Charlie Adelson, who’s serving a life sentence in the murder-for-hire of Dan Markel, asked an appeals court to reverse his convictions and order a new trial, claiming the presiding judge erred when he denied a defense motion for a change of venue.
Adelson, a convicted ringleader in the plot to kill Markel, his former brother-in-law, filed his initial brief May 7 with the 1st District Court of Appeal.
His attorneys, Michael Ufferman and Laurel Cornell Niles of Tallahassee, argued that Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett made several errors during the course of the trial, from alleged missteps during jury selection to improper rulings on evidence.
“Finally, the cumulative effect of the errors in this case denied Appellant Adelson a fair and impartial trial,” his lawyers wrote.
Adelson went on trial in October 2023 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the contract killing of Markel, a Florida State University law professor who was fatally shot at his Betton Hills home in 2014.
Prosecutors have long alleged that Adelson and his family wanted Markel out of the way so his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, the appellant’s sister, could relocate to South Florida with their two children. A week after Adelson was convicted, his mother Donna Adelson was arrested on the same charges as she tried to board a flight from Miami to Vietnam. Her trial was recently rescheduled to start in August.
Charlie Adelson, who took the stand in his own defense, claimed he found out about the murder the night after it happened and was subsequently extorted for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the real killers. Jurors rejected that account, however, returning guilty verdicts on all counts after deliberating only about three hours.
Charlie Adelson convicted of first-degree murder in death of Dan Markel
His appellate lawyers homed in on jurors and potential jurors in their 91-page brief. They said it became clear during jury selection that it wasn’t possible to convene a fair and impartial jury because of extensive pretrial publicity.
Everett interviewed 130 potential jurors individually to assess their knowledge and opinions about the case. Of those, 96 had heard about the case, 54 had formed an opinion about it and 53 of the 54 thought he was guilty.
“In other words, only one single potential juror who held an opinion about Appellant Adelson’s guilt believed he was not guilty or could have been wrongfully charged,” the brief says.
According to the brief, potential jurors said their sources of information “included the Tallahassee Democrat, local news broadcasts, cable news specials like 20/20 and Dateline, Court TV broadcasts, CNN, podcasts, YouTube, radio, social media, documentaries, neighbors, friends, parents, co-workers – and some who stated that they had watched the co-conspirators’ trials.”
The brief quoted numerous jurors about the case, including one person who said they only knew “what’s in the newspaper” and thought he was guilty.
“This has been going on for so long,” the juror said. “Honestly, we all have opinions on it.”
Josh Dubin, a New York lawyer and jury consultant for the defense, asked that the trial be moved downstate, “somewhere where the Tallahassee Democrat doesn’t have the circulation that it has and WCTV is not the local TV station,” the appeals brief says.
Adelson lawyers: Judge wrong to let text messages into evidence
Adelson also claimed Everett abused his discretion when he denied his motion to strike the prospective jury pool after several potential jurors reported that other potential jurors were having conversations about the case after the judge instructed them not to talk.
“In fact, there were multiple accounts of potential jurors talking about the case, and some of the jurors who had been discussing the case were the same jurors who held a preconceived belief that Appellant Adelson is guilty — and some of the comments that were reported were expressions of Appellant Adelson’s guilt,” the brief says.
Adelson’s brief says Everett also mistakenly precluded the defense from entering text messages into evidence that would have shown that he and his alleged co-conspirators were communicating “normally” during an earlier attempt on Markel’s life.
The appeals brief says prosecutors were allowed to show the jury that phone calls occurred between the alleged co-conspirators and to argue that communications on certain dates indicated they were discussing the murder.
Adelson’s trial lawyer, Dan Rashbaum of Miami, asked to show the substance of the texts to jurors to negate the state’s argument, the brief says, and establish reasonable doubt. Instead, Everett only permitted Rashbaum to ask Adelson about the texts during his time on the stand.
“Anything in those text messages out of the ordinary?” Rashbaum asked during trial.
“No,” Adelson testified, adding the texts were about “work” and “personal life” but not violence or murder.
Appellate lawyers say judge improperly excluded wiretap statement
Adelson’s appellate lawyers also argued that Everett erred when he excluded a phone call between the defendant and his mother that happened in 2016 after the FBI conducted an operation known as “the bump” that was designed to get suspected conspirators in Markel’s murder talking.
An FBI agent posing as a friend of one of the convicted hitmen approached Donna Adelson outside her Miami condo and demanded $5,000. Later, when Charlie Adelson talked to Donna Adelson in a wiretapped conversation, he said he thought the person shaking her down was “police.”
Charlie Adelson also told his mother that “this is not how (extortion) is done” — a statement his appellate lawyers argue he made because he had been extorted earlier by the killers.
Katherine Magbanua, who was dating Charlie Adelson at the time of the murder, and the two hit men, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, were all previously convicted. Magabanua and Garcia are serving life sentences. Rivera, who cooperated, is serving a 19-year sentence.
The state of Florida has 30 days to file an answer brief in Charlie Adelson’s appeal. Assistant Attorney General Trisha Meggs Pate is heading up the state’s case.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel murder: Charlie Adelson files appeals brief seeking new trial
Reporting by Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
