Donna Adelson, the matriarch of a prominent South Florida family, was sentenced Monday to life in prison after being convicted of helping to orchestrate the 2014 murder of her former son-in-law, Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel, who was shot to death in his Tallahassee garage.
Adelson was additionally sentenced to 30 years on conspiracy and solicitation charges.
Prosecutors said the 75-year-old Adelson helped plan the killing after Markel blocked her daughter, Wendi Adelson, from moving their two children to South Florida amid a bitter divorce and custody dispute.
Investigators described her as the calculating and controlling matriarch of an affluent family with both the means and motive to eliminate the obstacle standing between her daughter and her grandchildren.
Donna Adelson’s conviction and courtroom reaction
A Leon County jury convicted Adelson in September of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation after a weeks-long trial that revisited the decade-old case that has captivated Tallahassee and beyond.
The courtroom erupted in tension when the verdict was read — Adelson gasped, exclaimed “Oh!” and began shaking and crying. Circuit Judge Stephen Everett briefly halted proceedings to let her compose herself, warning that no further outbursts would be tolerated.
“This was not the outcome I’m sure you desire,” Judge Everett told her.
After the verdict, Markel’s mother, Ruth Markel, delivered an emotional statement describing the family’s grief and the years-long fight for justice.
“We have lost a treasure. My son Dan’s life was cut tragically short at 41 years old,” she said. “For 11 years we have been forced to live a life filled with unimaginable pain and heartbreak.”
Inside the Daniel Markel murder case and family feud
Adelson’s sentencing Monday marked the final chapter in a murder-for-hire saga that prosecutors say was fueled by resentment and family control.
She became the fifth person convicted in connection with the killing. Among those already serving life sentences are her son, Charles Adelson, and his ex-girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, whom prosecutors said acted as the go-between for the hired gunmen, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.
Garcia is serving life in prison, while Rivera received a 19-year sentence after cooperating with authorities.
Wendi Adelson, who shared custody of the children with Markel and had sought to move them to Miami, denied involvement in the plot and has not been charged.
Defense attorneys maintained throughout the trial that the state lacked direct evidence linking Donna Adelson to the plan and argued that others were more directly involved. But prosecutors presented wiretaps, phone records, and testimony portraying her as deeply enmeshed in the conspiracy — a mother consumed by her daughter’s custody battle and desperate to reunite her fractured family in South Florida.
Donna Adelson was arrested in November 2023 at Miami International Airport while attempting to board a one-way flight to Vietnam, a country with no extradition treaty with the United States.
The high-profile case — part family feud, part true-crime drama — has riveted Florida for more than a decade, exposing the dark undercurrents of privilege, revenge, and loyalty in one of the state’s most prominent families.