In the leafy enclave filled with families,

Wendy and Dan start one of their own and they have two boys within two years.

Danny was a great father. So if all his accomplishments to me, I'm the proudest of him as a father.

His boys were the entire world to him. He was a professor in a demanding job that he traveled, but he managed to arrange his schedule as much as he could to spend a lot of quality time. They would go to the local pool, they would go to the park. He was really invested in their early growing up years. Dan's career really takes off. He was like a star on the rise.

Well, Dan Marquelle was a passionate guy who cared deeply about learning and teaching. He was speaking about a tribute of justice. He's a criminal law specialist.

β€œMurder, for example, is the kind of law that I think everyone. He could talk for hours about”

principles of justice and jurisprudence in terms of sensing issues of death penalty, criminal justice. Dan starts a blog for law professors and his friends say it might have made him some enemies. We're in a profession where most of the people are type A personalities, most people are a little aggressive. Dan is like to argue and he like to make sure people understood his arguments. Friends of Dan will tell you that he liked to needle people.

He liked to push and poke and prod. Well, Dan is relishing life in Tallahassee. Wendy is not as content. She's longing for South Florida where her parents and brother live. Under the old adage, a happy wife happy life, he tried to get a job in Miami, which would have been closer to Wendy's parents. And then was unsuccessful.

β€œThat was very disparating for both, I think, him and Wendy.”

She was talking to him about being unhappy and he was insisting. They had no problems. They had come into their marriage as equals, well-educated lawyers with ambition and promise. But over time, her friends say Wendy begins to feel a sense of imbalance in their relationship, something that she talks about openly on a podcast she does for a writing class. Our marriage dissolved after the children arrived as the loneliness of being married to someone

that didn't be me as an equal creptan. Danny was brilliant. He was top notch in his field, and I think she struggled with being in his shadow. And I think it was hard for her to navigate her role in the marriage. He was fairly controlling and pretty unkind to my friend. Then I was around on a number of occasions when he put her down and it was really hard to be around for that. Roughly six years into their marriage, Wendy writes a novel,

it's called "This Is Our Story." It's a work of fiction, but those close to Wendy noticed the parallels to her own life. In fact, Wendy laments Dan's unwillingness to read her book

In her podcast.

so why read my novel. It was logic, not a lack of love. In the book, one of her characters was a woman

β€œwho fell out of love, and perhaps that's why she wanted Dan to read it. My childhood friend Lisa”

told me the weekend that she never even knew I was unhappy in my marriage. I had no idea I

hid it so well. At this point, Dan is traveling frequently for work while Wendy stays behind, literally and figuratively working and caring for their two young sons. I see Dan, my New York, and he's telling me that he thinks his marriage is unwinding, so I try to encourage him to just stick it out, stay home more, don't go to his many conferences, just try to work your way through it. It's during one of these trips to a conference in New York

City that Wendy calls Dan to deliver some devastating news. She says, "I'm leaving. It's over." Dan says, "Please don't do this. We can still work this out."

β€œTo call them in New York, he changes all his plans, he cancels the lecture, and he gets on a flight”

to come back to Tallahassee. He walks into the bedroom, and there was divorce papers on the bed. Half the furniture is missing. Even half the dining room chairs were gone. He came home to a house that was literally half emptied. Even though he was just filing four divorce, but she preemptively took everything, including the kids. Danny called this Pearl Harbor. It was kind of shocking, you know, all of a sudden he was sneak attacked on a Sunday morning, essentially.

Even in his wildest imagination, when he's describing what he's taking to be his wife's disengagement, he doesn't think that this is going to happen. Danny was devastated from the divorce. This wasn't a normal divorce case. It was incredibly litigious. You know, I guess you might expect that with two law professors. The accusations are flying at this point. Wendy accuses Dan of hiding assets while Dan accuses Wendy of taking hundreds of thousands of

dollars. He said that she stole assets wouldn't give back diamond ring from one of his aunts in the Holocaust. It was really accramountings. Wendy accuses Dan of emotional abuse and claims he tells their colleagues at FSU that she has, quote, "mental health issues." They each vehemently denied the claims of the other. It was almost like a tennis match, you know, going back and forth where these filings that only the two of them really were involved in the match at that point.

And everybody else was just kind of standing on the outside watching. There was lack of communication,

there was ranker, did any of you ever think that it could get violent? Never. But there was a

third party involved in this divorce. Let's show this **** what will make him absolutely miserable. Wendy's mother, Donna. Gibbis hasn't beaten the Adelson family yet. Less than seven years after exchanging wedding vows, Wendy Adelson and Dan Markell are exchanging accusations in divorce court. The divorce got really nasty, and I think the boarding point was when Wendy couldn't leave Tallahassee couldn't relocate to South Florida.

Dan wouldn't agree to it. Wendy made it extremely clear to almost anyone who would listen that she did not like Tallahassee, she did not want to live here, and she wanted to move to South Florida.

β€œAnd the only way she could do that is if he agreed or he died.”

She's allowed to leave, right? She's allowed to divorce, but she's not allowed to just take his kids and move them seven hours to South Florida. She filed a motion to relocate the children, and that was flatly denied. The judge ruled over the protests of Wendy and Wendy's family,

that she could not move to Miami. Donna and Harvey, Wendy's parents had always been actively

involved in Wendy's life and in the grandkids' life. It's like 700 miles that they drive and it was quite inconvenient for them to absolutely keep going up to Tallahassee. And Donna would be back and forth quite often. When the divorce happens, they maintain a closeness to the situation. They're extremely involved. And the news that Wendy and the kids will not be able to move to South Florida apparently does not sit well with her mother Donna. Donna began his campaign. She wrote

His lengthy emails to Wendy.

It's time to take control of your life and not let gibbers think he's won anything by having you remain in Tallahassee.

β€œA month before their next court appearance, Donna sends Wendy a long email suggesting ways”

to needle or soon to be ex-husband. Remember, this is the woman who helped her daughter find Dan on J-Date eight years earlier. Now Donna says she wants that same man to suffer. Let's show this what will make him absolutely miserable. You know his weak points, money, religion, control, Donna advocates using religion to pressure Dan. Let gibbers know that your children will be baptized in the Catholic church. Donna even suggests paying Dan off.

We plan to make a financial offer to him to allow this relocation. She suggested to Wendy

that they should go three ways to pay Danie a million dollars. Her and Harvey, Charlie, and Wendy.

And Donna reminds Wendy. She's not alone in this fight. Gibbers hasn't beaten the Adelson family yet. You have a very strong family behind you just

β€œremember that. I don't think at this point money, threats of Catholic school you name it,”

we're going to convince Dan to be separated from his kids. Although their divorce is technically finalized in July 2013, things aren't over just yet. The following spring, all the wounds we open after the boys visit their grandma, Donna. Donna was telling the boys how stupid their father was. How didn't he even find out that Donna was maligning him to someone she was told them? This is where Donna was saying that you're stupid.

And Danny was now getting agitated about the fact that there was this about going on. That obviously infuriates him. Quebec's mother-in-law is trying to poison your kids against you. He felt like her family was alienating the children from home. So Dan files a motion that will take Wendy back to court. If he was making the arguments of the court, that the grandmother should not be able to

have the kids unsupervised. They had a lot of issues post divorce, which made it even difficult to have smooth communications between them. There was lack of communication, anger,

did any of you ever think that it could get violent? Never.

Despite the heated language in divorce court, in their personal lives, Dan and Wendy appear to be moving on. Soon, there's a new man in her life. Wendy was introduced to a social worker professor at FSU, Jeff LeCass, one of the first things that people point out about Jeff is that he looked a little like Dan, Dan is dating as well, and they became relatively serious too. It was beautiful. He fell in love again,

and that was a nice experience for us, really, to see him in a much better moment. After all of the other things that we're going on. It took a while, but I thought he was really regaining his footage. But that would all change on a hot July morning in 2014. Dan Markell is on summer break from FSU Law School. He drives the children to the preschool. He drives to Premier Jim.

Dan Markell was coming back to his home from the gym. He's on the phone. I remember very specifically, he says to me, "My have to make one more call." Dan makes that call and is pulling into his driveway. When he notices something unsettling, he says there's somebody in my driveway that I don't know. And as the man is on the phone, he hears some exchange, then hears a muffle, a sound, a grunt.

He never hears Dan Markell again.

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go to abcsecretsavings.com/2020 for 50% off the best bedding you'll ever sleep on. That's abcsecretsavings.com/2020. And around 11am, shots ring out. A neighbor finds Dan Markail slumped over the front seat of his Honda, calls 911. 911, what's the idea of your emergency?

β€œAll right, right next door at my house. Okay, what's what's he, what's going on with him?”

I don't know, the driver's side, window with all bassed in, he's inside the car's running, and he's got blood all over his head. He's not responding to me. And this phone called came in from the police. The dummy was shot. Dale isn't a shock. Your mind goes blanky. It's not possible. They're making a mistake. All you could think about is your body's totally traumatized.

It was horrific. It was just something that out of this world. In the beginning, no one really knew what happened. Police asked Dan's ex-wife Wendy, what she knows. What is this? I don't know. Would you ever ask someone to do something like this? Not a million years.

β€œWendy does not hold back in this interview. Do you think someone would do this for your benefit”

without asking him? No. Even my family who felt like I did this treated would never do something like this.

It is perhaps the biggest mystery of this case, exactly what was going through Wendy's brain in that interview room. I don't want to see the rest of your emergency. It's right next door at my house. This was a horrifying scene for that neighbor who first walked over and looked and wasn't sure what had happened. Okay. What's going on with him? He's not responding to me. The neighbor sees Dan Markel with a gunshot to the forehead to the face

and his glasses are shattered. It looks like he's been shot at a very close range. And Dan Markel is still breathing. Once the heretics arrive, he's quickly rushed to the hospital. Police tracked down his ex-wife Wendy who is out to lunch with friends and bring her to the police station. There was a shooting at your ex-husband's home, Daniel.

Has been taken to the hospital. He's not going to survive. Well, before we get into everything, I have to establish where you were and who you were with and so forth. She sits down for hours and during that time, the police look at her phone. They look at her ID. They swab her for fingerprints. Everything that you would do with the potential suspect.

They never call her a suspect and it's an interview not an interrogation, but she does provide all of this willingly.

I understand why you think I'm not a primary suspect. No, you're not a primary suspect. My ex-husband calls me a lot of grief. I understand why I would be the person you would think would do something.

Well, we have to work just as hard to live in.

It's fine. I want to figure out who this is.

β€œWendy does not hold back in this interview. She talks about how bad the divorce was.”

She talks about how Dan was emotionally abusive to her. She talks about how she wants to get

down to Miami. You never hurt me physically, but he was emotionally abusive.

And I can tell most people that, so all those people know as we did it just didn't work out. Well, Dan Marquelle clings to life. His parents are located and told the devastating news. Phil was you who got the original call. I was visiting friends and this phone call came in from the police saying that Danny was shot and that somebody from the hospital doctor is going to call me. Phil called me. I got the call and he says, are you setting down? And then I knew right away in

his voice that this was not a good story. And then he told me that Danny was shot, which was horrific. Dan Marquelle died in the hospital, less than 24 hours after he had been shot.

I had wished that I could at least hold his hand before he passed away. Very great that very much.

Dan's death was felt by so many. There were headlines all across Florida and that covered his death, his murder and the memorial for him because he touched so many lives. So many people came out to

β€œsupport his family to remember him. I was unbelievably moved just the outpouring of love for him.”

I literally sat my seat and cried because I found out things about Danny, my own son that I didn't even know myself. Tell us how to police now scrambling to unravel the riddle of who killed Florida State University Professor Dan Marquelle. This was the crime that sent shockwaves through the community. I just could not believe it because I know Danny, I know how he is, who would shoot him really is what was going through my mind.

The overall response was shock and horror and a lot of questions like why would anyone want to kill Dan Marquelle? After Dan Marquelle is killed, it's a complete mystery as to who did this. No evidence seems to have been left behind, it's as if the murderer vanished into thin air. With him being so prominent in the legal world, there was a lot for investigators to chew on.

β€œOne theory is that Dan made enemies over his provocative legal blog that he founded and wrote for”

and he had recently received online threats. So it my first thought was and I shared it with the

police at that moment that maybe it was a disgruntled, perhaps student or rather person professional on the blog. They also looked, of course, in a college time, you're going to say it was a unhappy student. They just thought, my God, this happened to one of us and another one of us might be next. Detectives also began to look at people in Wendy and Dan's lives, starting with someone that Wendy herself brought up during her long police interview.

Basically, the hours after the murder, Wendy pretty much immediately started pointing fingers at a few different people. She talked about a guy, she knew she was dating Jeffrey LeCass. I see why he's a good suspect. Like what he's just, he didn't like Danny because Danny heard me. Police tracked down her former boyfriend and bring him in for an interview. I surprised you guys didn't call me earlier though, because I've probably said a hundred times a

public that I like you kick his ass. [Music] While all of these theories about who murder Dan Mark Hell were circulating, police started to think, this was more personal. Maybe it had something to do with Wendy. Maybe someone who loved her.

She talked about a guy, she knew she was dating Jeffrey LeCass. Jeffrey LeCass comes in to talk to police willingly three times. He keeps coming back because it seems that he has a story to tell. [Music] Your name did come up because you were associated at some point with Wendy, of course.

It's been a lot of time with me. She really has this charisma, this sexuality. And so, you know, you throw yourself a part of a bus from this girl. This is a new kind of thing, really.

It wasn't love with this girl, man.

Jeff's interview may be more so than Wendy's is extraordinary. Because he's a boyfriend who is in the process of breaking up with Wendy, and it's a contentious breakup by both of their admission. I surprise you guys didn't call me earlier though, because if I said a hundred times a public that I like you kick his ass,

because he can't really make you make many suffer and things like that.

But no, I would never have ever faced her.

He's right up front about saying that he didn't like this guy. He also has an ironclad alibi. He was out of town. I stayed in a really crappy days in maybe 20 miles south of Atlanta. He's got the receipts, he was not here, so that immediately puts him in the clear. You know, right away, something clicks in his head.

β€œAnd he seems to say, I think I know what happened.”

I'm just sort of out my sink. You're the one I'm going to tell you to be honest. So, anyway, he's got a million and I don't want to be next. I'm sorry, that sounds paranoid, but I do have some ideas. And the cast points to Wendy's family. Her parents and her brother run that very successful South Florida dental clinic.

A family desperately wants her back and south Florida.

They hate Danny, you know, way I've never seen this kind of obsession by their hobby is hating Danny.

Maya and Alex Greenberg, they'll police about this iron from the Adelson's towards Dan workout. They hated Danny, really, they hated Danny. I think they're mean, I think they, I mean, to do some of the stuff that they did during this divorce with Danny, just not reasonable. Hi, Mom, how's it going? I need you to sit down. So during this police interview, Wendy asked if she can call her mother.

And she tells Donna that Dan has been shot, he's not expected to live. Danny has been shot. There was a point where she was just kind of saying she was relieved to find that her mom was surprised at the news. When my parents owned a really surprised, just so it's at least her relief. That's trying to think of who would be angry enough to do something to them.

My parents would be angry, but they're not capable of this. And Wendy makes this startling comment about something her brother Charlie once said to her. My brother, um, the one who's Charlie the one I'm really close to, he makes a lot of jokes in that taste, and it was the joke he made it out. I looked at the hiring him, man, and it was cheaper to get you this TV. So instead, I got you this TV, that was my divorce present.

β€œOkay. Did you know her everything? Did you think that this guy Charlie would be capable of doing something like that?”

Let's just talk. He's the took care. Okay. Charlie was always someone who was smiling,

always someone who would have a good time. Wendy's older brother, Charlie had a reputation as a fast-living fun-loving playboy. He's so smart, he's intelligent, and he's fun. He throws his money around, he's a bit of a player. Charlie always has a girl. I can't keep up. Seems like Charlie had two different types of friends. You know, people we kind of grew up with,

like normal, nice people. He also seemed to have maybe friends that were from the wrong side of the tracks. Somebody tried to kill my ex-husband, and they should be prosecuted to the front instead of the law. Regardless of who it is. I mean, it would be different if I thought her my brother, but I don't think it was my family. Anyone outside my media family, that's a tough one,

β€œbut I don't think my media family did this. So if it's anybody else, yeah.”

And it turns out that Wendy's family was nowhere near talent-hassy the day Dan was shot. Wendy later releases a statement through her attorney saying, "My family had nothing to do with this, and quickly moves to South Florida with her two sons." Meanwhile, as police continue their investigation, they have just a single solid lead from the crime scene. The neighbor did see a car backing away, something that looked similar to a Prius,

and that's all that police had to go on. You said there was another vehicle that she called driving away. Yes, and it's seen rapidly. It looked sort of like a Prius. Police are able to identify a green Toyota Prius at the fitness center where Dan Morekail worked out the morning he was shot. He exercises, comes back out, goes to his car and the same vehicle,

which hasn't left the parking lot, is then seen pulling out of the parking lot following behind the victim. The Prius was really the thing that they focused on initially. They had surveillance video

Of it from city buses that had driven by intersection cameras were able to ca...

Well, we also find that car on video on a bus camera pulling into the victims neighborhood,

β€œor thereabouts shortly before the murder. And they noticed there's just sun pass. It's the”

toll road pass. Now in Tallahassee this time, we don't have any toll roads, so people don't go around with sun pass screeners. They then began this absolutely extensive search all over the state for this type of color, this type of Prius with the sun pass on it. When police pull those toll records, it led them here to this holimowall rental agency here in Miami that rents mostly hybrids. Now inside a contract was signed, leading police to the men who rented that green Prius.

And when they went and looked at who signs for the car to be rented, their names were right there. Who are these two men? I want to know what made them come to Tallahassee and kill our friend.

β€œVery strange to him. People they don't know him and never heard of him. The mystery surrounding”

those two men would lead to an undercover encounter in South Florida. Excuse me, Miss Dattleson. Hey, don't. Let's try to give you this. Oh, listen. Yeah, and a cryptic call between mother and son. I've got some people work. Can't deliver it to me. Is it involved in their other people? Well,

10 months ago someone killed the father of my children. First we got divorced and then he got murdered.

A law school professor is shot down in cold blood. Now the murder trial teaming with hired hitmen hit in recordings and family secrets. When Wendy Adelson walked into the courtroom to take the stand, how does she feel about the fact that the state is saying her family is involved in this murder. The Charlie is basically your prime suspect at least within that family. I mean, he's a suspect. Wendy Adelson had a problem and her problem was named Dan Markel.

Dr. Allison, will you involve in a plot to kill your brother-in-law, Dan Markel? Before the shooting

β€œdid you ever discuss hiring a hitman? Somebody hired him, but who? What will the jury decide?”

If they think the police are calling you to talk to you, they will kill you. Look at what we did to Professor Markel. Tell Anasi Police now scrambling to unravel the riddle of who killed Florida State University Professor Dan Markel. At tomorrow marks one year since his death. So far, there are no good leads, so they're asking for your help. This is the story kind of just drop off.

It did. There was not a whole lot of information that came out really almost two years with no answers. The community thinking what happened to cops just not have any information,

no leads. I was thinking that my God, it's never going to go anywhere. It's two years and nothing.

What is so sad for the Markels, besides this horrible violent death of their son, they don't have connection to his children. After Dan was murdered, the children went back to South Florida with Wendy. And then a series of things happened afterward that compounded that grief for the Markels. One of those things was learning that Wendy had changed the boy's last name from Markel to Adelson. Her excuse was that she was concerned for the safety of the kids.

I was shocked. I was angry. They just want to wipe the Markel family off the earth. We don't exist. So the Adelsons are still running their dentistry practice in South Florida. They're probably living their lives down there. The children are growing up. They have adamantly denied any connection to the homicide or any involvement. It appears that the Adelsons get what they wanted. Wendy finds a large hobby in Miami.

She rolls her sons in school. She even makes time to take a podcast in class where she lays

Bare her feelings about her ex-husband Dan Markel.

my children. First we got divorced, then he got murdered. She makes his joke in the podcast

that she doesn't know how to refer to Dan. I don't know whether to call him my ex-late spouse or my late ex spouse. Except that late ex spouse sounds like late ex spouse. For Dan Markels survivors, of course, it didn't play well. It feels sacrilegious these days, even to suggest something less than heroic about my late ex-husband because he was murdered. I don't think she's set out to

β€œthis marriage, Danny, so much as she was reflecting honestly on what the experience was like for her.”

Behind the scenes, Tallahassee Police are homing in on who was driving that green priest away

from the crime scene. Through meticulous police working, they trace the heart to a rental lot in

my end. And when they went and looked at who signed for the car to be rented Luis Rivera and sickfraid of Garcia, sickfraid of a sign to that he was the brother of Luis Rivera. It's sickfraid of Garcia, it was a low-level criminal. Had some of drug arrests, sounded Miami. Luis Rivera, however, more of a hardened criminal. More hardened, criminal involved in a lot of gang activity. Luis was an acknowledged member of the Latin

Kings. He was a crown. He was a big deal in the Latin Kings. They rented it in their names

with their phone numbers. With a sun pass, they had their phones on while they were driving up there.

He essentially just wrote a map for the cops. Investigators were able to later you cell phone tower pings to show when phone calls were made from sickfraid of Garcia. They placed Garcia near Danmarkel's neighborhood. Had about the time of the homicide, using the cell phone data. We also have the ATM video where on the day of the homicide, the two killers are seen driving through an ATM in that pine, Micah Prius.

The police did a substantial amount of information to begin collecting a warrant to arrest these guys. Police think they figured out who committed the murder and how they

β€œdid it, but they're left with the question of why. Why would someone commit this crime?”

San Francisco Garcia and Luis Rivera didn't even know Danmarkel. They discovered that there is a link and there's a mysterious woman who will be connected to this case. In what way are the alleged killers linked to the Adelsis? Through Catherine, Micah Vinoba. And who is she? She is Garcia's child's mother. And she is also the former girlfriend of Charlie Adelsis. How long were she and Charlie together? I think they were together

for quite some time before the homicide. Katie becomes this conduit, this connection point between the Adelsis and Danmarkel's murderer. Absent her, you have nothing that links any of these people directly. Investigators start to form a picture of a complicated

β€œweb involving two accused hitmen, a female companion, and the brother of Danmarkel's estranged”

ex-wife. As police try to piece this puzzle together, they start by building a timeline of the suspect's actions. And that means looking at their phone records. And once you get that phone, you think it's involved, then you get a pen register who they call Katie Meg Bonoan. They're immediately, and then they get her phone who she calls in day of the crime. Charlie Adelsis. So investigators set out to follow the money. So the strategy would be to work yourself

to the money man, to the heart of the conspiracy. Katie was the alleged facilitator. Investigators discover that in the months after the murder, Katie Meg Bonoan makes some large cash deposits, and also receives checks from the Adelsis Institute. She was collecting checks from the dentistry. You know, it was not necessarily clear what she was doing for her payment there. And Katie buys a luxury car from the Adelsis for below sticker price. Who wouldn't you

dig a little bit deeper into the various ways the Katie may have been compensated. One way it is through breast augmentation surgery. Although there's no direct paper trail, investigators suggest Charlie Adelsis may have helped pay for her procedure. The allegation is that Katie may have enhanced

Her physique on the Adelsis' time.

Who launched the conspiracy? Who's idea was in the first place? The cops felt it was

Charlie Adelsis, but they still can't get to them. You've got the circumstantial evidence of Charlie and Katie being involved in this, but what they're going to need is somebody who's going to tell them exactly what happened. Probably at Jail House Snitch.

β€œAnd what's the reason why they're going to get to the Adelsis? And what's the reason why they're going to get to the Adelsis?”

And what's the reason why they're going to get to the Adelsis? Of course, in Europe, they're going to get to the Adelsis. The greatest news in the world. A lot of 1000 news on the Adelsis were on the way to the Adelsis. When it came to identifying possible suspects who might want Denmark Health Dead, detectives felt compelled to circle back to that startling statement when they made to them early in the investigation. My brother, the one who seems Charlie, the one I'm really close to,

he makes a lot of jokes in that taste and it was a joke he made. He said, I, you know, I looked at the hiring, he hit me on and it was cheaper to get in this TV. So instead, I got you this TV.

β€œBut Wendy's former boyfriend, Jeff LeCast, told police that when she related the account to him,”

there was nothing funny about it. She told me that Charlie had a book into having Danny killed in the summer of 2013. She met a dead serious maker to say, I would be investigating Charlie Adelsis. No, I don't know if you did this. If you're looking at somebody, don't miss him. With the Adelsis firmly on their radar, investigators in South Florida now put the family under surveillance.

Police need more information on the Adelsis. They want to see if they can prove this conspiracy. But because there is no hard evidence directly linking the Adelsis to Dan's murder, investigators come up with an audacious plan to confront Donna Adelsin outside her luxury condo building in Miami Beach. They decided to do something called a bomb, which is what it sounds like

let's see if what we can shake loose. Donna Adelsin is approached on the street by a man she's never

seen before. This person turns out to be an undercover FBI agent. Excuse me, this is Adelsin. Hey, Dylan, let's try to give you this. This is you. Don't be scared. And he says that he was the brother of one of the assailants and that he needed something little extra to take care. He helped your family with this problem he does had of North. He's going through some rough time. The undercover detective says that I want $5,000 for you to help my

family. So I want to make sure that you take care of what he's going through the way you're taking care of Kate and Susan. Well, this will explain it. Thank you. He hands her a piece of paper that has a press release of DM's murder on it and it has a phone number for her to call to make that transaction with the money.

β€œAnd Donna eventually calls the guy. Hello. I have to tell you, I mean, this is important. I have been”

so stressed out because I don't know your friend who is in jail. I've never met him.

That's the **** around. Okay? You know who Katie is. And you know that Katie has somebody that knows thoughtful. And they took care of a problem for you people. You talk to the right people. You talk to people. You make this 5K come to me. That's all I need. Just do it and get it to me. I'll call you back. When Donna called her son Charlie, it led to a cryptic conversation. I've got some people work and delivered to you. There's involved me or other people.

Well, coffee's not good. You coffee has a general idea of what I'm talking about.

So, let's just find some time to talk to each other.

She doesn't use the words murder or Dan Markell. She just refers to it as,

you know about it. We'll talk later. It may have to do with the two of us. The string of calls went, Donna to Charlie, and Charlie to Katie. It's either somebody's pulling your bone. Somebody is just harassing you or somebody's trying to get something out of you. When they do catch the person, they're going to be asking a lot of questions about who's Katie is. All I'm saying is find out who the **** it is and tell them to stop playing against.

β€œI don't know who you have to talk to, but it needs to be nipped in the body.”

You don't think that a **** you're the **** enemy, like somebody's ****ing my name out loud or whatever.

Whatever. Okay, someone's messing with you. They're messing with me.

So what I'm saying is find out who the **** you're not paying the **** away. Well, there's no confession on tape. Police prepare a restaurant for the alleged hitman, Katie Magbanoa, and Charlie Adelson. But at this point, prosecutors are only ready to pull the trigger and charging two of them. One of the men accused of killing FSU Law Professor Dan Markell is now behind bars. On May 25, 2016, the news breaks in Tallahassee of Segfrado Garcia's arrest for the murder of Dan Markell.

Soon after Luis Rivera is also charged for the murder. We can provide additional information regarding this investigation. Just eight days later, the police released the probable cause affidavit for Segfrado Garcia. In it, investigators alleged his involvement in this murder stemmed from the desperate desire of the Adelson family to relocate Wendy and the children to South Florida.

They are mentioned in this probable cause affidavit. They are the only connection between Segfrado Garcia and Dan Markell. Later, the Adelson family released the statement saying there's been a lot of unsupported speculation that the Adelson's had something to do with the murder. That speculation is categorically false. To be clear, none of the Adelson's Wendy, her brother, Charlie, or their parents Donna and Harvey had anything to do with Dan's murder.

It's all over the news. So there's something feeling up. Oh, wow. We just pray that those involved have to pay the price for what they've done. Charlie Adelson was approached by one of our 2020 producers and asked about his alleged involvement in the murder plot. Dr. Adelson, when you involved in a plot to kill your brother-in-law, Dan Markell,

β€œbefore the shooting did you ever discuss hiring a hitman?”

To the frustration of Dan's friends, months go by with no further arrests. There is definitely a growing sense of frustration wondering how the people who had been hired to commit this act were all in jail, but the people who had allegedly hired them were not.

Then in October 2016, there is a dramatic breakthrough. Prosecutors announced a plea deal

with Luis Rivera. They say he's ready to reveal how he says Dan Markell was killed. You saw this where we're far on with the evidence you were about to give me. Is it true if the whole truth is nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Yeah, in October 2016, Louis Riviera really broke open the case. He confesses. He showed you a picture of Markell and said y'all were going to kill him.

Rivera says it already been given $5,000 in traveling expenses from a mysterious person

β€œthat Garcia would only refer to as the lady. That's why you were killed, Dan, because the lady”

once it took his back. The Rivera plea deal was important because although he was a gang member and part of this murder, everything he said was corroborated by the other evidence. What are my kills? I was investigating myself. I was on the car, where he was driving. I was driving twice. I got in the car. We had done the gun that they called him and he said everything is done. Make sure you have no money. I'm in my way.

Once Louis Riviera starts talking and gives all of this information to police, they now have enough to bring down their next suspect, Katherine McBanowaw. Police in Florida

Arresting a single mom, accusing her of arranging the killing of a prominent ...

She was arrested and was offered full immunity. Get out of jail for a car and she turned it down.

β€œAfter Katie was arrested, Charlie's anxiety just spiked 100%.”

Junum Chinda was dating Charlie at the time of Katie's arrest. Once Katie got arrested, he would tell me how horrible it would be in prison like they're getting food from a tray and it's like isolation and this is a murder case so it would be for life. While Junus' Charlie is sweating it out in September of 2019, his previous girlfriend, Katie McBanowaw, goes on trial. It's a high profile case that's garnering attention across the world.

It was a big deal that this was going to trial five years after Dan Markill's murder. Segurito Garcia and Katherine McBanowaw are tried together. 20 adults had a problem, and her problem was named Dan Markill. In the solution to that problem, was Magdalena Rivera and Garcia to execute Mr. Markill in cold blood. Though prosecutors are wringing this trial against Segurito Garcia and Katherine McBanowaw,

they spend a lot of time during their case pointing the finger at Charlie Adelson. As the prosecution calls its witnesses, one of them causes jaws to drop in the courtroom. It's Wendy Adelson, testifying under a limited immunity agreement about the bad blood between her family and Dan Markill. She fought tooth and nail against testifying. I'm going to show you dates exhibit 36, a photograph of you and Katherine McBanowaw at the beach.

With her friend, yes. And she was dating my brother. If you were to say that your brother is very protective of you,

β€œI think that's her to say, did you ever joke about hiring a hitman? He did make that joke.”

But the prosecution's star witness is convicted killer Luis Rivera, testifying as part of his plea deal for a reduced sentence. All right, so Garcia hired you to do a murder, didn't he? Yes, ma'am. And who hired him?

The, uh, Madison family. Who gave you the money? Garcia. All right, and tell us about the money, how was it packaged? Money, uh, the money, it was stable. A thousand dollars they would each or another. When Charlie's girlfriend June takes the stand,

she describes the curious way he stashes his cash.

β€œIn fact, you said that the money was stapled into stacks of $100 bills, didn't you?”

Um, they were hundreds, yes, and I don't know if they were stacks, but there was a staple on it. I thought it was so odd. Why do you have a staple in your money? You're not this kind of deal, but it's called "Captain My Boundal" to the time. Cage took the stand in her own defense. Did you have anything to do with the murder of Denmark Hill?

No, ma'am. Did you get the father of your children, Mr. Garcia, to commit a murder on behalf of Mr. Charlie Ailsan? No, ma'am. Based on everything you've seen, do you think Charlie was involved in this? Yes.

At the end of this trial, the jury believed Luis Rivera and his testimony for the prosecution that seek Fredo Garcia was involved in Dan Markill's murder.

We, the jury, find as follows, says "Captain, the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder."

But as for Katie McBanowa, it was a hung jury. As the McBanowa, I will declare this case, Mr. Tried. I'm certainly happy with the outcome for Mr. Garcia and hope we can have a similar one from Ms. McBanowa, whether it be today or in the future. For Katie, that future came two and a half years later when she is retried on largely the same

evidence. She again testifies that she had nothing to do with the murder and once again points to Charlie as the culprit. Do you believe that he should be prosecuted for his involvement in the murder of Dan Markill? Yes, man. She said that she believes he's guilty and that she had nothing to do with it.

So this time, though, it did not seem to sway the jury in the way that it did the first time.

In the state of Florida versus Katherine McBanowa, on count one, which is first-degree murder, you have been found guilty. By a jury, you will be adjudicated guilty and you will be sentenced to life in prison. Now prosecutors have three convictions for Dan Markill's murder and it turns out

In the time between Katie's two trials, there was another huge development.

Charlie Adelson. According to authorities, newly enhanced audio from the FBI

β€œexposed details from a secret meeting between Katie and Charlie back in 2016.”

Here's a guy who had all the swagger in the world who are daring police to come after him and Charlie's words might just come back to haunt him. In April of 2016, investigators secretly record a meeting between Charlie Adelson and Katie McBanowa at a South Florida strip mall. It was so noisy inside, it was hard to make heads or tails of what was being said. But then six years later, the FBI is able to enhance that audio and for prosecutors,

it's a game changer. The thing that sealed the deal for Charlie Adelson was the

Dultivita recordings. He's saying if I thought they had enough evidence, I'd be at the airport suggesting that he would skip town if he thought there was more evidence out there against him. A grand jury has now indicted Charlie Adelson and Mark Hell's death. It was unbelievable to hear. It was relief because it's taken so long. One of the people that are involved to pay the price. Adelson is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder

and solicitation to commit murder. He pleads not guilty to all charges. On October 23, Charlie goes on trial. Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the jury. The attorneys are going to present their opening statements. Prosecution tells the jury that Donna Adelson turned to her son, Charlie, to help her get Wendy and the kids back to South Florida. This defendant carried out his plan to hire a hitman to kill Ann Mark Hell. He can

spire and he solicited Katherine, my ban law to get this murder done. It states case against Charlie Adelson as a case of assumptions. It's a case of guesses. During his opening statement, defense attorney Daniel Rashbaum stuns the courtroom by saying Charlie Adelson wasn't the mastermind of the murder plot. He was the victim. Rashbaum tells the jury that his client was being

extorted by the killers for about $330,000 after Mark Hell's murder. You will learn that Charlie Adelson was told if he didn't pay within the next 48 hours. He or one of his family members

β€œwould be next. It was a jaw drop moment. I'm scratching my head thinking, is that going to work?”

Is that going to fly in this courtroom? The prosecution starts out by calling many of the same witnesses who testified during Katie's trial, including June Um Chimda, Charlie's former girlfriend, and Charlie's sister Wendy Adelson. When he testified, she had no idea her family was allegedly being blackmailed by the killers. When did you learn the Katherinemind ban law this blackmailing

your brother for the murder of your ex-husband today? So he never told you? No. Your brother

has known who killed your child's father and you didn't know. I did not know. The courtroom is buzzing as the prosecution calls a bombshell witness, Katie Macbanoa. And this time on the stand, Katie does a complete 180. She not only testified, she was in on the murder plot, she also testified that it was orchestrated by Charlie. She was the one connecting all of this. She reveals that it had been nine months before he was killed, that she was approached

β€œby Charlie Adelson. He asked me a question. Do you know anybody that can harm someone?”

And did you know anybody that can harm someone? Yes, man. I said sick for it out. So you knew that the person that was going to be initially harmed was Wendy's husband. Yes,

Man.

hitman. And where did you get the money from to do that? I'm Charlie Adelson. How was the money

β€œpackaged when you got it? I think you said you got it the next morning? Yes, man. Okay.”

They were packaged. The money was in a plastic bag like a zip lock bag and then like a grocery bag over it. He said he wore a glove so that there's no fingerprints on it. Katie then goes on to strongly deny being part of any blackmail plot against Charlie Adelson. Did you ever blackmail Charlie Adelson? No, man, it's not. Did you ever threaten him in any way? No, man, I did not. But then on cross-examination, Rashbaum goes on the attack.

They have to poke holes in her story and show that she is lying this time by raising the issue of the immunity, the get out of jail free cart that she was offered. You were offered to

β€œcooperating in Charlie Adelson and the other Adelson's and you would get to go home to your kids, right?”

Yes, sir. You still didn't cooperate. You still deal with still open, right? Well, the deal was to give up Charlie and you could do that. Because in order to give up Charlie, I had to give up sick afraid of the father of my children so I couldn't do that. Again, you lied when you testified that you didn't know anything about the murder professor

Marquelle, right? Yes, sir. I told you, I lied in my first-hand second child to save myself.

Is it true that you were the mastermind behind Professor Marquelle's murder? No, sir. That was Charlie. With Katie sticking to her guns, there's only one other person who can confirm the details of the alleged extortion plot for the defense, and that's their own client, Charlie Adelson. That jury was on the edge of their seats. That's high stakes. And that's where the rubber

β€œmeets the road. How do you feel right now? Really nervous. Why are you nervous?”

I don't know what to say. You've been told that you were the mastermind. You've been told that you were the mastermind. You've been told that you were the mastermind. But that's here. That's you, right? The new macarautic recala, Gran Turismo Grand Caprio. The other thing to do, is every day. And Dekke, the macarauty showroom in Diner Nair.

D-E-D-E. A packed courtroom watches as Charlie Adelson takes the stand in his trial for first degree murder. Please raise your right hand.

The courtroom is a buzz with the anticipation of what is he going to say? Nine years after that brazen daylight killing of Dan Markel is former brother-in-law speaks for the first time. How do you feel right now? Really nervous. Why are you nervous? Well, my whole life depends on it. Dan Markel's whole family was there, his sister, and both of his parents. On the other side of the gallery, no support for Charlie Adelson, his father, Harvey, his mother,

Donna, they haven't been there at all. With his client facing a potential life sentence, defense attorney Daniel Rashbaum takes a calculated risk putting Charlie Adelson on the stand. Now, do you recall making a joke that buying her TV was cheaper than hiring a hitman? This is the stupidest thing I ever said in my life. And I said it as a complete joke and it was stupid. But I do that a lot. Did you ever say that you to Catherine Maybano?

Yes, I did. Just to be clear, did you ever look into hiring a hitman? No, never.

We're leaning in to hear how he is going to pin all of this on Katie. Right out of a gate, Adelson puts it all on his former girlfriend, testifying that the night of Markel's murder, she makes a shocking admission. She said, listen, this is all my fault. I had no idea anything was going to happen. I spoke in too much detail about your family's personal problems.

Charlie Adelson is claiming that Katie told her ex secret of our secret, that...

Just like my friend killed Dan, and he wants to be paid a third of a million dollars.

Incredibly, Charlie Adelson claims that he was told just hours after the murder, who killed Dan Markel? That was a big shocker. He testified that the hitman wanted it in on that million dollars. So, they murdered Dan Markel, essentially, on spec, the idea of being killed now, blackmailed Charlie, collect the money later. And I'm like, Katie, I'm not going to be part of paying for murders, this isn't saying.

And she's like, look, if you don't pay in 48 hours, they will kill you.

β€œThat's why Charlie testified. He paid her. That same night, he gives Katie $138,000 from his safe.”

Over the months that followed, he admits he paid Katie $1,000 more and asked his mother Donna to put Katie on the payroll at the family dental practice. She said what was Katie going to be coming into the office, she's seen us start working for us. And I said, no, she's not. And Charlie claims the police got it all wrong when they heard him on that Deutsche Vita tape. But he isn't the ringleader, rather, a victim of this scheme.

What do they think? They think it was a murder for hire, and what was it? It was an extortion.

During Charlie's second day on the stand during cross-examination,

prosecutor George Kappelman goes right after his claim of extortion. Does it blackmail or extortion usually involve the extortionist having some kind of dirt on the victim? I know how this was done to me. I know what, I'm just telling you what happened to me, I'm not an expert at it.

β€œAnd she wants to know when Charlie's life is being threatened, why did we go to the police?”

So, you knew you'd be believed if you went to the police, right? I didn't know I'd be believed that I fear it from my life. And what about Katie, Charlie's one-time girlfriend, we he claimed, to really care about. You didn't offer to testify on her trial, you let her get convicted and get life imprisoned, didn't you? I thought the truth was going to come out.

Ultimately, the prosecution hammers Charlie on the stand for two hours.

But he sticks to his narrative that he was a victim extorted by the hitmen and Katie. It was the truth. Closing arguments is, that's the last chance you could speak to that jury. He's got no more chances to try to sell this story. If this was a murder for him, why was payment not made before?

See, because he had no idea it was going to happen.

β€œThat's the only thing that makes sense. He didn't do it. He didn't conspire to do it.”

He didn't solicit. In her closing arguments, prosecutor Georgia Kappelman takes the jury back to the motive for the murder. So who do you appear, have a vote of to a lot landmark health ed, his own family? The prosecutor says this was all about helping Wendy. Wendy appears to be the weakling of the pack. She needs to be saved by Donna and the defendant.

Donna is the overbearing matrior who mags everyone to death. And this defendant fancy himself the savior of this family. Equal parts black sheep and mama's boy. And she attacks the suggestion that Charlie Adelson is an innocent victim in this murder scheme. Lion King extortioned payment plans, hitting them that hired themselves,

and most unreasonable of all, as probably that Charlie Adelson and they're getting the of extraordinary resources. A prize fighter of verbosity would just lay down and take this. In silence, this might be a good time to remind you that the jury room is not placed in the checker comment sets. Nine years after Denmark Hill was brutally murdered in the garage of his Tallahassee home. It's judgment day for his former brother-in-law, Charlie Adelson.

After deliberating for just three hours, the jury's verdict is delivered to a packed courtroom.

We, the jury, find it as follows as to count one of the indictments first of ...

The defendant is guilty of first of remurder.

β€œCharlie Adelson has also found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation”

to commit murder. He looked devastated, deflated. You just saw a fill, Mark Hill, let out this big exhale and lean all the way over with his head in his hands. Could you describe the moment for us? Unbelievable. Joy, happiness. Joy and happiness is a funny thing to say, but it's sort of tinge with this feeling of relief. The release is really, it's a long time so long.

β€œCharlie's Adelson is a convicted murderer. Now the state's going to focus on others who were involved.”

But as this nearly decade old case continues, what sometimes gets overlooked is that at the heart of this story are two young boys. These are our memories. After the Adelson's alleged link to the murder plot was disclosed in 2016, the Mark Hill's were cut off from Dan's sons.

These boys are missing out on a set of grandparents that have always warmth and desired

β€œspoil them and be grandparents to them. Ruth told me she'd despair to have ever seen her”

grandkids again. But the help of Dan's friend, Karen Cypher, she successfully fought for the passage of a bill known as the Mark Hill Act. It allows grandparents to ask a court to order a visitation if a parent is found responsible for the other parent's death. I know that this bill does not at this moment apply to the Mark Hill's. Wendy has not been found responsible by a criminal or a civil court. That said, within an hour of the Senate passing the bill,

Wendy reached out to Ruth and offered her a visit with the kids. You got to see the kids again. What was that like? I hadn't seen these boys in six years. I had no idea what they looked like and we were shocked that kids were smiling. They were warm. And I said, can we give you a hug? And they really responded. It lit a spark of hope that something was going to happen that we might have more communications with them.

The Mark Hill said that the very next day those hopes they had were dashed when Charlie Adelson was arrested. Since then, they say the relationship with the kids has again become strained.

And we just hope and pray that one day things will change. There is still hope. There's always hope.

Living with that hope, and we should mention that Charlie Adelson is scheduled to be sentenced this coming December. His defense team David Tellenus that they are likely going to appeal his conviction. You've been listening to the 2020 true crime vault. Friday nights at nine on ABC, you can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening. The next day, with the greatest news of the world. Many thousand news are waiting for you. With the latest news and the latest news. The TV Rosario M.D.E.

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