Why The Adelsons Wanted Dan Markel Gone

It started with a custody ruling. Dan Markel, an FSU law professor, won the right to keep his sons in Tallahassee after his divorce from Wendi Adelson — a judge said the boys couldn't be moved. Prosecutors say Wendi's mother, Donna Adelson, tried to buy her way out of that ruling with a million-dollar offer to Markel. He turned it down. Not long after, two men drove five hours from Miami in a rented Prius, waited outside Markel's house, and shot him twice in the head in his own garage — the same morning he'd taken his sons to preschool and gone to the gym. He was 41. The money trail investigators uncovered ran straight through a family dental office near Fort Lauderdale: 44 checks signed by Donna, $138,000 funneled through a woman who never worked there, and a toll transponder receipt marking every mile of the killers' drive. That practice belonged to Donna's son Charlie Adelson, a periodontist prosecutors say orchestrated the entire murder-for-hire plot. Charlie took the stand at his own trial and claimed he was the real victim — extorted by the hitmen, forced into paying them off in installments through his practice. The prosecutor asked him one simple question about why an extortionist would send the victim's girlfriend to collect a payoff. The jury needed three hours to see through it. Five people are convicted, and Charlie's July 2026 appeal failed after his own lawyer filed the wrong motion. 
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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.