Luis Rivera — Cross/Redirect

MR. RASHBAUM: Yeah. It's part of the...

MR. RASHBAUM: Nothing now, Your Honor.

MR. RASHBAUM: Thank you, Your Honor. Before we get into your testimony, I want to clarify one thing. You didn't extort Charlie Adelson, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: The answer to that question was no, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You were paid $37,000 in your role in the murder of Professor Markel, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You were supposed to be paid $35,000.

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo Garcia, the shooter, gave you an extra $2,000, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Your understanding was that the total payment was $100,000, correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: And that it was a one-time payment.

MR. RASHBAUM: And you were told that you, Sigfredo, and Katie were hired by a lady to do a murder-for-hire, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: No, I'm sorry. Let me slow down.

MR. RASHBAUM: You were told by Sigfredo that all of you were hired by a lady to do the murder, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: That you were doing it so that she could get her kids back.

MR. RASHBAUM: And all of your information came from Sigfredo, Garcia, and Katie, correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: Okay. And all of Sigfredo's information, to your knowledge, came from Katie, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Everything you knew about the murder plot came from Sigfredo?

MR. RASHBAUM: According to you, Katie was the mastermind?

MR. RASHBAUM: She was the one, as you've said, running the shots?

MR. RASHBAUM: Anything that Sigfredo or you did in connection with the murder had to be cleared through Katie, correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: And Sigfredo and Katie lied to you about a lot of things about this murder, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Well, let's go through it.

MR. RASHBAUM: For starters, during the first trip in early June, Sigfredo told you that you were going to do a robbery, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Not until on the way up did you find out that you were going to do a murder.

MR. RASHBAUM: Before the July trip, you didn't want to go, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And to convince you, Sigfredo again told you that you were just going there to scope things out.

MR. RASHBAUM: During the second trip, the day before the murder, you drove by Professor Markel's house. Do you recall that?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you testified that at some point after you arrived at Markel's house after noon on the 17th, you saw a woman and two kids walking on Trescott by the house.

MR. RASHBAUM: And the woman looked at you as the Prius passed and immediately got on her phone.

MR. RASHBAUM: You testified that you asked Sigfredo what was up with the lady. Do you recall that?

MR. RASHBAUM: And Sigfredo responded that that's her.

MR. RASHBAUM: That's the guy's wife.

MR. RASHBAUM: That's the one that wants the kids back.

MR. RASHBAUM: You asked Sigfredo what the lady was doing there on Trescott with the kids.

MR. RASHBAUM: And Sigfredo responded that she came there to make sure that everything was all right.

MR. RASHBAUM: Meaning all right with the plan.

MR. RASHBAUM: As you sit here now, you're aware that the woman and the kids on the street was not the same lady, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: It's possible that Sigfredo lied to you, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Another lie that Sigfredo... and that was it. Oh, sorry, strike that, Your Honor. Your... understanding is that the money for the murder would be paid by the lady, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Again, your understanding came from Sigfredo?

MR. RASHBAUM: You didn't go with Katie to get the money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: So you don't know where she got it from?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you don't know what happened when she got it?

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo never told you that he and Katie got more than a hundred thousand dollars the night of the murder, did he?

MR. RASHBAUM: That would make sense why you got an extra two thousand, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And Katie never told you that they got more than a hundred thousand dollars the night of the murder, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo never told you that he and Katie were getting paid every month after the murder, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You didn't know that they were getting paid $3,000 a month?

MR. RASHBAUM: You didn't know that they were getting paid $1,000 in Adelson Institute checks, did you?

MR. RASHBAUM: But you saw that Sigfredo was spending a lot of money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You saw that Sigfredo even told you that he had paid for Katie's breast augmentation surgery, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He told you he paid for it, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You didn't know that Katie was getting money from Charlie Adelson every month in an extortion plot, did you know?

MR. RASHBAUM: In May of 2015, you get arrested on a federal RICO case, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you were detained?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you wanted to get out of prison, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You wanted to get a bail.

MR. RASHBAUM: You started thinking about the fact that Katie and Sigfredo seemed to be spending a lot of money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: So let's briefly recap all the lies that they told you.

MR. RASHBAUM: Not that you made, but that they told you.

MR. RASHBAUM: They lied to you about the purpose of the trip going to Tallahassee, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: They lied to you about who the lady was on the street.

MR. RASHBAUM: They lied to you about the amount of money they received.

MR. RASHBAUM: They lied to you about getting money every month.

MR. RASHBAUM: Isn't it possible that they lied to you about the purpose of the job to begin with? They don't even got the money — where they were going to get the money from? Isn't it possible that you thought it was a murder for hire, but it was really an extortion — extortion to who? Charlie Adelson — not from you, but from them. Okay, isn't it possible?

MR. RASHBAUM: By the way, on Friday, you testified that you just wanted to rob the lady, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: But Sigfredo was adamant: we can't rob the lady, we've got to do the murder.

MR. RASHBAUM: Isn't that because he wanted to keep on getting money every month?

MR. RASHBAUM: But you would have just robbed him, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Would have been a lot easier, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Would have been a one-time payment, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Couldn't have gotten paid over time, though, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Well, if you rob someone, it's hard to keep robbing them over and over and over again.

MR. RASHBAUM: All right, so I want to back up a little bit, and I thank you for your honesty there.

MR. RASHBAUM: You've never met Charlie Adelson, correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: You've never seen him before this case?

MR. RASHBAUM: You've never spoken to him by phone?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you've never communicated with him in any way?

MR. RASHBAUM: You've never met Donna or Harvey Adelson?

MR. RASHBAUM: You've never spoken to them by phone?

MR. RASHBAUM: And the same goes with Wendi Adelson, correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: You knew Sigfredo your whole life?

MR. RASHBAUM: You're like brothers?

MR. RASHBAUM: You've known Katie since she and Sigfredo started dating when they were teenagers?

MR. RASHBAUM: You considered them to be married?

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo was deeply in love with Katie, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He would do, as you've said, anything for her, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He was, as you said, blind over her, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Katie treated him badly?

MR. RASHBAUM: She messed up his head, you've said, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: At some point you learned from Sigfredo that Katie was having a relationship with someone she worked with, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo told you that Katie was cheating on him with someone called the dentist?

MR. RASHBAUM: According... to what Sigfredo told you, Katie was sleeping with the dentist at the same time she was sleeping with Sigfredo, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: So Sigfredo knew that Katie was cheating on him?

MR. RASHBAUM: And he wasn't too happy about it, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo told you that the dentist had money. Let me rephrase: Sigfredo told you that Katie told him the person she was with was rich.

MR. RASHBAUM: Well, he told you that Katie would flaunt and show off to Sigfredo that the person she was dating with had money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo was devastated when he learned about Katie's new relationship.

MR. RASHBAUM: I agree.

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo started drinking too much?

MR. RASHBAUM: He started doing drugs?

MR. RASHBAUM: He was acting crazy and unstable?

MR. RASHBAUM: He couldn't keep a job?

MR. RASHBAUM: In fact, you helped get him fired from a job, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Because he was drinking even while at work?

MR. RASHBAUM: And he was fighting a lot?

MR. RASHBAUM: Katie — told Sigfredo that she would only take him back if he did this job for her, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Now, before Sigfredo was fired from his job, I want to take you to March 14th of 2014, okay? I'll refresh your memory about it. There was a day when you were driving home from work and Sigfredo was driving you, and he took a detour to a restaurant on Miami Beach. Do you remember that?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you and Sigfredo were in Sigfredo's truck, a Dodge Ram.

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo had been drinking.

MR. RASHBAUM: And you were supposed to be headed home, but Sigfredo drove you to the restaurant.

MR. RASHBAUM: You parked near the restaurant and you could see people sitting at tables eating outside. Do you recall that?

MR. RASHBAUM: And one of those people eating at the restaurant was Katie.

MR. RASHBAUM: She was with three other people.

MR. RASHBAUM: Do you remember they were all white?

MR. RASHBAUM: Okay. Sigfredo pointed Katie out to you and said that one of the people there was the dentist. Do you recall that?

MR. RASHBAUM: While — you were sitting in Sigfredo's truck watching Katie and the dentist, Sigfredo told you he was going to run him over when they got up, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And what did you tell him in response?

MR. RASHBAUM: But he was serious.

MR. RASHBAUM: That's what he was like, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He was angry. He wanted to hurt the dentist, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Are you aware that he actually did try to run him off the road a couple months later on July 1st, 2014?

MR. RASHBAUM: Did he ever tell you about that incident with a jet ski?

MR. RASHBAUM: May I have one moment, Your Honor?

MR. RASHBAUM: Let me take you a little bit back to the first trip, okay?

MR. RASHBAUM: First trip to Tallahassee.

MR. RASHBAUM: Sigfredo came to your house and said he had a job in Tallahassee and asked you to go with him, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He told you that if you took a ride with him that he would give you around $35,000, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He didn't initially tell you what the job was, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He rented the car and he picked you up, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: At some point during the trip, he told you that it was not going to be for a robbery, but for a murder, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He told you that they were going to kill someone because there was a lady who wanted custody of her kids back, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You didn't know anything about the person that you and Sigfredo were supposed to kill, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: The only thing you saw was a piece of paper that Sigfredo had with a photo and address on it, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And the photo looked like a headshot, right? Like from chest up?

MR. RASHBAUM: Something you would get off the internet?

MR. RASHBAUM: Your understanding was that Katie gave Sigfredo that piece of paper, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You and Sigfredo left for Tallahassee after midnight on June 4th, which was a Wednesday, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Fair enough.

MR. RASHBAUM: I wouldn't remember either. Oh, nine years ago?

MR. RASHBAUM: Well, the next day after you arrived, you got to Professor Markel's house early in the morning and waited for him to come out, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you saw him leaving the house with two kids, and you followed him to the daycare, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Was this the first drive?

MR. RASHBAUM: And then you lost him, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And Sigfredo wanted to go back to Professor Markel's house, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you refused.

MR. RASHBAUM: You didn't want to go back.

MR. RASHBAUM: You told Sigfredo you didn't want to kill a man who had two kids.

MR. RASHBAUM: So you headed back to Miami.

MR. RASHBAUM: And that's when you suggested doing a robbery of the lady rather than killing the guy.

MR. RASHBAUM: Right?

MR. RASHBAUM: But Sigfredo said it had to be a murder and he didn't want to rob her, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And that was odd to you.

MR. RASHBAUM: As you previously have said, you assume there was, quote, more to it, but you never asked Sigfredo, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: When Katie learned that the murder didn't happen on the first trip, she was upset, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Now, let's fast forward to July 16 to 18, and I'm not good with dates either, okay?

MR. RASHBAUM: A month or so after the first trip, Sigfredo came to you and said that you had to go back to Tallahassee, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: He told you that he needed you to go back because he needed the money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You told Sigfredo that you didn't want to go.

MR. RASHBAUM: So he lied to you and told you, we're not going to do a murder, we're just going to do a lookout. We're just going to watch the guy.

MR. RASHBAUM: That's what he told you at first, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: The first time you went to Tallahassee, Sigfredo rented the car for you, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: But the second time, Sigfredo told you that you had to rent the car under your name.

MR. RASHBAUM: Did Sigfredo tell you why he wanted you to rent the car under your name?

MR. RASHBAUM: Now, he actually gave you the cash to rent the car, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Did he tell you what color car to rent?

MR. RASHBAUM: Did he tell you what type of car to rent?

MR. RASHBAUM: The cash he gave you was in a crumpled bunch, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: But let me ask you this way. The cash he gave you to rent the car, it wasn't stapled.

MR. RASHBAUM: You rent the car, and you head up to Tallahassee, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You arrive at around 1 a.m. on Thursday, July 17th, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Early morning.

MR. RASHBAUM: Okay.

MR. RASHBAUM: Gotcha.

MR. RASHBAUM: You testified earlier that you didn't want to kill Markel during the first trip because he had his kids, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you told Sigfredo that during the first trip?

MR. RASHBAUM: You didn't want to do it in front of the kids?

MR. RASHBAUM: And we already talked a couple times about seeing the woman on the street during the second trip, correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: On July 18th, the day of the murder, you saw Professor Markel with his kids?

MR. RASHBAUM: Again, you followed them to the daycare to make sure they were dropped off?

MR. RASHBAUM: And then you went to the gym?

MR. RASHBAUM: And then you followed him back to his house where he was murdered, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And Sigfredo was the shooter?

MR. RASHBAUM: He wanted you to be the shooter, but you didn't want to do it?

MR. RASHBAUM: You testified that when you and Sigfredo were on your way back to Miami, Sigfredo called Katie.

MR. RASHBAUM: And are you aware that the state has call records which put that call at 12:30 p.m.?

MR. RASHBAUM: Okay. Will you take my word that the call records for purposes of these questions show that that call happened at 12:30?

MR. RASHBAUM: The call wasn't on speakerphone, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you were driving on the highway at the time, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: With the window cracked open a bit.

MR. RASHBAUM: Fair enough.

MR. RASHBAUM: But it's your testimony that you were able to hear some of the conversation, correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you think you heard Sigfredo tell Katie, "It's done," right?

MR. RASHBAUM: You heard Sigfredo tell Katie, "It's done."

MR. RASHBAUM: What's that?

MR. RASHBAUM: I understand.

MR. RASHBAUM: And you think you heard Katie respond, "I know."

MR. RASHBAUM: When you were interviewed by law enforcement, you were interviewed by law enforcement in September of 2016, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: That was two years after the murder.

MR. RASHBAUM: We're now eight years after the murder, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Your memory might have been a little bit better then. Is that fair to say?

MR. RASHBAUM: And during that interview, you told law enforcement that you didn't hear the "I know" comment. Do you recall that?

MR. RASHBAUM: Nonetheless, in order for Katie to know, she would have had to be told by someone before 12:30 p.m., correct?

MR. RASHBAUM: After Sigfredo hung up with Katie, he told you that you would get your money tomorrow, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And you were upset about that?

MR. RASHBAUM: You were upset because you didn't understand why the money wasn't already secured?

MR. RASHBAUM: Because when you do a murder for hire, you get paid up front?

MR. RASHBAUM: You don't get paid over time?

MR. RASHBAUM: You don't get paid after the fact?

MR. RASHBAUM: The whole point of a murder for hire is you get paid, you do a killing, and then you separate.

MR. RASHBAUM: That's the reason for that type of crime, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And in fact, you told Sigfredo that since the job was finished, you were supposed to be paid right there and then.

MR. RASHBAUM: Isn't that what you told him?

MR. RASHBAUM: Now let's talk a little bit about the payment.

MR. RASHBAUM: You got paid the next day, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And Katie dropped off the money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: It was stapled.

MR. RASHBAUM: And that's the first time you'd ever seen stapled money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: On any of these other trips, you had never seen stapled money.

MR. RASHBAUM: Well, the first trip to Tallahassee, the second trip to Tallahassee, ever in your life.

MR. RASHBAUM: When you got paid, Sigfredo gave you an extra $2,000, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Throughout the years, after Katie and Sigfredo got back together, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: But you saw that they had moved to a new apartment.

MR. RASHBAUM: That they had bought a new large TV?

MR. RASHBAUM: What about before you went to prison? Did you see they bought a new large TV?

MR. RASHBAUM: They started to get some nice stuff, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Started to spend some money, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: One — last area of questions, I believe, and it'll be quick. In — 2014 and 2015, during the time of these events, you were a member of the Latin Kings, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: And that's a crime family, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: Right. I mean, every gang does.

MR. RASHBAUM: In fact, you were the head of the North Miami branch of the Latin Kings, right?

MR. RASHBAUM: May I have one moment, your honor?

MR. RASHBAUM: No further questions.