Donna Adelson

Opening statements frame the trial's central dispute: the prosecution traces a conspiracy chain from Donna Adelson's documented obsession with relocating her grandchildren to a murder-for-hire, while the defense concedes the chain through Charlie Adelson but argues the evidence stops there. Cooperating hitman Luis Rivera provides a first-person account of the July 18, 2014 murder and describes a custody motive, then on cross acknowledges Donna and Harvey Adelson were not part of the chain as far as he knew.

State investigator Jason Newlin laid out Donna Adelson's role in the divorce through compiled email exhibits, ending with testimony that the pending grandma motion was never heard because Markel was murdered. Wendi Adelson then testified under compelled immunity — confirming the relocation conflict and Charlie's hitman joke on direct, delivering three "Never" answers about Donna suggesting harm on cross, and declining to confirm Cappleman's "but definitely not kill him" premise on redirect. Robert Adelson described Donna as the family's controlling force and recounted the insider door-knock detail she volunteered about the murder method.

Day 3 was the prosecution's densest evidentiary session. Jeffrey Lacasse testified that Wendi Adelson confided five days before the murder that her brother Charlie had researched hiring a hitman. Katherine Magbanua recanted her prior sworn denials, identified Donna Adelson as the signer of all 44 compensation paychecks, and said Charlie told her his mother had washed the murder payment. Forensic accountant Mary Hull documented Magbanua's threefold cash spike in 2014 and the Adelson Institute's post-arrest payroll restructuring. Cell analyst Sergeant Corbitt linked hitman Sigfredo Garcia's phone to Harvey Adelson's call records and read a series of Donna Adelson's increasingly hostile emails about Dan Markel, including a March 2014 text instructing Charlie to erase her message before a private call.

Sergeant Corbitt completed two additional days of phone and cell-site analysis, including the "Dad's birthday present" text exchange and a minute-by-minute chronology of July 18, 2014; an FBI undercover agent testified about handing Donna Adelson a threatening flyer referencing the murder and confirmed she called the undercover number back; and lead investigator Patrick Sanford began presenting the post-bump wiretap calls, ending the day mid-testimony with evidence of a whispered, unrecorded meeting between Charlie and Donna the following day.

Judge Everett resolved two late-disclosure issues before testimony resumed, finding an inadvertent discovery violation on an enhanced jail-call recording but no prejudicial effect. FBI Agent Patrick Sanford then completed his direct examination by presenting dozens of wiretap intercepts from April–June 2016, including Donna Adelson's own call to the FBI undercover in which she denied involvement in Dan Markel's murder, and recordings showing the undercover phone number passed through the full Adelson–Garcia network.

Day 6 completed the prosecution's case with the conclusion of FBI Agent Sanford's testimony, condo search evidence, two jailhouse informants alleging a confession and witness-tampering scheme, a handwriting expert confirming Donna Adelson authored the fabricated script, and a recalled digital forensics analyst presenting post-verdict Vietnam flight planning. The state formally rested at the close of the afternoon session.

Judge Everett denied the defense motion for judgment of acquittal and the defense opened its case in chief with character witnesses and a digital forensics expert. A recalled character witness's explanation for the absence of a murder-night phone call to Donna Adelson collapsed when the prosecution established that WhatsApp did not support voice calls until nine months after the July 2014 murder.

Day 8 closed the evidentiary record after two defense family law witnesses characterized the Adelson-Markel divorce as routine, former defense attorney Marissel Descalzo testified about Donna's post-verdict mental state and travel plans, and Donna Adelson declined to testify following a court-administered colloquy.

Closing arguments consumed the morning and afternoon of the trial's final day; the jury deliberated approximately three hours before returning guilty verdicts on all three counts — first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation — against Donna Adelson.