Charlie Adelson — Direct/Cross/Redirect
1,412 linesJUDGE EVERETT: Good morning. Everyone can be seated.
JUDGE EVERETT: Just as a reminder again today, when the testimony is taking place, please do not make any motions or gesture in any way that would either delay — that you're agreeing or disagreeing with what's being said. Also, do not distract the jurors from their task at hand. Please silence your devices.
JUDGE EVERETT: Do the parties have anything to raise this morning?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: No, Your Honor.
MR. RASHBAUM: No, Your Honor.
JUDGE EVERETT: Let's bring in the jurors.
JUDGE EVERETT: Yep, you can come up and take the stand again.
JUDGE EVERETT: But you remain under oath, sir.
JUDGE EVERETT: Everyone may be seated.
JUDGE EVERETT: Good morning, members of the jury.
JUDGE EVERETT: We are going to continue with the direct examination of Mr. Adelson.
JUDGE EVERETT: Mr. Rashbaum, when you're ready, you may continue.
MR. RASHBAUM: Thank you, Your Honor.
MR. RASHBAUM: On call number UU, which is on May 4th, 2016, around 11 minutes into the call, it's a call with you and your mom.
MR. RASHBAUM: You ask your mom if everything is okay, and she says she doesn't want to talk on the phone, and you ask her whether you should come down, and you agree to meet the next day. Do you remember that call?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I do.
MR. RASHBAUM: What — did you think when that call happened? Did you think that there was another activity?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
MR. RASHBAUM: And in fact, on that morning, your mom had received a text in the early morning, which said, "So you don't take me serious, you think I'm playing. You have some puta call me to see if I'm for real."
MR. RASHBAUM: "If you think what Katie baby daddy did for you can't come back, you're fucking crazy. I want the number now or I'm going after the 100K."
MR. RASHBAUM: The 100K that they're threatening to go after is — is what? Do you know what the 100K is?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The reward for the — uh — solving the murder of Dan Markel.
MR. RASHBAUM: Okay. And, uh, you see that text. Did you go meet with your — your parents the next day, on May 5th?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I went down in the afternoon the next day.
MR. RASHBAUM: And, um, when you saw that text, um, did you take it as more threatening or less threatening than the prior activity by law enforcement?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Much more threatening.
MR. RASHBAUM: And how were your parents when you saw them?
CHARLIE ADELSON: My mom was upset. I mean, she gets a message — a call, a text — at 2 o'clock in the morning from some nut who may be a Latin King gang member. And maybe we're wrong, and it's not the police, and it is a Latin King gang member.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, at this point in time, though, what was your firm belief?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was fairly certain it was the police.
MR. RASHBAUM: So you have this discussion with your parents, and I think it was outside by the pool, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MR. RASHBAUM: Community pool?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Mm-hmm.
MR. RASHBAUM: Okay. And what do you and your parents decide?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said, it's more than likely the police, but it still could be some crazy guy who's not afraid. I mean, I'm very afraid of Sigfredo Garcia, so this person is obviously not afraid of him.
CHARLIE ADELSON: So it could be a nut, or it could be the police. I said, I want to hear him one more time to confirm that that is the police. So when I spoke to them, I said, "You know what? Can you please call this guy up and record the conversation so I can hear him again?"
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, you leave your parents' house and you go to a friend's business. Do you recall that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I went to my friend Adam's office.
MR. RASHBAUM: Okay. And at some point in time while at the business, there is a call — and I believe this is YY — well, before YY, there's a call where you're talking with Katherine Magbanua, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: And you tell her that you're going to call her from a landline, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes. Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, first of all, why do you tell her you're going to call from a landline?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I was just pulling into his parking garage and I was about to lose reception, get into the elevator, and I get bad reception in his office.
MR. RASHBAUM: When you called her from the landline, did you call her cell phone or did you call another landline?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I called her cell phone, and I told her I was calling her from a landline because if she didn't recognize the number, she may not pick up. So I was telling her, I'm going to call you back in a minute, but I'm going to call you from the office.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you tell her, "I want to call you from a landline to another number"?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I wasn't trying to hide anything. I just wanted to have good cell service.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you do star-67?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I just didn't want her to see the number and not pick up because she won't recognize it.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, on — May 6th, after some calls back and forth, your mom reaches the undercover, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, she does.
MR. RASHBAUM: And, uh, we've heard that call with your mom, but what does she tell the undercover to do?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She says to him, "Go to the police and go get your reward. Call the police. If you know what happened, go tell them what happened and collect your reward."
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, you and your mom had known what it — what happened, to some degree, for 20-some-odd months.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I found out a lot in 2016 before I went into the restaurant, but, yeah, we knew a lot more than the police knew.
MR. RASHBAUM: Why didn't you go to the police and collect your reward?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I would have been killed. There was — I, I didn't want to tell anybody, because they would have come after my family.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, after your mom speaks to the undercover, she — speaks with you, right? And that's State's Exhibit CCC?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: And she says that she used a "handpiece."
MR. RASHBAUM: Do you remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MR. RASHBAUM: What is the "handpiece" that she's referring to?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm assuming it was her cell phone, but I didn't know if it was her cell phone or if she recorded it with an old-fashioned tape recorder, or how she did it.
MR. RASHBAUM: And she says that there's a new app she loaded. What did you understand that to mean?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I guess she loaded an app on your telephone that allows you to record a conversation.
MR. RASHBAUM: And she said — you asked her how long was the call, something to that effect, and she says that it was eight minutes.
MR. RASHBAUM: And that was significant to you. Why was it significant to you that the call was eight minutes?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because it meant the guy who was threatening had wanted to talk for a while. And, I mean, when someone's extorting you, they want something, they're straight to the point. They tell you what they want and what they're going to do to you if you don't pay.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And an eight-minute call, again, wasn't the way it was done to me.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, during this call, there's words like "patient" used by your mom — uh, "models," "dental models."
MR. RASHBAUM: Uh, why is she talking the way she's talking?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I lectured my mom on being really careful about what you say. And I don't want to talk about anything involving the extortion or anything that happened. So she went overboard with some things. I mean, she could have been more blunt, but, I mean, this was just her overall just being super careful.
MR. RASHBAUM: Is your mom scared?
MR. RASHBAUM: The — next day, May 7th, do you meet with your parents?
MR. RASHBAUM: And what did you do with your parents when you met with them?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I went outside and my mom played the recording of the supposed Latin King gang member that was trying to extort my family for money.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And after you heard the recording, what did you think and how did you feel? I felt so much better. I mean, I wasn't happy that the police thought that we did a murder, but I was very happy to know that it wasn't the Latin Kings that were extorting my family again, and that nobody was going to get hurt, nobody was going to get killed. So I felt very relieved now.
MR. RASHBAUM: DDD, which is a call on May 7th in the evening, is a call where you're talking about a CD and dropping the mic, and there's a lot of background noise in the back. First of all, where are you when this call is happening?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Okay, it was a Saturday. It was the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea Show, and I was on a small boat of my friends, and they were blasting the radio, and I was drinking, and that's when I made the call or picked up the call.
MR. RASHBAUM: And why are you talking the way you're talking on the boat? How many people were on that boat?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It was like six or seven people standing around me, and I wasn't about to let anybody know what was going on in my life.
MR. RASHBAUM: And again, why are you relieved?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm relieved that it's the police.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Nobody's going to get killed. My mom, for two weeks, was afraid that someone was going to hurt her and then someone else in the family was going to pay.
CHARLIE ADELSON: My dad wasn't going to work.
CHARLIE ADELSON: He thought he was going to get killed in the parking lot.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And then after hearing that call, that's not a worry of mine anymore.
MR. RASHBAUM: Do you remember when you found out that Sigfredo Garcia was arrested?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I do.
MR. RASHBAUM: How did you find that out?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I got a text message. It was a text message I got.
MR. RASHBAUM: And did you think that you were about to get arrested as well?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Did I fear I was going to get arrested? Yes.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't think I should get arrested, but I know that this was definitely the police that were doing this investigation, and I know why they were doing it is they thought that we were part of this murder.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you ever reach out to Katherine Magbanua after the arrest?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I did not.
MR. RASHBAUM: Why not?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because my friend, who's a close friend of mine and an attorney, called me up on the phone and he said, "You cannot — do not call Katie and do not talk to anybody about this case or what's going on."
CHARLIE ADELSON: And Katie never called me either.
MR. RASHBAUM: With regards to Katherine Magbanua, when the arrest occurred of Katherine Magbanua, did you still think that she was not guilty?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: When did that opinion change and when did you realize that she was actually the person behind the extortion?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It wasn't until 2019 when she went to trial and she said that she never knew who Dan Markel was.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She didn't say anything about what really happened.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I found out then that she was cheating on me with Sigfredo Garcia and she was sleeping with him, but at the same time, she was with me.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was lying about that.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And then I saw her bank account, and I was like, this girl is not broke.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Like, I was getting played. And I saw all the money that was piling into her bank account.
MR. RASHBAUM: And did all the pieces then start to come together for you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, yeah. I realized what happened.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, we've heard some testimony that after the bump and after the arrest, your personality changed.
MR. RASHBAUM: Is that testimony true?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, it is.
MR. RASHBAUM: Why did your personality change?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The police thought that I was part of a murder.
CHARLIE ADELSON: They're releasing a probable cause affidavit saying that they want to arrest me for murder.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't have anything to do with the murder. I knew that there wouldn't be any evidence to show I had anything to do with the murder.
CHARLIE ADELSON: But, you know, it's scary as hell to think that you're one signature away from losing your life.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, we've also heard some testimony that throughout the years, you would get upset when you would see or hear the news about this case.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, very.
MR. RASHBAUM: Why would you get upset?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because they don't have any idea what really went on.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And I couldn't say anything to anybody.
MR. RASHBAUM: Charlie, I'm going to ask you again.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you have anything to do with the murder of Professor Dan Markel?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MR. RASHBAUM: Were you a principal in his first degree murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you conspire in any way to murder him?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you solicit anyone to murder him?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Never.
MR. RASHBAUM: One moment, Your Honor.
MR. RASHBAUM: No further questions, Your Honor.
JUDGE EVERETT: Cross-examination?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Can we do a quick audio test since Mr. Rashbaum was hooked up, Your Honor, before we get going here.
JUDGE EVERETT: That's an excellent idea.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is it Doctor?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It is, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Have you ever heard the saying that the simplest explanation is always the most likely?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Have you heard that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I've heard that theory before, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was your explanation to the jury over the last little over a day the simplest explanation?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It was the truth.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you — I mean, you have a thorough explanation.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Would you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I told you what happened.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you agree that the only problem with having an explanation for everything is that there's just so many explanations?
CHARLIE ADELSON: There's no explanation. I explained what happened.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I want to go through some of that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You claim that you were extorted on July 18, 2014 by Katherine Magbanua and also in the background some Latin Kings, probably Garcia and Rivera, right? Is that accurate?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I wasn't extorted by Katherine Magbanua.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You weren't?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's not what I believed in 2014.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, I'm sorry. I understood you to say you believe that today?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Today I do, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so who extorted you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I believe that it was Katherine Magbanua's friend that she ran her mouth to in 2014.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right, but as you sit here today, you think it's Magbanua, Garcia, and Rivera. Is that accurate?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, that's not accurate.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, who extorted you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: As I sit here today, I believe that it was Katherine Magbanua, and I believe Sigfredo Garcia, but I don't know for sure. I was never there when she was ever talking to him, so I don't know if he was in on it with her or not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. At the time, though, you did not think she was guilty. We got that right? The time of the extortion, 2014?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, correct. Correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And then so exactly when you found out would be, I think you said, her trial?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That I suspected that she was not telling me the truth and she was a part of it was in 2019.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: At her trial?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. And so she was arrested in 2016, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. So for three years she was in the Leon County Jail awaiting trial, yes?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She was there. And you believed she was innocent.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you had this whole explanation to assist with exonerating her, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I have the truth of what happened, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you didn't offer the truth of what happened, did you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Nobody came to me. I thought the truth would come out.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Does someone have to come to you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was told not to talk to Katie and not to talk to anybody about this case by counsel.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so — You — strike that. On day one, which is July 18, 2014, she is the only one that physically contacted you to conduct this extortion. Am I correct in that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, you are.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So you never actually had any contact with any Latin King?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: No phone calls, no phone, no texts?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: No letters.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, in 2016 — you're talking about in 2014, right?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm talking about the first layer of the extortion.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you have any contact with the thugs that were getting your money for two years?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did anybody put a gun to your head?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was told that I would be killed in 48 hours if I didn't pay up.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I heard you say that, but my question is, did anyone put a gun to your head?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're asking me, did anyone pull a gun on me?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That's what I asked you. Is that your question?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, nobody pulled a firearm on me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so when Katherine Magbanua came to you on July 18th and said, "Open the safe and give me all your money," she was not armed?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was not carrying a gun that day, no.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Were you armed at that time? Did you have a weapon in your home?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I had weapons in my safe, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Were you led to believe or told that the bad guys were outside, right outside your apartment or your residence?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, but I was led to believe what they did to Dan they were going to do to me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I heard you say that, but my question is, did she say, like, the car is running, I'm going to take the money out there to him right now?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, she never told me that they were waiting for me outside my house.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: In fact, she stayed the night with you, didn't she?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, she did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And didn't exit your house with your $138,000 until the next day, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Correct. Correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And the money, the $138,000, was that stapled into $1,000 increments?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Each packet was $1,000, and they had a staple in it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And stapling money is a little unusual. Would you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: For me, it wasn't unusual. That's what I did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right, but nobody else does it. That's why I'm suggesting it's unusual.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I've never questioned people into how they keep their money, whether they keep it as a staple or a paperclip or an envelope. I just know what I do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Would you agree, Doctor, that it's a compelling piece of evidence that the killers were paid in stapled money and came up with that information in this case?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It's not compelling. The people who extorted me and got my money got it from my house, and it was stapled at my house.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: They had to have gotten it from you, right, because it was stapled.
CHARLIE ADELSON: They got it from Katie. They got it from me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So it had to be some kind of, "I paid, but I did it under duress," based on that piece of evidence, right? That had to be built into your defense.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was extorted, and I paid the money.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so Katie comes in, and she's in a panic, and she tells you what's happened. "And I need all the money in your safe right now."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you suspect that maybe she's working with the police at that point?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Maybe she's trying to set you up?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, she didn't say, "I need all the money in your safe." That's not what she said.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did she take all the money in your safe?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I cleaned out all the money in my safe and handed it to her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right. Why did you do that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I was being extorted for a third of a million dollars.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But why didn't you? The bump was only $5,000, and you immediately became suspicious and questioning and had all these conversations and deliberations about what to do about it for days.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When Katie comes to you, you just open the safe and give her the money, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's what I did, and there's a big difference between the two.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, well, the way that it was done to you, is that the way it's done?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You have to be more specific.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, on the wire, you say repeatedly, "That's not the way it's done." You knew that the undercover agent was law enforcement, or at least strongly suspected, because that's not the way it's done. And my question to you is, since you're an expert on extortion because you've been extorted before and that's how you knew that's not the way it's done, is this the way it's done? Do extortionists send a girlfriend of their victim to collect their extortion money? Is that the way it's done, Doctor?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm telling you what happened to me, and I was told that if I didn't pay in 48 hours I would be killed. The person that came and extorted my mom — that was not the same approach as what happened to me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is that the only way? That's the only way it's done? They send the girlfriend?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It's the only time I've ever been extorted like that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, and did you hear any of the negotiate— so they come in and they say— strike that. They come in and they say, "We need a third of a million dollars."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "You need to pay a third of a million dollars. You need to pay a third of a million dollars." Why not a million dollars?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because when I had told to Katie that the million-dollar offer for Dan Markel — I said I was going to pay a third of a million. And when she asked me, "Do you have that much money?" — and I said, "Yeah, I could pay it in cash."
CHARLIE ADELSON: So she took it as I had cash, and she knew I had a ton of cash in my safe. So she thought I had the cash. I didn't have all that cash, so that's where I'm assuming they got the third of a million dollars from.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But the offer that she bragged about was a million-dollar offer, isn't that right? That she ran her mouth about?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was never there when she spoke to her friend.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Hey, was it a million-dollar offer?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The offer was that a million dollars was going to be paid, and I was going to pay a third of a million.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And weren't you going to cover Wendi's third as well?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all. I was going to cover my third.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Didn't your lawyer say in opening statement that you were going to cover the whole thing, or Wendi's third?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I— I was sitting here, I heard what he said. Charlie was going to pay a third of a million dollars.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, and so the offer was a million-dollar offer, and that's what you told Katie, along with the fact that you were going to cover the third?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was telling her that I was going to pay a third of a million dollars. Yeah, and then one day if my sister was able to, she was going to pay me back.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then you didn't have the amount of money that was being demanded at the time, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I only had what I had.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, and at that point, the blackmailer, Katherine Magbanua, negotiates some type of layaway plan for you to complete the extortion with the Latin Kings.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Okay, Katie wasn't the blackmailer, and Katie wasn't the one who was extorting me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Didn't you just tell this jury that Katie was the blackmailer? You realized it in 2019.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I had thought that when you were just talking, you were talking about 2014.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You were talking about that night, so that night happened in 2014.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Okay.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: We all know now, because you have revealed the puzzle piece, she's a blackmailer. Can we agree on that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I believe, sitting here in 2023, that she was in on the extortion for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes, so is it okay if I refer to her as a blackmailer?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think there's a difference between blackmail and extortion, but yeah, sitting here today we can — we'll refer to her as an extortionist.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So this — this woman, extortionist, is going to do you a solid by negotiating with the Latin Kings for you to get on a payment plan for the extortion, isn't that what happened?
CHARLIE ADELSON: What you're doing is you're taking what we know in 2023 and trying to say this is what I knew in 2014.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did she put you on a payment plan?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, she — she said because I didn't have the money, she asked me if I could pay $3,000 a month in 2014, and I said yes I can.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you hear any of the conversation where she was making these negotiations on your behalf?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No. When she said, "I'm going to go check with my friend and if that's okay with him," she took her purse, took her keys, took her cell phone, she walked out of my front door, closed the door behind her, and I sat in my living room, and she came back about five minutes later.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You didn't want to talk to the guy yourself?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I didn't even think of that. I mean, but she went outside to call.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, and then the two of you took a Xanax and went to sleep.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, I — I took a Xanax. I don't know if she took one out of the bottle, but I — I definitely did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And the next morning she left with your money, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She left about 8:30 the next morning.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That's July 19, 2014, correct? Let's talk about what you did that day. You did not report this to the police because you were in fear, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you didn't report this to Wendi even though, according to you, her life was in danger too, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Potentially, but I plan on paying the extortion every month.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. But you did go to the gym that morning, right? Can we show that text, please?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you — were you able to go to the gym?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I absolutely didn't leave the house. I worked out at Nova Southeastern Gym, and you can check the gym records. I was never there.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Did you say you were going to the gym?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said I was, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you didn't actually go?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I didn't leave the house.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right. So would you agree, Doctor — and we'll refresh your memory with them if we can — that the text messages that were exchanged between yourself and Katherine Magbanua on the morning after this exchange of money were inconsistent with your extortion theory?
CHARLIE ADELSON: They were inconsistent with how I was feeling. They —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: — don't appear to look like you just gave her $138,000 under duress, do they?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She told me — the last thing she said to me before she left the house is, "Can we just pretend like this never even happened?" So when I sent her that message, I was trying to show her, like, "I'm trying to block them, forget — trying to forget all about it."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yeah, you were just demonstrating to her that you would agree to pretend nothing happened, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely. That's what she asked me to do, and that's what I tried to do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So — the text messages aren't what they appear to be? "It's a beautiful day, I'm going to the pool, I'm going to the beach, I'm going to the gym" — none of that is what it appears to be? It's something else?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I absolutely did not go to the gym. I was trying to show her that I was, you know, pretending like nothing ever happened and looking past it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And there's nothing on the wire. All those hours of you talking, there is nothing on the wire about the extortion — this layer-one of extortion — because she told you not to talk about it, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She told me to never talk about anything to anyone or her. She never wanted to hear about it again.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yesterday, in your testimony, between you and your attorney, you mentioned the word "extortion" 123 times. Would you take my word for that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm sure it came up a lot.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. But nowhere, even in the midst of this whole second extortion — it's happening again, it's an extension of the same thing.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you mention anything about this layer one of the extortion? Do you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, actually I did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay.
CHARLIE ADELSON: If you pull up the video from Matsuri, when I was sitting with my dad, and I said — and the funny thing is, that's what I whispered in his ear.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right, but we can't hear that, right? Because that's my point.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I never wanted anybody to hear what had happened. I never wanted the police to come talk to me. But if you put up that video, you'll actually see me saying that in my dad's ear, and that's why I went in and said it. And that's what we were talking about at the time at Matsuri.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: The only time you mentioned the extortion, it's in a whisper that is not picked up by the microphones, right? Intentionally?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes. Yes. And — and that was. It was intentional at the time.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But it sucks for your defense, right? Because that would be a huge piece of evidence for you to show this jury, wouldn't it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I think you'd come up with a reason why I said it anyway.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And there's nobody to corroborate this testimony?
CHARLIE ADELSON: There is.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And at the Matsuri, you talked about it again out in the parking lot, right? Wasn't that your testimony?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, we spoke in the parking lot.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so you did talk about the extortion. Just didn't do it in a way that it was captured on any of the recordings in this case.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, we spoke when we had privacy.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, you had privacy on the phone, right?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When — at least you thought you had privacy on the phone, every time when you were talking on the phone for hundreds of hours on the wire.
CHARLIE ADELSON: There's always a chance that I was being listened to.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, well there was a chance you were being listened to when you whispered in dad's ear, right? But you said it. You were talking about it.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I whispered real quietly into his ear, so I thought I had privacy. At that point, I thought I had privacy.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And Katherine Magbanua and you discussed this first layer of extortion in the car outside of Dolce Vita too, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's — that's when I found out everything that was going on, and she opened up when I confronted her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But if this jury could hear that conversation recorded, we would all be hearing basically what you're telling us — that there was an extortion effort that predated the undercover operation, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I was trying to see if Sigfredo was behind the extortion of my mom. Because I knew he was behind — I had always had a feeling he was behind what happened to me. And she was having this explosive fight with him, and it was going on the same exact time that my mom started getting extorted, so I thought that he was going after my mom.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Don't you wish that that conversation in the car had been recorded?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Wouldn't it prove your theory?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah. You're talking about the prior extortion. If — think about it, then you'd know exactly what happened back then. But unfortunately, it wasn't recorded.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then everything that was recorded inside the restaurant, you don't mention it, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm speaking very carefully, I mean. And I — even when I was in the car with Katie, she was doing most of the talking. That was the first time she really opened up, and I think I caught her off guard. I was still — even when I spoke to her in the car, I was real careful. I said, "Was T behind — was T behind what happened to me?" Like I wouldn't even say the words to her when I was in the car.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. "It was T behind what happened to me." Do you say anything anywhere on the wire about referencing what happened to me — meaning what happened to me before?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um, no, because that was the only time I ever confronted her. But I did, actually. When I would be on the wire with my mom, I would say, "This is — it's not the same person." Like that was in reference to what happened to me. And she —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What call do you say "it's not the same person"?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Uh, okay. You want to know a call? It was Tuesday the 26th. Um, and I said — it's at the end of the call. It was a two-minute-and-something call. April 26th, April 26th, 2016. There's a two-minute-and-something call. It was towards the very end, and I go, "I know. It's not done like this. It's 48 hours, just enough time. It's not the same person." So you can look it up.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, I'm with you, I'm with you. "It's not the same person" — you were referencing as the person that blackmailed me years ago and has been blackmailing me for years.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, that's what — it's not the same person that's extorting me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so I want to go back to Wendi. Wendi is in the process of relocating from Tallahassee to South Florida, basically the day that this is going on, the day after the money drop, right? They're packing up the car, they're coming back.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So she's going to be moving significantly closer to the killers that had threatened her life.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She wasn't planning a permanent move or anything that was planned. I think she took a suitcase with her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But she's your family member.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She's much closer to the one they've already killed than you, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She's — say it again?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She's much closer. She's got much deeper connections to the person they've already killed — that's Dan Markel — than you do?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I mean, there's a reason to fear for her safety, because these killers have come, they've just killed Dan, and now they're saying they're going to kill another one. It could be Wendi, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She has no idea what's going on.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Exactly. But you let her move from Tallahassee to Miami where you knew the killers were located. That's my point. Do you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The killers were able to find Dan Markel in Tallahassee. They have a car. They were —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But would you rather live in Tallahassee or in Miami if the killers are in Miami?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think if these people want to find you, they'll find you.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I mean, looking at — Luis Rivera — I don't think a distance would stop them.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Where did Wendi and the boys live when she first moved to South Florida?
CHARLIE ADELSON: When she first moved to South Florida, she moved in with my parents. It's a small apartment. They actually had to get another apartment because that one was too small.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: With your parents — she moved in with them?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And I want to talk about the cameras. You bought cameras for the Adelson Institute and in your home at Whale Harbor, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, the camera system, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. And what about Wendi's — I guess she didn't have a place, so wherever she was staying with your parents — were cameras installed there as well, at that same time frame that you installed these cameras?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I never told her what happened. But they lived in a very secure building.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't it true, Doctor, that you've been planning to install those cameras for some time before the murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I actually already had cameras at my house that I had installed in 2008. The technology from 2008 to 2014, it changed a lot when it came to cameras.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I think you mentioned that. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I think you mentioned all that on direct. I'm referring to this particular update that was done post-homicide.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You were in communication with this camera guy — and I think your lawyer mentioned this — you had 84 text messages with him dating back to January 20th of 2014 in regards to the update that occurred post-murder. Do you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I know there was always talk that we were going to get cameras in the office, and we just never got around to it. When this happened, um, so that week, within probably three days, I called the camera guy up, and I said, "I want to get cameras in my house, new cameras for my house, and I want to get cameras in my office. How soon can you come out and do it?" And then he came out, I'd say four or five days after that, bought the equipment and installed it that week.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you hire a private investigator to help you with this whole problem you were having?
CHARLIE ADELSON: With the extortion?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I didn't tell anybody.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you get a bodyguard?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I carried a gun on me, and I always sleep with a gun next to me in bed. I carried a gun on my person and had a gun in my car at all times.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you recall a statement you made on the Dolce Vita recording that said you were going to start carrying a gun?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, because for a long time after this happened, I was carrying a gun. And it's uncomfortable, and I don't always like carrying guns. So I hadn't carried a gun in a while, and I was going to start carrying one again.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you did say in 2016, "I'm going to start carrying one."
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I carried probably for about four to six months after this happened. And, uh, I wear scrubs, so the gun that I had can kind of stick out, and it's uncomfortable. I prefer not to carry a gun.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So you quit carrying it. But during the time, you were still paying the extortion money?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. And the extortion money that you were paying, $3,000 a month, that wasn't going towards the principal of whatever was left on the $333,000, right? Didn't you testify to that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. So you never came up with the remaining bulk of the money that you owed?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Never.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And nobody ever came after you for that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No. They said you could pay it all off and it will be done, or just pay — you pay three thousand a month. So I thought about paying the full amount.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. Then a couple weeks later, after the initial extortion, you and Katherine Magbanua broke up, according to your direct. I have that right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's not correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But when did you break up?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Within a week, I met her, we went out to dinner and went out to eat, and I just said, "This has got to end."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. So you broke up with her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Weren't you scared that if you broke up with her, that she would sic the Latin Kings on you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, because I had every intention of paying every month. But when I broke up with her, and I said, "Listen, I don't want to surround myself with this, I'm scared," she said that she was going to come every month and pick up the money and protect me. And she — she understood, I mean — our relationship was on the rocks.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you've testified that all the gifts and stuff that you gave her were to keep her happy, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, when I — when I realized that she's the one who's protecting me and she wasn't a part of this extortion, I had no problem keeping her happy. And I looked for things to do, nice things to do for her, because she was broke.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But not worried about pissing her off by breaking up with her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, she — our relationship was definitely on the rocks. After July 1st, when Sigfredo cut me off and threatened me and called my dad, and then she knew I didn't even invite her to my dad's birthday party, which was a family gathering with family friends on July 5th — she knew pretty much we were going to be done.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: After you broke up with Katherine Magbanua a week after the murder, did you continue to talk to her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: We still communicated, for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Talk on the phone?
CHARLIE ADELSON: And texted, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And meet up?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, the only time I would see her was — I saw her again the end of August.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She came and picked up the money, and that's when she asked me if I could put her on the books, because none of this money was going to her and she needed to get health insurance for her kids.
CHARLIE ADELSON: So I said, "Yeah, I'll do it and help you out."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And did you continue to hook up with her?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: After the breakup. And by that I mean, you know, have sex with her.
CHARLIE ADELSON: There was one occasion. There was one time that we hooked up.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, when was that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I want to say it was probably about five months after we broke it up.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, well there was one other occasion before that, in October of 2014. Do you recall that? October 9th of 2014.
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's — that's probably the occasion I'm talking about, because July, when we count the months — July, August, September, October. So okay, so four months.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And there's another one on October 15th. You remember that one?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I think I just — I think we did hook up about one time.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, well, one time on October 9th and one time on October 15th.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought it was one time. If it was two times, it's been — could it have been two times? But no more.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And on August 25th, '14, that would have been after the breakup, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You text her, and then she replies, "I don't need help. I'm good. Don't need favors, nor will I trust anyone again. Erase my number, please. Go on with your life like you did already and have been doing."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "Sorry we spoke today. I don't want to stress your life more. Don't do anything for me." Do you remember receiving that text from Katherine Magbanua?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, sounds familiar.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And that's a pretty weird text to get from the extortionist. You're meeting her to give her money. Why is she saying "erase my number"?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She's not the extortionist.
CHARLIE ADELSON: In 2014, I didn't think she was the extortionist.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right, but it's been revealed that she was.
CHARLIE ADELSON: In 2019. So you're taking what was known in 2019 and you're trying to say I knew what I knew in 2014.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm not trying to say you knew. I'm trying to say she knew. She knew she was the extortionist.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why is she telling you to erase her number and leave her alone?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I broke up with her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Exactly.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On 9-11 of '14, she sends you "hashtag bestie for life." Do you remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Sounds familiar.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So did you all have some kind of reconciliation after the breakup?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I was probably doing her a favor and making her happy with something.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On 10-6 of 2014: "I love you. It makes me feel good that you care about me. I'm lucky to have you as part of my life." Do you remember sending that to her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On 10-9 of 2014, I mentioned the sex talk. I won't go into the details of it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Again, 10-15, more sex talk.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: 10-23 of '14: "Thank you again for everything you're doing for my mommy." She sends you that. What were you doing for her mother?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't know. I think I was going to — I did a consult for her, but I didn't do anything for her mom.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: 2-24 of '15, you agree that "she always knows how to make you smile," and you say "I love you" to her. Remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I cared a lot about Katie, and I didn't think that she was a part of this. So I was always trying to keep her happy and make her happy, and I felt like she got dragged into something that she shouldn't have been dragged into.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, maybe, but she dragged you into it as well.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't see it like that at all. Our relationship actually got stronger.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Initially, when I got extorted, I had limited contact with her, and I was cold to her. And then over time, I realized that she's the one who's protecting me, and she's not involved with these people. Because the extortion never went up, and Katie was always broke.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She was involved with them because she had a child with the guy, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't know for sure it was him.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you suspected always that it was him.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I always suspected that Sigfredo was behind this.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So wouldn't you want to distance yourself from this woman who — I mean, were you ever really that serious about her to begin with?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um, I mean, we spent seven, eight months together.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you were never considering marrying her.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I wasn't considering —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I mean, you were a playboy, right? You had a zillion girlfriends.
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's — that is actually not even true.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, did you have a lot of girlfriends?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I had two girlfriends in the two or three years after her. I dated Whitney Kick for nine months.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, but how many women were you talking to and engaging with sexually? A lot more than Whitney Kick, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: There could have been one or two.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Or more.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Point being, you were not going to marry Katherine Magbanua.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I wasn't having marriage plans, no.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And you have now broken up with her after this incident.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She's the person that's taking the money from you physically.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I looked at it as she's the one who's protecting me. If she wasn't, I was going to get a visit from somebody.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is she the one that was physically taking the money?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is she the one that was connected to the person you suspected to have killed your brother-in-law?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought she was tied to that person, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And she's the one that got you into this, right? Because she ran her mouth, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I looked at it that I ran my mouth too. And if I'd never said anything to her, this would never have happened.
CHARLIE ADELSON: So I felt responsible for saying something to her in the first place.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you didn't feel responsible enough to try to do anything about her sitting in jail, an innocent woman, for three years, did you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She never contacted me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You didn't offer to testify in her trial. You let her get convicted and get life in prison, didn't you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought the truth was going to come out.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But not through you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was never contacted.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought it was going to come out through her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was there any contact between your lawyers and her lawyers?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You'd have to ask them.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You said you didn't have any contact with her.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I had zero contact with her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So your lawyers didn't tell you anything on behalf of her lawyers?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And her lawyers didn't hear anything from your lawyers?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't know what lawyers talk about, but I can tell you that I never talked to Katie, and I never told my lawyers.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You never relayed a message through your lawyers that the Adelson family would not be talking in this case?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And she had nothing to worry about as far as that end was concerned?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's not true at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you or your agent contact her brother to offer to assist with her attorney's fees in her case?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's a complete lie.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On 10-27-15, you say you can't wait to get lunch with her, she's the best, and you're lucky to have her as a friend for life. Did you say that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: 10-27-15, you can't wait to get lunch with her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: 10-30-15, you tell her you miss her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: 12-9 of 15, again you tell her she's the best.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I said all those things.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you agree that this picture does not look like a relationship between an extortionist and her victim?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I agree, because Katie wasn't the extortionist.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She was the extortionist.
CHARLIE ADELSON: In 2014 and 2015, I didn't believe that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I know you didn't believe it, but we're looking back now, okay?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You know, it's like — if you're going to quote me, date me. Like, what I knew in 2014 and what I knew in 2015 is not what I know now in 2023.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, yes, I hear you.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You didn't know then, and that's why you were nice to her.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I thought she was protecting me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Got it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And none of those factors that I pointed out weighed into that consideration — that she ran her mouth, that she brought the Latin Kings on you, she was taking the money from you. None of that counterbalanced it. You were still gonna be friends with her and keep her happy.
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're wrong. I didn't know about the Latin Kings in 2014 or 2015. The —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: — love texts, which is what I'm referring to. All these texts where you're still nice to this person after you break up with her, you're still doing favors for this person after you break up with her, and that's like a major problem for your defense, isn't it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, our relationship got stronger. I agree, our relationship got stronger, but it was much different.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't that why she has to be an innocent conduit between you and the bad guys? Because if those texts didn't exist, she would be the extortionist and the bad actor in this whole thing, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm not following your theory.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You have to explain away those texts, don't you, Doctor?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I have to sit here and tell you the truth. And now you're finding it out.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Most people don't send kissy faces to people that are extorting money out of them. I mean, she was taking your money.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Again, Ms. Cappleman, she was not extorting me at the time.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That's not how it's done, is it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm telling you how it was done.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So then over these next two years, you would meet her monthly and hand over a bundle of checks and $3,000 in cash, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, you're wrong.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, tell me.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I would hand over $2,000 in cash and a bundle of checks.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: $2,000 in cash and a bundle of checks. And so over the course of two years — I'm terrible at math, but that's roughly how much money. Because I did, I think I did $3,000, it's $48,000 in cash in addition to the 138 you provided the night of. Do you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Your math is correct. I'm just telling you what I paid her each month.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And the checks, which is another $17,000, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're doing the math.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: It was a lot of money. Was it a lot of money to you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It was a lot of money to me, yeah.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I work hard.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did the extortionist, whoever they were, ever try to increase the payments or come for more money?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The extortion never went up, and Katie was always broke. And that's what led me to think that she was not a part of this.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Because she could have easily jacked up the payments.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, she's sharing $3,000 a month with a bunch of other people, right? At least one other person.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't think she was sharing it. Why is she coming to me for $300 for her kid's birthday?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Because she's broke. Because she wasn't getting any of the money. Because half of $3,000 doesn't do much when you're living in Miami with two kids to feed, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't think she was sharing anything.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, even if she was sharing it — that's your point. She must not have been taking the money because she was broke. And my point is, she could have been taking half the money and been broke.
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's not how I saw it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That's not a lot of money.
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's not how I saw it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Tell me about Dan Markel a little bit. What you sort of said — what I heard, correct me if I'm wrong — was he was, you know, a nice enough guy, typical Wendi boyfriend, but not really your kind of guy.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I think it's an accurate description.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. Do you agree that he was this brilliant legal mind?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think he was a little nerdy, nice guy.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Just kind of like the average guy that my sister dated.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Not the kind of guy you want to have a beer with, though?
CHARLIE ADELSON: We never had a beer together. I mean, not that I wouldn't have had a beer if he wanted to have one. We just didn't have that much in common, but he was always nice to me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you appreciate the fact that his death was a terrible loss to his sons?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It was horrible.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you think they were better off without him?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you host a celebration dinner after his murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's a complete lie.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On the wire, would you agree that the Markel boys were in the background pretty much of every call you had with your mom? I mean, we hear them a lot, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: My sister was working, so my parents would help my sister out, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yeah, and it was summertime, so they were out of school, I would assume.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't know if it was every call, but they definitely helped my sister out, for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. And those calls captured Donna pushing them on the swings — that call that tortured all of us a couple times. Remember that one?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, there was a call where she was pushing them on the swing, taking them to tennis lessons. That was — that was the same day. I mean, that was the same call that got broken up and she called me back. But yes, doing their bedtime routine, helping my sister out for sure, reading stories, brushing teeth, getting haircuts, going to piano, story time, and bedtime, all of that kind of stuff.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All stuff that parents and grandparents do.
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. She even said to you on one of the calls regarding the bedtime routine that, quote, "we have a whole routine going." Do you remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah. I have a whole routine with my son. I mean, I think it's normal with kids — you have a routine to put them to bed, right? You gotta brush your teeth, can't forget to brush your teeth, all the —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yeah, well, dental humor couldn't hurt, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: What's that?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All the kind — all the things that, you know, your mom wouldn't have been able to do as readily if the kids were living in Tallahassee. Agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I mean, when they'd come up to visit them, they'd be doing the same thing.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Sure, when they came up to visit. But now they're doing it every day, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Almost every day. Not every day, but when my sister needed them, she helped them out.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And these are all things — these little routine things — that Dan Markel will never be able to do with his sons. Do you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Does your mom have a favorite child?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She says she doesn't have favorites, but I don't think she likes my older brother.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. But is Wendi the favorite?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'd like to think it's a tie. It's going to be Wendi.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Does your mom worry more about Wendi than you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Let's do before this case.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I don't. I mean, I don't. I think maybe in different parts of my life she's probably more concerned about me. Different parts of my sister's life she may be more concerned about her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is it true that your mom has a tendency to worry herself sick if there's something going on with one of you kids?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I mean, she's a concerned mom, but I think she's a normal mom.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was she pretty worried about Wendi's marital problems?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She wasn't?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think — no. I think she'd get upset when my sister would tell her things that Danny was doing and going to work bad-mouthing her. But I think any parent would get upset.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But also she would meticulously go through all the filings and send long emails detailing her thoughts about every filing in this divorce.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I don't think that's the case at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Did she hate Dan Markel?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think she liked him in the beginning, for sure. And I think when he was being a jerk to my sister, I don't think anyone particularly liked him when he was being a jerk.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What about around the time that he was killed? Did your mother hate Dan Markel?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I think it kind of, like, tapered off, I think. She only disliked him when he was being mean to my sister. Other than that, nobody had a problem with that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: He was being mean to your sister during these divorce proceedings and subsequent litigation, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think it was on and off. I think it was sporadic.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And when your mom's worried about Wendi, does she come to you for solutions or to talk things out?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I don't think "worried" is the right word to describe it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Does she ever make Wendi's problems your problems?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Like convincing you to get Wendi to pull the plug on the house on Halloween 2013?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Didn't she convince you to sort of take up that cause?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, that was actually me. I shared my thoughts on homeownership for my sister. That was all me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Didn't you say that if she had bought that house, that would have been the second-worst decision of Wendi's life?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought it was going to be a stupid decision to buy that house.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And what was the first-worst decision of Wendi's life?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought when she — I mean, looking at hindsight 20/20, I think she'd agree — when she married Dan.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And did you convince her to take a particular job as well? Remember that call?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, she got an offer from a law firm and she was debating whether or not she should take it. She didn't know if it was exactly what she wanted to do. And I was like, "Hey, you don't know what you don't like doing until you've done it. It seems like a great opportunity. Like, why not do it, learn the job skill? It's a skill you don't —" And she's like, "Well, I don't have that skill." And I'm like, "Well, it's a good opportunity to learn it, and you may like it. And if you don't like it, then try something else." But I was trying to encourage her to take what sounded like a great opportunity.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And Mom shared your thoughts — and I'm referring to Donna Adelson — shared your thoughts about this opportunity being a good one for Wendi, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um, I — I probably heard about the job from my mom, but I definitely heard about it from my sister, because I'm talking to my sister about it. Yeah, I mean, the job was not what she had any experience in, right? It was a whole nother field of law. Then that was my point — it was like, well, why not take it if they're offering it to you, and you can learn something new? It sounds like a great opportunity. Do you and Donna know what's best for Wendi better than she knows herself? No. But — not at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Were you a spy when it came to Wendi? Did you get information from Donna — I mean, from Wendi — and relay it to Donna?
CHARLIE ADELSON: At times, because I was dating Bree, and Bree worked for Dave. So I would hear stuff about Dave from Bree. So I kind of had an inside — I got inside information.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: In what capacity did Bree work for Dave?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Dave was — after she graduated from college, she was working as a nanny for Dave.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. And how old was Bree during the time you were dating her? Was she significantly younger than you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was 24, and I was 39.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is Bree the mother of your child?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She is the mother of my child, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. So back to Wendi — Wendi and Donna. So Wendi, was she tight-lipped with Donna about her private life?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't think she shared everything.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But she would tell things to you that she wouldn't tell to Donna.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I can't say that for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Can you play clip one, please?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Publishing call EEE.
AUDIO RECORDING: Yeah, would you?
AUDIO RECORDING: Where are you going?
AUDIO RECORDING: I'm just going to stop off in there.
AUDIO RECORDING: You're not getting it. So what you need to do is, she's obviously typing for a reason. She doesn't want you to know anything.
AUDIO RECORDING: Anything, anything.
AUDIO RECORDING: So my point is, if she doesn't want you to know anything, then don't ask anything. I know she's happy, and then I can find everything out and just tell you. I know.
AUDIO RECORDING: So, I think that's like — so, what are you doing for your birthday? It's like, "Well, Wendi's making me, like, a little birthday dinner, a little get-together party."
AUDIO RECORDING: I'm like, "That's awesome." She's like, "Yeah, she's doing it." She's like, "I don't know anything. All I know is Wendi's putting it together for me, and she's doing it in Redwood."
AUDIO RECORDING: Aw.
AUDIO RECORDING: All I knew is that she was going straight from work to the hotel where everybody is meeting, which is Miami Dulles in Michigan, and that she was going to be here tonight because it starts early, first thing tomorrow morning.
AUDIO RECORDING: In between, she managed to do something — ...which makes me happy. I'm really glad. Oh, yeah. I couldn't imagine, huh? Yeah.
AUDIO RECORDING: You guys have been good?
AUDIO RECORDING: Yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you remember yesterday, you were telling a story about Katie coming in from having had some kind of altercation with Garcia, and she had reported that the necklace had been pulled off her neck. Do you remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And when you were relaying that story to the jury, you used a specific term describing what Garcia had done to her. Do you remember what that term was?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, it was only yesterday, but you'll have to refresh my memory how I described it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You said he roughed her up.
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's accurate.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And that put my antenna out, because that "roughed up" — "roughed them up" — is the exact same phrase that Katherine Magbanua said in her proffer that you used on Halloween 2013 when you first approached her about, "Does she know anyone who can rough someone up?"
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I think "getting roughed up" is an adjective. But what you're doing is the same thing you did with your TV theory. It's like, you heard "TV" mentioned multiple times, so you put the whole case together with the TV.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, we'll get to the TV.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you're putting the whole case together with the word "roughed up."
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I mean, I'm not putting the whole case together.
JUDGE EVERETT: One moment. Don't speak over each other.
JUDGE EVERETT: Please wait for him to answer, then you can ask your next question.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But that's an unusual — I mean, you know, it's a specific term. I'm not making a whole case out of it, but did you say "roughed up" in both places?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um, Katie was roughed up by Sigfredo when he tore the necklace off of her neck.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes. And isn't that the same term you used when you first broached Katherine Magbanua about — couldn't — did she know someone who could rough up someone else?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Never in my life have I ever asked her that question. Ever in my life. That conversation never took place.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you ever hear — did you hear Donna Adelson refer to Dan Markel as stupid?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Were you laughing when Wendi was on the stand and I read all the names that Donna referred to Dan Markel as?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I laughed when you said the word "fucker" in court.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. What did she mean when she said Dan Markel was trying to take her sunshines away? Do you know?
CHARLIE ADELSON: My mom never said that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So you never heard her say that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That was made up and he put it in a court filing.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And then now it becomes something that my mom said because someone made it up and put it in a court filing. My mom never said that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did your mom refer to the children as her sunshines?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, the kids were three and four. A three- and four-year-old can't repeat a conversation and remember words six hours later and repeat it accurately. I have a five-year-old son; never seen a three- or four-year-old do that. So it was made up, and now you're repeating it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Have you been a good brother to Wendi?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I've always tried to be a good brother.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: It sounds like maybe you're not agreeing that this was a really nasty divorce, or are you agreeing it was a nasty divorce?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I mean, I don't think any divorces can be pleasant, but I think they definitely had their fights. I mean, they were fighting over bicycles and all kinds of crap.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But in addition to that, Dan Markel accused your sister of fraud, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: He made an accusation, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Threatened her with federal kidnapping charges?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's a new one. You just told me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That one's in the emails that are in evidence. Did you review those?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't review the federal kidnapping charges in this case.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was seeking contempt proceedings? You heard about that here in court, yes?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I heard about that, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Even went after her lawyer personally, right? Right?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: He made serious threats against her lawyer. And her bar card could have been in jeopardy if any of those, or some of them—
CHARLIE ADELSON: I heard the other day she was saying that, I guess, her lawyer he was threatening her lawyer's bar card. Her lawyer's bar card as well as Wendi's. He was making lots of threats and writing lots of stuff, I guess.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And he messed with your mom too, didn't he? In that grandma motion, you know which one I'm talking about?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't think he was messing with my mom. I mean, nobody took that seriously. I don't think anyone even knew about it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is it your mom— I'm sorry, finish.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said, I don't think anyone even knew about it till years later.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't your mom notorious for always getting worked up about everything?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She gets upset. I mean, she's a concerned mom, I mean—
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But is she notorious for getting really worked up about everything, to a certain extent? Aren't those your own words from a call that's in evidence in this case?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, those are my words, but, you can't, not to an extreme. But she does worry, especially when, like, Latin King gang members are extorting her for money.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did your mom take the grandma motion seriously?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't think she even knew about it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She didn't talk to you about it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No. I didn't find out about it until years later.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Wasn't this divorce a big deal in your family?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It didn't affect my life, I can tell you that. So I don't think that's true. I think it was a big deal in my sister's life.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why did Wendi testify that she was getting along well with Dan Markel just prior to his death?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Can we agree that's not true?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think there were ups and downs in how they got along. I mean, you've got to ask her. She was on the stand. I mean, I wasn't living her life.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is it part of your defense to minimize how nasty and contentious this divorce was?
CHARLIE ADELSON: My defense is to tell the truth.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you have any input on the decision to change the boys' names from Markel to Adelson?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you and Donna have to protect Wendi?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Does Wendi appreciate everything you and Donna do for her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You've got to ask her. I mean, she's my sister. I love her. I try to give her my best advice I can; I care about her. And I give her my advice; whether she takes it or not is up to her. She's a grown woman.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Let me ask it another way. Do you feel — or isn't it true that you don't feel — that Wendi appreciates everything you and Donna do for her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: My sister had no idea what I've been through in the last, God knows how many years. And I wake up worrying, am I going to get killed? Am I going to get arrested?
CHARLIE ADELSON: And she knows none of it. She's just going around her life. And I had somewhat of an innate anger towards her, you know, probably unjust because she didn't know what happened.
CHARLIE ADELSON: But, yeah, I was upset.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And weren't you saying on the wire that she doesn't appreciate what you and Donna have done for her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't know if I said that she doesn't appreciate what I've done for her, because I never did anything for her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, so that was my next question. What have you done for her? Nothing?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Other than give her advice and care about her — big brother that loves her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Would you say Wendi's a little bit spoiled?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um, in some — in some regards. I mean, she gets a lot of help, for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is she a little less savvy about how the world works than you are?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You gotta ask her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Could you trust Wendi with a secret that could ruin your life?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It's not — it's not a secret. It's something that would get me killed. So I didn't want to tell her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Can we agree that she obviously knew something about this crime?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She found out when she came to court. I never told her anything.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm talking about the murder of Dan Markel.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She knew something, right? I mean, it's not a coincidence she went to the crime scene, is it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're talking about the route that she took that day?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm talking about her pulling up to the crime scene tape.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She never went to the crime scene. She was going to buy a bottle of liquor that, coincidentally, the person sent her a Stock the Bar party for, by a bottle, Bullet Bourbon, that she was going to pick up. She wasn't driving to a crime scene, and I think she made that clear, too. Nobody knew a murder was taking place.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She pulled up to the crime scene tape, Dr. Adelson.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She didn't pull up to the crime scene tape. She was driving down the street and then had to make a U-turn. It was blocked off. But she wasn't going to — couldn't help herself. Nobody knew a murder was going to take place.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She exposed you all to some degree by those actions, didn't she?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then she threw you under the bus in her interview, didn't she?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Nobody knew a murder was going to take place.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She knew her husband had just been shot, and they were asking her who would want him dead, and she said your name. Are you mad about that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, she said a lot of people's names.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, she said yours in the first 25 pages of a five-hour interview. Isn't that true?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I wasn't there for the interview.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you've reviewed it in preparation for your trial, haven't you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I actually don't know if I've seen her interview.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: There were a lot of questions of you about, you know, didn't you do this murder with Wendi? Doesn't the state think you did this murder with Wendi? Have you — are you familiar with your charges in this case?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I'm very familiar with my charges.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And who are you alleged to have done this murder with?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I'm very familiar with my charges.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And who are you alleged to have done this murder with? With?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm alleged to have done this murder with my sister, my mom, and my dad.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Would it refresh your recollection to review a copy of the indictment in this case?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm a slow reader, but I could read it if you want.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: May I approach, Your Honor?
JUDGE EVERETT: You may.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: This is the official charging document in your case, Dr. Adelson. What does it say in reference to who you are alleged to have committed the murder with?
CHARLIE ADELSON: This is what— Today is— This? Oh.
CHARLIE ADELSON: They think I did a murder with Katie — Katherine Magbanua. Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Anybody else?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Give me a minute, I'll read.
CHARLIE ADELSON: They— Got Luis Rivera in here. They got Sigfredo Garcia as being alleged to have committed the murder with you. I read it too quick.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Should just be at the very top of each charge: "On or about July 18th, 2014, did unlawfully..."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, Katie.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Are you mad that Wendi hasn't been charged and you have?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I'm mad that I got charged with a crime that I didn't commit.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you have any innate anger with Wendi over that fact?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Are you pissed that she told all that stuff to Jeff Lacasse?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't think she said that to Jeff, but I wasn't there.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: How did Lacasse know about the celebration dinner?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That we went out to dinner?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She got sick, so she may have told someone that she threw up.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then what — he just added the part about you referring to it as a celebration?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I never referred to it as a celebration dinner. I picked my sister up. I said, "Where do you want to go to eat?" She said she wanted pizza or sushi.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said, I know a great sushi place. We went there. We didn't have reservations. We ended up sitting at the bar for an hour waiting for our table, and she had two drinks and got sick.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She vomited on the dinner table, or at the dinner table?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, she got — got her to the bathroom. But yeah, she doesn't drink alcohol, so those two drinks, and I think on an empty stomach — I think she got really sick. But there was — there was no celebration dinner. It was the first time that she actually really left the house since she got back from Tallahassee. She was devastated.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you say something to her about the murder of Dan Markel right before she vomited?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you remember what you said right before she vomited?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Uh, she's probably — I think she said, "I don't feel well." I say, "Oh no," and then she threw up. Before that — no, I think I said, "Oh no," and then she threw up before she announced that she was going to be ill.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right. Do you remember what the conversation was?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Just, "How's the food?"
CHARLIE ADELSON: Probably about halfway through dinner.
CHARLIE ADELSON: If you look at the timetable, we weren't there long.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why did you brag to Jeffrey Lacasse about your connection to the Cuban criminal element?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Never said that to Jeff Lacasse.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So he's making that up?
CHARLIE ADELSON: If he said it, I never said it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You were in here when he said it, weren't you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I heard him say it, yeah.
CHARLIE ADELSON: But I never said that to him.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On one of these calls — and it's in the context of talking about Dave and Wendi's relationship with Dave — you tell your mom that you've already gone above and beyond for Wendi.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was that a reference to having her ex murdered?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, that's me getting tired of this Dave stuff. I mean, Dave's a great guy. I mean, everyone who meets him likes him. He's not only super successful, but he's a very low-key, like, T-shirts-and-jeans kind of guy. And he loved my sister's kids. I mean, if you listen to the wire, the point I was making is not how successful he is. The point I was making is that my nephew farted on him, and he thought it was funny and didn't bother him. And he also has three young kids the same ages as my sister's two young kids. They actually met in line when my sister was registering the kids for school, and it was very — they've been friends for years. So I thought it was a great opportunity for my sister to have a great guy in her life.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And I was getting sick and tired of Dave calls. And the wires started in April. My sister's birthday's in April. Dave's birthday's in April. So you got a ton of Dave chatter on this case. But believe me, I'd go crazy if I was talking about Dave like this all year long.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, that's a no — you did not reference having her ex murdered?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely not.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When you said you've already gone above and beyond?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, that was me getting sick of dealing with the Dave stuff. As great as the guy is, I was still getting sick of it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When the million-dollar offer was conceived, do you recall whose idea that was?
CHARLIE ADELSON: My parents.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why was the relocation worth a million bucks?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, it was — it was actually good. I was going to pay a third, so I looked at it that way.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why was it worth it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Mm-hmm. That's a question. Because it was going to help my sister out, and it was going to give her a good opportunity for a good job down here, and she was going to be around family, and family is important. So that's why.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't it true that financially you came out ahead on this deal as opposed to if you had coughed up the third of the million-dollar offer?
CHARLIE ADELSON: How in the world did I come out ahead?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: This is the crazy thing. Financially, you paid $138,000, then you paid $2,000 a month, plus the $1,000 payroll amount.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You're still over $100,000 ahead financially than if you had coughed up the $333,000.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I would have been better off paying. First of all, I never paid for a murder. This is a crazy question.
CHARLIE ADELSON: But paying $3,000 a month for life is not anything anybody wants to do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I didn't say anything about paying for a murder. I said you paid $138,000, which you did.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I got extorted for $330,000, and then you paid —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you didn't pay the $330,000, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I — I didn't have it. I had cleared out my safe, and that was what was in my safe that night.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. Can we agree that Wendi was stressed out about the issues surrounding her divorce?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think the divorce caused stress in her life, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you were hearing about it from your mother, weren't you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I would hear, "Wendi's totally stressed out, yesterday was a rough one," that sort of thing.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Like I said before, my sister would tell my mom a story. I'd be sitting in the car driving, my mom would be talking to me and telling me the latest story of the day. And that's how — that's how I found out a lot.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then on 2/19 of '14, Donna texts you again to tread lightly with Wendi and refers to Dan Markel as an asshole and a fucker, right? Sorry.
CHARLIE ADELSON: You made me laugh.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Sorry.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That's what I'm here for.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Is that what happened? That text? Did my mom use a foul word to describe him?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes, sir. Asshole and fucker, to be specific.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She used a curse word, correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is that pretty strong language for your mom, or is that how she speaks?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I mean, it is pretty strong language, but I think — I mean, I've been called a lot worse. But I mean, my mom used the curse word, she used the curse word, you just used curse words too, so.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was Wendi less stressed?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Oh, I — yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was Wendi less stressed — was she stressed out once all this litigation was over?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, she was a million times more stressed out.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was she better off financially?
CHARLIE ADELSON: There may have been some, but not much. I don't think so.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was she able to stop paying her $800-an-hour divorce lawyers?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did she get $2.7 million in benefits for her children, plus $4,800 a month for the boys' benefit?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No. As far as I know, that money was in trust for — and it's controlled by Dan Markel's sister. So none of that money — you keep saying it like the money went to her. The money's in trust for the kids, and that money never went to her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Some of it went to her, and some of it was in trust for the kids, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't know the breakdown, but I know the 90-something percent of what you're talking about is in trust, and it's in trust for the children. It's not for her benefit.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right. It's for the benefit of the boys, but it has to come through her because they're children, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, it has to —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When she gets disbursements, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It has to go through the executor of the trust.
CHARLIE ADELSON: And my sister's not the executor of the trust. No, sir.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm not saying she is. When the executor of the trust disburses money for the benefit of the boys, it gets disbursed to Wendi, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: See, you know more than I know.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did — You have trouble sleeping after the murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: After I was extorted, for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did Katie text you on 12/19 of '15: "Sorry, we have problems sleeping and shit. We do have a lot of weight on our shoulders." Did —
CHARLIE ADELSON: She text me that?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did she text you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I mean, she may have, but it sounds about right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you want to look at the text?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I can look at it, sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You can look around for context if you want, but I'm looking at page two of this exhibit, and it's got a little box around it.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Thanks.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: If — that refreshes your recollection, the question is, did she send it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I want to go over a little bit some of the payments or gifts that you gave to Katherine Magbanua.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: We've heard a lot about her being put on the payroll at the Adelson Institute, and she made this demand to you when you met her to give her the first extortion payment on the payment plan. Is that correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She didn't make a demand. And when I gave her the $3,000 for her friend, she asked me if I could do her a favor and put her on payroll for $1,000 a month so that she could get insurance for her kids. She was going to cash the check, and the money was still going to her friend, so that money wasn't going to her.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was getting insurance for her kids.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And did you believe her that she would give the money from the paychecks to the friend?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I believed what she was saying to me, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't it true that Katherine Magbanua actually asked you to place her on the payroll back in June, prior to this extortion effort?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't know if I put her on payroll. She asked me if I could put her — something — when I was dating her, put her something on the office, so she could get insurance.
CHARLIE ADELSON: But I never did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And that was in June.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I remember she had asked me about it before, but I never did anything.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: June 24th of 2014 — she says, "Baby, I'm going to need help on the employment info I have to send to DCF for my kids' insurance. Also, if I have to end up moving later on, I need to show I'm working for you, or else I won't be able to get an apartment." To which you respond, "No problem." Remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, but I wasn't thinking she was asking about payroll. I think she was asking just to say that she worked there — it's on a letter saying that she was employed.
CHARLIE ADELSON: That doesn't say anything about writing checks to her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And that request was made in between the two trips that the killers made, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, she asked me if I could do that for her while I was dating her, and I never even did it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And did she ask if you could do that in between the two trips that the killers made?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't know when they went up, but I found out later that they went up in June.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so that email would have been sent — or, I'm sorry, it's a text. That text would have been sent prior to what you're calling the first layer of the extortion.
CHARLIE ADELSON: That text was sent to me while I was dating her, but I never —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Prior to the first layer of extortion?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The text was sent in June.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Prior to the first layer of extortion?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Before I was extorted, yeah.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Before I broke up with her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you say several times on the wire that she was cleaning at the office. Was she really cleaning?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, she never worked for us.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She was doing some type of cleanup for you, wasn't she?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What's— The purpose of — of keeping Katie happy — was she gonna sic the Latin Kings on you if you made her unhappy?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was — she was protecting me. I didn't know what would happen, and she was keeping my mind, like — when that extortion never went up, I just assumed... I thought that she wasn't part of it and she was protecting me. Usually extortion goes up. It always — always gets ratcheted up, from what I've heard.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What's the fear of not keeping her happy is what I'm trying to understand.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, I could get killed, or the people who are extorting me could come rob me. And I didn't get killed, I didn't get robbed. The extortion never went up.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought she was really protecting me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: If that's the case, why not just — I mean, you're complying with everything they've asked you to do, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm doing everything that was asked to do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So why reach out and say, "Hey, can I get you a trip to Key West?" — to go with that extortion money?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I never said, "Can I get you a trip to Key West?"
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You didn't say you were trying to get them the owner's cottage?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Maybe it's not in Key West. Trying to get them the owner's cottage because it's the nicest — $380 a night, the postcard.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you recall all those conversations?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Oh, yeah, for sure. And that was — she'd actually asked me weeks before the bump, because I had this connection at a place called The Moorings that I could get like a really great place. It's a really affordable price for how nice the place is, and I said I was going to make some calls and help her out and get it. And then I ended up giving her $300 — for the, uh, when she picked up that bag at my house, I put $300 in it, and I got her a hotel room.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is that — yes, you remember that conversation?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And she didn't want the trip. In the text messages she's saying like, "No thanks," and you're kind of forcing it down her throat. Do you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, because actually it's funny — at that time in the wire I was trying to see if Katie and him were together or they weren't together. So that's why I kept asking, "How, you know, how are things, are you guys okay?" You know, because if they were fighting, it was making me think more and more that the reason she was avoiding me was because she found out that he was the one who was doing the second extortion. Again, so I was trying to figure out if it was him, and if she was lying to me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: She — in this case — she says, "I don't want to do anything," and you say, "You know what, F that, you're going there, you're going to have a good time."
CHARLIE ADELSON: For sure. I was trying to do nice things for her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Then — did you pay for a trip, or offer — I guess offer to pay for a trip — to Santo Domingo, for Katherine Magbanua and Sigfredo Garcia, to visit his parents?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I — I didn't know who she was going with, but I — I paid for —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You're talking about airline tickets?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes. She — yeah, she called me up, she had an emergency, something happens. She booked tickets for the wrong date. I didn't — I had no idea who in the family she was going with, um, and she had no money. And I remember I was in Chicago, I was at a friend's wedding, and I took out my credit card and I gave her the credit card number, let her book tickets. I thought she was going with her kids.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So is that a yes, you paid?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Oh yeah, no, I remember that. Well, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So go quicker if we can. Just — I'm sorry — answer the question.
JUDGE EVERETT: What's the objection?
MR. RASHBAUM: Argumentative.
JUDGE EVERETT: Overruled.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you offer to buy Katherine Magbanua and her mom a cruise?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes. Katie had mentioned to me that she always wanted to be able to take her mom on a cruise.
CHARLIE ADELSON: So I offered, but she never took me up on it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you call in prescriptions for Katherine Magbanua?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was a patient of record at my office.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you pay for a meal service for Katherine Magbanua?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you pay for car repairs for her?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, all this stuff was making me think she was broke. So yes, you're right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you offer that she could use your Range Rover any time?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said she could borrow the car, sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did she talk about getting a boat, and you offered to help her get a boat?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I never offered to help her get a boat. I offered to help her look for a boat.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you pay for the breast augmentation?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: No part of the breast augmentation?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Not at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So when she's saying — at the same time, she's the day of the breast augmentation, "Can I just put it on the credit card" — is she referring — "can I just put it on your credit card" — is she referring to something else, some other expense?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I have no idea what she's referring to, but I did not pay for her boob job.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What about this birthday gift for Sigfredo Garcia? What was the bonsai tree in the bag? What was that all about?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Oh, she had asked me — and it's on a wire, it's actually it's on 4/20 — where she says, "Can you get me some bud from Bud, my next-door neighbor's bud." And she asked me if I could get some marijuana from my next-door neighbor for her.
CHARLIE ADELSON: So that's what — when I said, "I have a bonsai tree for you," she asked me and I got her a little bit of marijuana from my next-door neighbor for her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you said, "I don't know what a married man with kids would want for his birthday, but you did your best."
CHARLIE ADELSON: I did my best. I was being completely sarcastic. I never would get Sigfredo Garcia a present in my life.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you thought you hit it out of the park with the weed and the gift card. Did you say that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Give me a little more context.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: The context is, you don't know what a married man with kids would want for his birthday, but you did your best, and you think you hit it out of the park.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I was being completely sarcastic, because she had asked me for that marijuana two weeks earlier, and I gave it to her, and then I was joking around when I gave it to her. I didn't want him to think that I was hooking up with her. So I started to joke around about it, and then I was like, "You know, maybe you can just tell him it was from me," because I didn't want him to think that I'm hooking up with Katie, and that's why I gave it to her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Can we agree in general that it's important to maintain positive feelings between co-conspirators?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: If you're a co-conspirator with someone in a crime, you want to keep a positive relationship with that person. Will you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm not a co-conspirator with her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, I'm saying in general. Can you agree in general that co-conspirators in a crime want to stay friendly with each other?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm not a co-conspirator with her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, can't agree to that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: If a co-conspirator develops a motive to harm another one, that could be bad, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: If a co-conspirator — say it again.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Say, you know, a husband and wife do a murder together.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then 10 years later, you know, they've gotten away with it, but 10 years later, they fall out. That could be a problem.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Somebody might start talking, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was never part of a murder.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Were these gifts — these things that you provided to Katherine Magbanua and her mother and Sigfredo Garcia — payment for the murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Okay, I never got Sigfredo a gift in my life. The guy absolutely hates me. He wants to kill me. He stalked me. He extorted me. Like, that was being completely sarcastic. And sometimes I make some bad jokes, but even when I wrote, "He wanted to take me deep-sea fishing," I knew he wanted to kill me. Like, you have that text, too. I didn't think we were going deep-sea fishing.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On April 6th of 2015, did you receive a text from Katherine Magbanua that reads, "Next time, don't be such a dick to someone who has done something for you"?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, she's protecting me, and she's mad at me over something.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Are these gifts what it took to secure her silence for so long?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, absolutely not. I was never trying to get her silence. I was hoping she'd tell the truth.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was your dad's birthday in between the two trips that the killers took?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um, yeah. My dad's birthday is July 5th.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And what birthday was that for him?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It was his 70th birthday party.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. So there's been a lot of talk about the texting between you and your mom about the birthday. And she texts you on March 4th of 2014 and says she can't talk now but she'll call when she goes to the bathroom in Gainesville and has privacy. She tells you to erase that text after you read it. Why did she have you erase that text?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Okay, if you look at the records, I never erased the text.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, why did she ask you, if you know? You may not know.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Maybe she's afraid my dad's looking at her phone and would find out about the present. It made no sense to me. That's why I was like, I didn't erase anything.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: How is you erasing the text going to prevent your dad from seeing it on your mom's phone?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, if my dad looked at my mom's phone, then he'd see the text and maybe know what she's planning for his birthday.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You weren't with Dad. She was with Dad, just to clarify.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, she was with my dad.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And the text that she asked you to erase, that particular text didn't say anything about a birthday or paella. Can we agree on that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not. But I knew what it was about.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Twenty minutes later, she texts again and asks something about Dad's birthday. Do you remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I know — we were trying to plan a surprise cruise. That was the original idea.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, and the paella is mentioned elsewhere, not in this particular thread that we're talking about now. Was paella the big birthday gift?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I paid for the catering for the whole party.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Then three months later, on June 8th, just after midnight, you text her, quote, "Still working on Dad's birthday present." Was that in reference to the paella guy?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Uh, possibly. Or, possibly — what I was also getting was a present, I mean, it's been 10 years so I don't know exactly what I got him 10 years ago on his birthday. And then what I was thinking about—
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm sorry, you weren't done?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, or what I was thinking about getting him.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then at 1 a.m., Mom texts you back, "I know you'll " and I think she was in Israel, so that might account for the time, but she texts you, quote, "I know you'll come through for me." Is that what she said?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's what the text is, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Can we agree the timing of these texts is consistent with being sent the day after the killers got home from their failed June murder trip?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, it's consistent with a few weeks before my dad's birthday and trying to figure out what we're going to get him.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Didn't you go to Dan's funeral in—
CHARLIE ADELSON: Canada? Uh, I think there were some in Tallahassee and in Canada as well, I know there—
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you go to either? There was a memorial service here.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um, I didn't go to that. No, I didn't attend. I — I knew what had happened to him, and there's no way I could have shown up. I would have been too upset.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Mr. Dubin, your lawyer that was here — seems like a long time ago — at jury selection, said, you know, people have different waves of grieving and that sort of thing. Were you — were you grieving for the death of Dan Markel?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I felt horrible about what happened, and I knew — knew what happened.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When did you—
CHARLIE ADELSON: I wasn't — I wasn't — I wasn't close to him, um, but either way, I mean, I felt horrible about what happened.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When did you find out exactly how he was killed? Meaning, like, shot twice in the head?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I found out, um, it would have been the next morning, is how I found out he got shot in the head.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you agree that this was a first-degree murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Do I agree?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And premeditated. The people who killed him planned on killing him.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you think everyone involved should be convicted?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think everyone involved should be convicted.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Even the person that hired the hit?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think anybody who played a role in it. But I wasn't a part of it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you regret that Dan Markel suffered for 14 hours before he died?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I feel horrible.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: He was supposed to die quickly, instantly, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Are you asking me?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I am.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, he wasn't supposed to die at all. This was horrible what happened.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did it surprise you that the cops were able to identify the Prius?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Did it surprise me? Yes.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm not a cop. I don't know how cops investigate.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did it surprise you to learn that it's not a requirement of law to put the person at the scene of a crime to be guilty of a crime?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Listen, I'm not a police detective.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was the police work in this case thorough?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm sure the police did the best they could.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you think that you had done everything properly such that you could never be detected or caught for this?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I wasn't part of his murder at all. You have it wrong.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Katherine Magbanua has said that you think you're untouchable. Is that true, doctor?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's not true at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did your parents drop off money to you on the night of the murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I never saw my parents there. You can look at our cell phones, and you'll find that out — that we never saw each other.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I did look at the cell phones, and what is on there is your mom texts you, quote, "outside your house."
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I mean look at the tower information.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I think you testified that that meant she was just passing by on the roadway.
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was approaching by the area, yeah, to see if I was home.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And do you know what your response was to her text?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, like 20 or 30 minutes later, I said 10 minutes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "I'm 10 minutes out" is what you said.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think I said 10 minutes, but yeah, I'm not home.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Doesn't that indicate you're going to meet them at your house in 10 minutes?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I told her to let me know when you're going to be in the area.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was the money that Katherine Magbanua got damp?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I never gave her any money that was damp. The money I gave her came out of my safe.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was it damp?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No. I took it out of my safe. I put it on the dresser. She put it in her purse.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why did Garcia and Rivera, or whoever did it, I guess I should say — why did whoever did it need to kill someone to extort you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You gotta ask them.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why couldn't they just come put a gun to your head and say, give me all the money in your safe?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Thank God they didn't.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Thank God they didn't?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Thank God they didn't. I would have gotten killed.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: If Garcia hated you, why would he drive to Tallahassee twice to kill someone you hated?
CHARLIE ADELSON: He was — it sounds like he was part of the extortion, or Katie put him up to it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Doesn't blackmail or extortion usually involve the extortionist having some kind of dirt on the victim?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I know how this was done to me. I know — I'm just telling you what happened to me. I don't — I'm not an expert in it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: If they had come in and threatened to kill you, would you have given them the money in your safe?
CHARLIE ADELSON: If someone came and put a gun to my head — yeah, I would have opened up my safe and I would have given them the money.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I still don't get how killing Dan Markel advances the ball for them to extort money out of you. Do you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, I have a theory.
CHARLIE ADELSON: They could extort me for life, and I don't think they knew exactly how much I had in the safe. She knew I had a lot of money in the safe. But this way I could get extorted for life, and that's what happened. And I was stuck paying $3,000 a month.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But you could have gotten extorted for life just by the threat of death by Latin King, couldn't you, Doctor?
CHARLIE ADELSON: This was as real of a threat as you get. These guys aren't messing around.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, you didn't report this after Garcia was arrested, did you?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did not report this after Garcia's arrest?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. You did keep paying Katherine Magbanua after Garcia's arrest?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I never saw her again.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did not report this after Magbanua's arrest, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did not testify in either of their trials, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Was never contacted, too, but yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You were okay with the possibility of them getting away with killing Dan Markel?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought the truth was going to come out in 2019.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: How? If the witness who knows something doesn't come forward?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Katie knows what happened and knows I was extorted, and her trial was in '19, and I was expecting the truth to come out then. And instead I found out that she was having this affair with him on me, and she lied, and all this money was going to her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: So if her defense had been "I was an innocent conduit to an extortion," you would have backed her up on that? If she would have come in and told the truth?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You would have heard the same story. Where is your family located now? You don't have to be specific, but is your mom and dad — are they still in South Florida?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, they still live in South Florida.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. What about Wendi and the boys?
CHARLIE ADELSON: My parents live about 30, 35 minutes from my sister, and I used to live about 45 minutes from them.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And are they okay, as far as you know, physically — today as we sit here?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And are you concerned that — because you've told now on the Latin Kings — that they're going to come kill your whole family?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I mean, I just told you that I knew — that I was told then — that Luis Rivera, Rivera, the head of the Latin Kings, killed Dan Markel. So, I mean, I do have some concern when I get out.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right, but even after —
CHARLIE ADELSON: Sorry, go ahead.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: It's okay.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said I do have some concern for the Latin Kings now that I spoke and told what I know.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But what about — I mean, Rivera was already in custody at one point, as well as Garcia and Ivano. Well, my understanding is your continued fear was due to other Latin Kings, potentially.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is that accurate?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It — these are highly connected people. Luis Rivera, the head of the Latin Kings, in custody means absolutely nothing. If you think he can't send somebody from the outside, you're wrong.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, so my question to you is, did that happen? Because you told us — you told yesterday — was I killed yesterday when I was in jail? No. Nobody in your family has been killed so far.
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're talking about in the last 24 hours, right? Not that I know.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. But — but you're worried about that.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think now that I've spoken, I do have a concern, yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay, but not too concerned to remain silent when it's your own butt on the line, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm here to tell the truth, and yes, so I have a concern now that I told you what happened, absolutely.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Mom tells you on that first wire call that "the bump involves the two of us" — referring to yourself and your mom, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, that's what she said.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And would you agree, prior to your explanation, that that looks pretty incriminating?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think if you don't know what happened, you can assume the worst.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't it true that you had to add the bit about confiding your extortion in your mom in order to put that toothpaste back in the tube?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, that's what happened when I got the checks.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Otherwise why would you bring your mom into this?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't want to. When I first told her on the phone and asked her to write the checks, I told her — I said, just, it's a long story, I brushed it off, and she didn't press anything, but I think she was out somewhere. It wasn't until when I picked up the checks that she started pressuring me and saying, this makes no sense, why are you doing this, you're not dating Katie — and that's when she found out.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But your mom — Mom is the most high-strung out of the whole group, right?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And she's old, and she worries, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't think she's super high-strung, but she does worry about her kids.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You don't?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
CHARLIE ADELSON: You've never met her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, you said she was, quote, notorious for making a big deal out of everything.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I mean, she overreacts, but she's a mom. I think a lot of moms overreact.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Okay. You could have told her, you know, "Katie's down on her luck, and I'm just going to be putting her on the payroll." I mean, you were making enough money, you could tell her to just write checks, couldn't you? Why'd you have to tell her it was an extortion from Latin King gang members?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, okay, at that time I didn't know anything about the Latin Kings.
CHARLIE ADELSON: But when I told her what happened, I was thinking that, you know what, it actually would be good if someone knows what happened in case I get killed, and at least know what direction to start looking in. So until that point nobody even knew. So I just — when she started questioning me and questioning me and questioning me, I just said, you know what, I'm going to tell you, but don't say a thing to Dad, don't say a thing to Wendi, you got to promise me. I didn't want her to ever talk about this again. And that was the day that she found out — it was when I got the checks.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What she doesn't say on the wire is, "It's happening again, I was approached by another extortionist today." Does she say that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, she's talking very carefully.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you say "carefully" — but isn't "carefully" the same thing as code?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, they're two totally separate things. Do you know the difference?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You weren't really giving her money for a TV, were you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Giving her money for a TV? "This TV is probably going to be about five. I need you to bring cash tonight." I wish she picked another object on planet Earth other than TV. But TV is code for absolutely nothing. Nothing. There is no code in this case involving TV. And you keep circling and circling and circling TV. You're wrong.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is it a coincidence that the repair of the TV that you bought Wendi as a divorce gift because it was cheaper than hiring a hitman is your sister's alibi for the murder, and then your mom brings up TV first call on the wire?
CHARLIE ADELSON: It's not an alibi for a murder. She had a broken TV. You've got to ask Lincoln who threw the remote at the TV.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was it a coincidence? Is the TV thing a coincidence? That's what I hear you say.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Oh, that the repairman was there that day?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes, sir.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, that is a coincidence for sure. There's a couple of coincidences in this case.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'm sorry. I cut you off.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said there's a couple of coincidences in this case. I mean, she had people send her an email to go buy a bottle of Bulleit Bourbon for their Stock the Bar party, and she was driving to a liquor store to buy a bottle of Bulleit Bourbon on that day at that time, and her friend sent the email, and you have the email and evidence.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Like, is that a coincidence?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, coincidences happen.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And the "you might not be the right Katie" talk — that doesn't seem to really fit with your theory of the case, does it? What was your explanation for that? Why you kept saying "you might not be the right Katie"? I mean, she's definitely the right Katie, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely. She knew it was. I was implying it was her. I was just trying to say I'm not setting you up, but I need your help.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On call B, your mom — you call your mom back, and you say "probe her a little bit," and ultimately you say "you think someone's trying to blackmail you, that's crazy." Why does it sound like this is something that's new and unfathomable to you at that moment?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, because I wasn't even following what my mom was talking about on the first call, and on the second call — which she shocked me when she said that, and I'd been extorted before — her saying to bring cash, everything just didn't sound right.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Could we play clip four please? This is from Dolce.
MR. RASHBAUM: Sorry, from what?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Clip four from Dolce.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "Even if they had any evidence" — the first words out of your mouth on this clip, "even if they had any evidence." Strike — the quote is, "if," you say, "if they had any evidence, we'd have already gone to the airport." And I know you already testified about this, but does an innocent person say "if they had any evidence"?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Right. Katie's saying it's the police, and I'm saying that we're innocent. They're not going to have any evidence to show we were part of something that we were part of. If we had any part of this, we'd be going to the airport right now.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't it true, doctor, that they're not going to have any evidence because you were careful?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, because we weren't a part of this.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You were smart.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, we weren't a part of this.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You walled yourself off from the killers.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was sure they were not going to have evidence to show I did something I didn't do. So we're not running to the airport.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you're untouchable, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, we didn't do a murder. I wasn't part of a murder. There's no reason to run to the airport.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: In the next clip, you're discussing what's going to happen if this person that did the bump goes to the police.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you're going through all these scenarios, you know, these possibilities.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Wait, if he goes to the police?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yeah, the blackmailer goes to the police.
CHARLIE ADELSON: They're going to say, "Where's the weapon?"
CHARLIE ADELSON: He's not going to know. He's just going to have hearsay, basically. Someone told me they did it. It's not going to be enough to get the investigation anywhere.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why are you thinking through the possibility of the blackmailer going to the cops if the blackmailer doesn't have any dirt on you to take to the cops?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I wasn't thinking about the blackmailer. What I was trying to say is I don't know anything about Sigfredo. I don't know anything about this crime. I was trying to tell her that I'm harmless. I don't have any knowledge of what went on. Like, the last thing I wanted is — that now that she's saying it's the police — is someone to come and kill me and think I'm some kind of loose head. So that's why I'm saying that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But that's not what you're saying. You're saying if this is a person that Luis Rivera ran his mouth to, and they go to the police, it's going to be worth zero because they're not going to know anything other than, "Hey, my brother told me this."
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't know if I was saying someone who knows Luis Rivera. I was trying to make a point that I don't know anything.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then you suggest what they would have to do is get him to wear a wire and get the person to confess, and that's probably what this — what this could be an effort to do, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, they're thinking that we were part of a murder, so this was the same thing I said before — that this is their theory. So this is a police tactic, and it could be either a bad guy or the police, and this is how they're pursuing it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Exactly. So as long as you keep your mouth shut, you can get away with murder, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Isn't that what you told Ryan Fitzpatrick?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, Ryan Fitzpatrick is someone who stole over half a million dollars.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That's not my question, sir. Did you say that to Ryan Fitzpatrick?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, never.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Never at all.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why do you go into so much detail about rental car examples? Let's start with — strike that. Can you agree that the Prius — you knew that the police were looking for a Prius at the time you met at this Dolce Vita restaurant?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think it had been released at that time.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. And you — and you heard the recording. You're — you're arguing — let's play the clip. This is going to be clip — I think let's play seven and eight please.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Sounds — like you're saying, "Even —"
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "if they track down the Prius, even if there's DNA or fingerprints in the Prius" — meaning like they can link someone to the Prius — "that's not going to be enough evidence to make any arrests in this case."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is that what you're saying?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all. What I'm doing is I'm restating.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You've answered my question.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Can I give you an answer?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On redirect, you'll have an opportunity. My question was —
JUDGE EVERETT: One moment.
JUDGE EVERETT: We're not just wildly arguing.
JUDGE EVERETT: Mr. Adelson, please answer the question.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I can just ask you a yes-or-no question.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Please allow me to answer your question.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Okay. Can I — What I was saying to Katie is that the information she just told me in the car about Sigfredo not being there when the crime was committed — she told me that Sigfredo was high on drugs at the hotel, and that Louis had rented a car, and that he's the one who killed Dan. And I'm restating to her that I don't have any knowledge of what went on, and that all I know is that Sigfredo wasn't even there when this happened. So that's what I'm restating to her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That Sigfredo can't be caught even if he's connected to the crime, to the car?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I know that Sigfredo wasn't the one who killed Dan.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Wouldn't it be good for you, because you know now that Sigfredo is the extortionist, right? She just told you that in the car?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Sigfredo, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. And wouldn't it be good for you if the police investigation into the Prius led to the arrest of the killers slash extortionists?
CHARLIE ADELSON: If they arrested the people that killed Dan? Yeah.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I know the extortion would stop.
CHARLIE ADELSON: As long as I kept my mouth shut, I'd be safe.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right. So why are you trying to argue to her that the car is not going to lead anywhere and they're not going to be able to do anything with the car?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that I know that Sigfredo wasn't the one who killed him.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you say on this recording, "If they're a bad guy, there's two ways of dealing with it. Go ahead and contact the police"?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "They'll contact him, the blackmailer, and arrange a setup. Take him down, and he'll proffer 10 years, and now tell us everything you know or else you're going to serve 10 years in prison."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "Next thing you know, this person is singing. Singing."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "He's calling out your name. My parents are going to have to say — going to have to tell the story of what happened."
CHARLIE ADELSON: Singing about what? About the extortion?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I think you're reading it wrong. I know the audible is bad.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What would the —
CHARLIE ADELSON: Are those the words?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes, sir. What would the extortionist — and now I'm referring to the one that contacted your mother — the Latin King extortionist —
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, they're both Latin Kings, right? The second extortion.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: What would they have to sing about?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The second extortion would be singing and talking about the first extortion, where they learned their information from.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Who cares? That doesn't have anything to do with you.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Well, when they catch the first extortion, Katie's tied to them and I'm tied to Katie. They're going to come talk to us, and we're going to be in danger when we tell them what happened.
CHARLIE ADELSON: So I was saying if they catch the second, they're going to turn in on the first, and that's the same thing I said yesterday.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You gave very precise instructions to Katherine Magbanua on what she was to say when she calls the phone number, right?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you do that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then you say, quote, "You'd better kill him because he's going to be a big problem, and he knows who you are. If he can't do it, I'll have someone else do it." Aren't you telling her that if Garcia can't handle this problem and kill whoever's behind this, you will have someone else do it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're reading it totally wrong.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: It's a yes-or-no question, sir.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, you're wrong.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: When Dan Markel's murder was taking too long to happen, didn't you tell Katherine Magbanua that if she couldn't get it done, you would find someone else to do it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I've never said that, either.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then you say in the recording — I'm back to Dolce now — yeah, and when that — guess what, when that effing police show up and there's a doctor — there's an oral surgeon standing there with a dead gang member in his effing driveway — they're not going to come down too hard on me. So you knew you'd be believed if you went to the police, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Um — I didn't — I didn't know I'd be believed, but I feared for my life.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And then you say, "So help me God, if they fuck with my family, it's going to be fucking Nazi shit, because this will be done. You know what I'm saying? I mean, Katie, I don't care what I spend, okay, I swear to God." What is "Nazi shit"?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That — that's an expression that Katie would use to describe someone that's going crazy. I think the Nazis were absolutely crazy people. So I'm saying I'm going to get somebody to go crazy on the guy that's trying to extort my mom for money. I'll pay someone to go threaten him and to scare him. I was not talking about killing anybody.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Will you say the word "kill"? Yes? No?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Oh, when you're — when you're putting the words in my mouth —
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well, we can do that sentence. Do you say the word "kill"?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm talking about, if Sigfredo's coming after you, he's such a dangerous guy you'd have to kill him to stop him. That's the — the only thing you could do. Not talking about killing the extorter — I'm talking a second extortion. I'm saying that if Sigfredo's coming after you, the only thing that you could do is, you'd have to kill him to stop it. I'm not talking about killing anybody. I'm talking about, that's the only way that you could stop Sigfredo from coming after you is you would have to kill him. And that's exactly what I said there. You're wrong. That's exactly what I said.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right, thank you. Nazis kill, right? Is that, like, their primary objective?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I think Nazis are insane, crazy people that exterminate.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right? That kill.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, but they're — but they're crazy. That's — and she would — that was an expression she would use, and that's when I used it to her. But basically, say, I'm gonna have someone go crazy on this guy. I could have used the word "crazy." I thought it was interchangeable.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Is it — what you're doing here in this portion of the tape, feeling her out to make sure Garcia doesn't have any bad feelings toward you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: When I said it, yeah. I thought he could have been behind the second extortion. I think I've said that before.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you go into, like, how your relationships didn't overlap, you never disrespected him, and you mention that, you know, you don't think that they — I assume you mean these other people, associates that have contacted your mom — would want to mess with his connections, right? You remember?
CHARLIE ADELSON: You're talking about the copycat extortion.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Right. And then you ask if he is too far removed or can he still make a call. Are you referring to Garcia in that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, exactly. So can Garcia make a call to try to figure out who this is? Can Garcia help stop the second extortion? Someone's doing a piggyback extortion on the first. That's exactly what I said.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: On the topic of conversation for Katherine Magbanua, don't you say, "I look for things to do, I show you, that's the difference"?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: "You don't ask me for shit." You said all those things, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely. That's proving what I've been saying all along is that I didn't think she was part of this, so I was doing things to keep her happy from time to time.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Ethan's birthday I brought up there. I gave her $300.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I helped her out with the car when her car was broken.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: For sure. And then you say, "Listen, you giving somebody money is not an admission of any kind of guilt." Would paying the money have made her look guilty?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's what she was saying to me. She said it's the police — you can't pay the police, they're going to think you were part of a murder and they're going to arrest you. But if it was an extortionist, it could have created a monster, right?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And if you don't pay the extortionist, you could get killed. So when these guys — I'm sorry, I said if you don't pay the extortionist you could get killed, or you could keep getting extorted. But your main concern was that, "If we pay this guy, he'll think I'm an ATM machine," right? "He'll keep coming back again and again and again." Don't you articulate that to Katherine Magbanua?
CHARLIE ADELSON: If it was — if it was an extorter, that was one of the — one of the concerns.
CHARLIE ADELSON: The other concern was not paying him and getting killed.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But what you say is — well, I don't remember the quote exactly — "the main concern, what I'm most worried about is that they're going to keep coming back for more," right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I don't remember using the words "the main concern."
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But what you don't say in here is, like, "what you or your homies have been doing to me for two years."
CHARLIE ADELSON: Of course not. I — I don't want her to think I'm setting her up.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Why are you explaining extortion and how extortion works to Katherine Magbanua?
CHARLIE ADELSON: In there?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yeah.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I know.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But she knows too, doesn't she?
CHARLIE ADELSON: So I repeat myself.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You also explain it to your mother — how extortion works. And she has known about it for two years too, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: From what I told her, yeah.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I'm reminding her.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Then you say, "If someone's messing with you, they're messing with me. And if someone's messing with me, they're messing with you. It's one and the same." Right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I said that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You're in this together, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: We're both innocent.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You were very obviously relieved on the wire when you came to the conclusion that this was law enforcement.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Would you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Very relieved, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: All right. Right. And at that same time that on the wire you're expressing relief, I — I should say, shortly after all the relief expressed on the wire, we've got the arrest of Katherine Magbanua, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Would you agree that it goes relief on the wire, then arrest of Katherine Magbanua?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Do you want to give me dates? Because Cathy was arrested six months later.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Okay. Can we agree that you were very relieved on the wire and that six months later Katherine Magbanua was arrested?
CHARLIE ADELSON: She was arrested six months later, correct.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And six months later, after you were completely relieved on the wire, you begin to exhibit these extreme behavior changes that we've heard about. And what is your explanation for that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I thought I'd be falsely arrested.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you encourage Katherine Magbanua to reconcile with Garcia?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: That's a yes or no.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, for sure I did.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Was that a good decision for her or a good decision for you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Neither.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You've heard your lawyers say that you talk a lot. Do you agree with that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you talk a lot on the wire, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you agree you're not a direct person?
CHARLIE ADELSON: A direct person?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: There's a lot of circular talking on the wire.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: However you want to describe it, by mannerisms of talking, you're welcome to describe it.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: I'll do that in closing. What I'm asking is, do you agree that you are like that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think at times I'm direct, for sure.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you have a way of saying things without really saying it?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I think I'm pretty direct with things.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you think you can talk your way out of this?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I don't. I'm not part of a murder. Who are they going to believe, right? An oral surgeon or a gangster?
CHARLIE ADELSON: That's extorting me in my driveway and coming and threatening me.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You're untouchable, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I'm not part of this murder.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: There was a lot of talk about going to the police on the wire, which I think we've well established did not happen. But you've always gone to the police before, right? Right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I've had other things that I've gone to the police for.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You've gone to the police in reference to something to do with your child's mother?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes or no?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: You've gone to the police when you were threatened to be blackmailed over something with a woman back in 2015?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Remember that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, I didn't go to the police.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Did you send a letter from your lawyer describing her actions as an attempted shakedown and indicating that not only will Dr. Adelson never pay a settlement, he will undoubtedly prevail and seek attorney's fees against your client?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Right. That's a civil complaint, and somebody was making an unfounded civil complaint and threatening filing a lawsuit, and an attorney handled the civil complaint. The police were never notified.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: But it was a civil suit. It was somebody trying to shake you down for money.
CHARLIE ADELSON: It was an unfounded claim from a civil suit to me and another dentist that it was involving.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: It was a claim that potentially had criminal implications as well, wasn't it, doctor?
CHARLIE ADELSON: For me?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yes.
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
CHARLIE ADELSON: There was never a police investigation with that.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: In 2018, did you report an aggravated assault where a vehicle was driving aggressively and narrowly avoided striking you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I had a reporter almost kill my 10-week-old puppy dog that I was walking, because I was going for a walk in the morning and he was stalking outside my house.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: In 2018, did you report an aggravated assault where a vehicle was driving aggressively and narrowly avoided striking you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: He was more able to sit my dog, too, but yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do your nephews deserve to know the whole truth about who killed their father?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, now they do.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do Danny's parents deserve to know what happened to their son?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Absolutely.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And you say you knew. I mean, you now say you knew a big piece of what happened, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Do you feel bad about not volunteering that to Danny's parents?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I feel a sense of relief that now I was able to tell everybody what finally happened.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Yesterday, almost 10 years later, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: And that's because you didn't just know a big piece of it. You were a big piece of it, weren't you, Doctor?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I was extorted, and I knew a lot, yeah.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: One moment, please, Your Honor.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: No further questions.
JUDGE EVERETT: Before we redirect.
JUDGE EVERETT: Do any of the members of the jury need to take a break before we continue with the examinations?
JUDGE EVERETT: The bailiff will escort you back to the jury room.
JUDGE EVERETT: We'll have a brief 10-minute break before we have a redirect.
JUDGE EVERETT: We will reconvene at 11:20.
JUDGE EVERETT: Very well. You can sit at the council table, sir.
JUDGE EVERETT: I think we still have a few jurors using the restroom, and they'll get started after that.
JUDGE EVERETT: You may be seated.
JUDGE EVERETT: Members of the jury, I was informed by an unnamed source that some baked goods have made their way into the jury room.
JUDGE EVERETT: If there is a red velvet cake and no one brought enough to share, contempt powers will be exercised.
JUDGE EVERETT: Mr. Rashbaum, you may redirect your client.
MR. RASHBAUM: Thank you.
MR. RASHBAUM: Do you remember when Ms. Cappleman asked you about that text on August 25th, 2014, when Katie said to lose her number?
MR. RASHBAUM: Do you remember those questions?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MR. RASHBAUM: Isn't it true that within 12 hours of that text, you're offering her help on her car with an individual named Sully?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes, I remember that.
MR. RASHBAUM: Why are you offering her that help just within hours after that text?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I wanted to keep Katie happy, and she was getting mad at me, and I needed her protection.
CHARLIE ADELSON: I didn't want her to stop protecting me.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, there were a lot of questions about timing, and I want to make sure that everyone has this clear, because it's really important.
MR. RASHBAUM: In 2014, did you think Katherine Magbanua was extorting you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, after she went to trial and testified, and after you saw the evidence of the money that was in her accounts, did you know that you were wrong, and in fact she was the person who was extorting you, either with Sigfredo or without him?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MR. RASHBAUM: And to that — and that wasn't until 2019, five years later. So when Ms. Cappleman shows you all of those text messages and emails in 2014 that seemed friendly at that point, and in 2016 that seemed friendly, and all the gifts at that point in time, what did you think she was?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I thought she was protecting me, and she got dragged into this the way I did.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, do you remember when Ms. Cappleman showed you that indictment?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: And it had your name on it, and Katherine Magbanua was named on it as co-conspirators?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MR. RASHBAUM: Do you remember when she directly asked your sister in this courtroom if she participated in a birthday gift for your dad of the murder of Professor Markel?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I remember her asking that.
MR. RASHBAUM: So her name's not in that indictment, but were you in this courtroom when the first thing in opening the State put on the board was a picture of all of you, because their theory is that all of you participated in this murder, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, they said me, my mom, my dad, my sister, and
MR. RASHBAUM: Their theory is wrong about your sister, correct?
CHARLIE ADELSON: One hundred percent.
MR. RASHBAUM: Just like it's wrong about you?
CHARLIE ADELSON: One hundred percent.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, Ms. Cappleman asked you about you paying over time as opposed to just paying the money all up front.
MR. RASHBAUM: Why did you pay over time?
CHARLIE ADELSON: The reason I didn't pay it all off is because it became like a life insurance policy. And I felt like every month when I paid, I felt like they weren't going to kill me, because if they killed me, they wouldn't get the money next month.
MR. RASHBAUM: Ms. Cappleman asked you, does it make sense — why wouldn't they just rob you?
MR. RASHBAUM: Remember she asked you that question?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah.
MR. RASHBAUM: Were you in the courtroom — do you recall, when you were in the courtroom, do you recall Luis Rivera saying he just wanted to rob the lady? Do you recall that?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: And do you recall he said that Sigfredo Garcia told him that Katie told him, we can't just rob the lady, we have to do a murder?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, you don't know — you were told in the car that Luis Rivera was the killer. You've learned since that Sigfredo Garcia was the shooter, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I learned that, yeah, I learned that he was convicted of shooting Dan. But in 2016, when I was sitting in the car, Katie was telling me that he went up in the rental car and that he was high on drugs, and that it was Luis Rivera, the head of the Latin Kings, that killed Dan.
MR. RASHBAUM: She was protecting her husband.
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yeah, that's what she was telling me at the time. I thought she wasn't a part of it and she was telling me the truth.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, Ms. Cappleman asked you about other times that you have called the police since this case began — well, not since this case began, but since the events of this case. She asked you about a photographer in a car.
MR. RASHBAUM: She asked you about a woman who's the mother of your child when you called the police. In either of those circumstances, was someone threatening your life?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all.
MR. RASHBAUM: In either of those circumstances, was someone threatening your family's life?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Not at all.
MR. RASHBAUM: In either of those circumstances, had within hours before, someone been shot in broad daylight in their driveway?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No, not at all.
MR. RASHBAUM: By the way, you heard on the wire about, at some point, your jet ski getting stolen, right?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: And do you recall what you say on the wire about your jet ski getting stolen?
CHARLIE ADELSON: I said I don't even want to catch the people.
MR. RASHBAUM: Well, I'll ask it a different way. When your jet ski was stolen, did you call the police?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Objection. Relevance.
JUDGE EVERETT: Sustained.
MR. RASHBAUM: Judge, may we continue?
MR. RASHBAUM: May we go sidebar, Judge?
JUDGE EVERETT: Approach.
JUDGE EVERETT: You may continue with your examination.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you recall your jet ski getting stolen?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Yes.
MR. RASHBAUM: Did you call the police when your jet ski got stolen?
CHARLIE ADELSON: No.
MR. RASHBAUM: Why not?
CHARLIE ADELSON: Because I didn't want the people who knew where I lived to come back if I put them in prison.
MR. RASHBAUM: Now, Ms. Cappleman asked you several questions about why now are you telling what really happened.
MR. RASHBAUM: Tell the jury why you're now telling what happened.
CHARLIE ADELSON: If I don't tell everyone what happened now, I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison for something I didn't do.
MR. RASHBAUM: I have no further questions, Your Honor.
JUDGE EVERETT: You may sit down, Mr. Adelson.