Attorneys for Donna Adelson argued during a June 13 hearing that her trial in the murder-for-hire of Dan Markel has gotten so much publicity — more than 92 million media impressions last year alone — that a fair jury can’t be picked in Tallahassee.
But prosecutors, during a nearly three-hour hearing before Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett, downplayed the media’s affect on the jury pool and urged the court to keep the trial in the town where the crime occurred.
Josh Zelman, one of Adelson’s lawyers, didn’t explicitly ask for the trial to be moved to Miami, where the defendant resided before her arrest in 2023. But he suggested as much in exhibits he presented and testimony he elicited from the defense’s lone witness, James Todd Murphy, president of media monitoring firm Truescope.
Murphy, testifying by Zoom, said his firm had reviewed media coverage of the case from 2014 to 2025, including a separate sample from June 2023 to May 2024.
“Based on the analysis of the data that was collected in this case, is it fair to say that the overwhelming number of publications and broadcasts took place or was presented in Leon County?” Zelman asked.
“That is correct,” Murphy said.
“And statistically speaking, Miami-Dade County, with a significantly greater population, had significantly less media exposure in this case?” Zelman continued.
“That is true,” the witness replied.
The exchange prompted pushback from Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman.
“I think we should at least try before we take this case away from the county in which it occurred and move it elsewhere,” Cappleman said. “Certainly, I can’t imagine a planet on which we move this case to Miami, which seems to be suggested by the defense.”
After the hearing, Zelman confirmed with the Democrat that the defense is in fact seeking to have the trial moved to Miami.
Adelson, who was recently transferred from the Leon County Detention Facility to the Wakulla County Detention Facility, appeared for the hearing in an orange jumpsuit and shackles rather than a purple one she usually wears. She listened and spoke softly with her lawyers but did not take the stand.
Adelson’s son, Charlie Adelson, who was convicted in 2023 in Markel’s murder, is seeking a new trial based on arguments that he didn’t get a fair trial because of pretrial publicity. His appeal is pending before the 1st District Court of Appeal.
If the change of venue is granted, it would mark the first time that’s happened in decades in a Leon County murder trial. The last one prosecutors and defense attorneys can recall was the notorious Ted Bundy case, which was rerouted to Miami in 1978 nearly a half century ago.
Defense media expert: ‘The story has legs’
Adelson’s lawyers, Zelman and Jackie Fulford of Tallahassee, filed a motion in January seeking a change of venue, citing news coverage from traditional media outlets along with blogs and podcasts. They said the pretrial publicity was “so inflammatory, emotional and pervasive” that the jury pool was tainted.
They said they originally intended to raise the venue issue at the customary time — at the end of jury selection if a panel couldn’t be picked.
But they said they were “forced” to bring it up sooner after the Clerk of Court inadvertently posted a sealed transcript of a hearing involving Rob Adelson, the oldest of the Donna Adelson’s three children and a witness for the prosecution.
The transcript indicated Rob Adelson, a New York doctor long estranged from his family, had strong opinions about the murder. An article by the Democrat, which broke the news, was listed as Exhibit A in motion.
Zelman brought it up again during the Friday, June 13, hearing.
“Media outlets from all over the country obtained that information,” Zelman said. “And so now what your honor has ruled to be inadmissible is out there. It’s out there, and as I said in my motion, you can’t unring that bell.”
Murphy testified that over an 11-year period of Markel’s murder, a total of 2,371 articles and stories were either published or broadcast. He said that amounted to 376 “opportunities to be seen” by voter-age adults in Leon County, versus only two in Miami-Dade County.
“You may have heard the phrase, ‘the story has legs,’ ” Murphy said. “It has captured the interest of the media over time.”
Adelson is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the 2014 contract killing of Markel, a Florida State University law professor. At the time of the shooting, Markel was feuding in court with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, the defendant’s daughter and the mother of their two sons.
State: ‘No evidence to support’ defense assertion that Leon County jurors can’t fairly decide case
Murphy testified about the “math of memory,” saying the more someone is exposed to a story, the more information they will retain, up to 80%.
He said in Leon County, the average jury-eligible person was exposed to the story 26 times, enough to retain it for a lifetime.
“Seating a fair and impartial jury in this venue is going to be impossible,” Zelman said.
But Cappleman called his calculations “fuzzy math” and asked whether Murphy would be surprised to learn that during previous jury selections in the Markel case, a third of potential jurors knew nothing about it, a third knew the headlines and another third had “more detailed information.”
“Do you know how many potential jurors have actually viewed content related to this case?” she asked.
“No one can know that number for certain,” Murphy said. “So I think what we’re looking at is a possibility.”
Cappleman argued that knowledge of a notorious crime is not in and of itself grounds for a change of venue.
“We have a case that’s gotten a lot of media attention and has gained notoriety in our community,” she said. “But to conclude that this case has rendered our entire citizenry incapable of giving Ms. Adelson a fair trial — there’s no evidence to support that.”
Everett said he would enter a written order after considering all of the exhibits — which remain confidential. Zelman said he filed the materials under seal “so that the information was not highlighted again for the media.”
Jury selection in Donna Adelson’s trial is set to begin Aug. 19.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Donna Adelson lawyers ask judge to move her murder trial to Miami over pretrial publicity
Reporting by Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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