State investigator Jason Newlin presented emails and filings the State attributed to Donna Adelson, 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 a door-knock account Donna relayed, which troubled him because he wondered how she could know it.
Full day summary
Day 2 began with a contested foundation hearing before the jury was seated. Investigator Jason Newlin testified about Tab JJ of State's Exhibit 60 — Dan Markel's March 2014 counter-motion to limit Donna Adelson's contact with his children, and the December 2013 email chain in which Markel's grandparent-alienation allegations were forwarded to a joint Donna-and-Harvey Adelson account, drawing a single-word "Wow" response. Defense counsel Zelman challenged attribution of the reply, arguing the shared account made identification impossible and that Donna's emails were characteristically much longer than one word. On redirect, Newlin testified that he saw "Wow" responses in other emails signed "love mom," as part of the State's foundation for attribution. Judge Everett ruled Tab JJ admissible with foundation to be completed through additional witnesses, finding the attribution dispute went to weight rather than admissibility, and issued a limiting instruction that the exhibit may be considered only for state of mind, motive, or intent.
On direct examination before the full jury, Cappleman walked Newlin through approximately two dozen tabs of State's Exhibit 60 — emails and filings the State attributed to Donna — covering proposed litigation arguments for Wendi, edits to draft filings, Markel's travel, and reactions to litigation setbacks. When the relocation petition was denied in June 2013, Donna wrote a lengthy "plan of action" directing Wendi to stage the boys' Christian conversion — staging Facebook photos at Tallahassee churches, arranging a Catholic baptism within two weeks, enrolling the boys in Sunday school — with an explicit warning that the scheme "cannot appear deliberate." She also communicated a $1 million cash offer by Donna, Harvey, and Charlie to persuade Markel to consent to relocation. In February 2014, roughly five months before the murder, Markel filed a sweeping settlement ultimatum threatening to expose Wendi and her attorney for alleged perjury and discovery fraud; Wendi forwarded it to Donna. Newlin testified the pending grandma motion hearing was never conducted because Markel was murdered before it took place. The judge admitted State's Exhibit 60 in full except Tab JJ. On cross, Zelman established that Wendi had responded to the church-staging plan with "Mom, I'm not doing this," and that Tab Y.2 contained a conditional clause — permitting relocation if Markel himself chose to move — that Newlin had not read on direct. On redirect, Newlin confirmed that after the murder, Wendi and the boys moved in with Donna and Harvey for approximately a year before settling permanently a couple of blocks away.
Before Wendi Adelson testified, her personal attorney John Lauro placed her compelled posture on the record: absent the state subpoena conferring use-and-derivative-use immunity, she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights as to every question. Judge Everett confirmed immunity extended to cross-examination and outlined a procedure for a defense proffer outside the jury's presence following the state examination. He also directly reminded defendant Donna Adelson to control her facial expressions and emotional reactions during her daughter's imminent testimony.
Wendi Adelson testified at length on direct examination by Cappleman. She confirmed that Donna called Wendi's situation in Tallahassee being "a hostage and a prisoner," that the family viewed the relocation fight as life-and-death, and that Donna — rather than Charlie — was far more emotionally invested in the divorce and custody outcome. Using emails from State's Exhibits 60 and 64, Cappleman established Donna's hostility toward Markel in private correspondence. Wendi confirmed Charlie Adelson repeatedly made a joke that the TV he bought her as a divorce present was "cheaper than hiring a hitman," that she may have mentioned it to then-boyfriend Jeff Lacasse, and that she had met Katherine Magbanua at the beach roughly one month before the shooting. Regarding the day of the murder, Wendi described a TV repairman appointment that morning, an 18-minute phone call with Charlie beginning at 9:30 a.m. ostensibly about TV repair costs, encountering a police roadblock on Trescott Drive without investigating, purchasing bourbon at a liquor store at 12:49 PM, and going to lunch where law enforcement located her. In her initial interview on the day of the murder, she named Charlie as one of the people who might have ordered the killing, and when asked whether the perpetrator should be prosecuted regardless of who, hedged: "I mean, it would be different if I thought it were my brother." Her last contact with Donna was November 2023, when Donna urged her to be "supportive of my brother" before Wendi testified in a prior related trial; Donna was "devastated" when Wendi's testimony did not comply.
On cross-examination by Fulford, Wendi confirmed at length that Donna was kind, loving, selfless, and a devoted mother and grandmother — spending weeks in Tallahassee after the separation, driving eight hours from Coral Springs, cooking, cleaning, and handling childcare. The week before the murder, Donna was babysitting for Dan and had made his favorite banana bread — without nuts but with chocolate chips. Immediately after this exchange, Wendi walked back her description of Donna "hating" Dan to "I think she was mad at him." Fulford then elicited three consecutive "Never" answers to questions about whether Donna ever suggested Dan deserved to be harmed, said he needed to be killed, or suggested harm in any way. Fulford also established that Wendi had stipulated to permanent denial of relocation at the June 2013 hearing but had never communicated that finality to Donna — suggesting Donna's post-hearing inflammatory emails were written under a mistaken belief that relocation remained achievable. Defense Exhibit 1B, a letter Wendi wrote in 2013, contained her own admission that on her wedding day she was "not sure I liked him, let alone loved him." Cross ended with Fulford asking whether "anyone responsible" for the murder — including Wendi herself — should be held accountable; Wendi responded "Anyone — anyone who's responsible" without affirming the premise.
On redirect, Cappleman introduced Exhibit 64JJ, an email Donna sent to family friends on June 25, 2013 — five days after the relocation order issued — stating there was "no chance at the appellate level" for appeal. This directly countered the defense's cross narrative that Donna continued pressing relocation because Wendi had never told her the order was final. Cappleman then recited an escalating list of hostile intentions from Donna's email record before asking "But definitely not kill him, right?" Wendi responded "I don't know what the question is" — declining to confirm the premise — in contrast to the direct "Never" answers she had given Fulford. Cappleman closed by establishing that everything had depended on Markel agreeing to relent, and he would not.
Robert Adelson, an ENT surgeon and the defendant's oldest child, testified on direct by ASA Dugan about Donna's controlling role in the family — holding rigid expectations for her children that carried consequences if unmet, and caring far more about the relocation outcome than Charlie did. He described Donna covertly orchestrating Wendi's departure from Tallahassee: renting an apartment under her maiden name, arranging movers, and timing the phone call to land just before a speech Markel was about to give. In post-murder testimony, Robert recounted Donna relaying a door-knock account — someone asked "Are you Dan Markel?" and then shot him. Robert said that account, which was later shown to be inaccurate, troubled him because he wondered how she could have heard it. Donna called him to say not to talk to police; when he told her he already had, she said "you don't know anything anyway." When he asked what she thought had happened to Markel, she replied "I don't know and I don't care — it doesn't concern me." In May 2016, when Robert reached Donna on an anniversary call to tell her arrests had been made, she gave no response despite being told multiple times, then said "I've got to go" and hung up — the last time he ever spoke to her. On cross, Fulford established that Robert did not travel to Florida after the murder, had infrequent contact with Donna, and — the defense's most substantive reframe — that Donna's instruction not to talk to police was a relay of advice from family attorney Michael Weinstein rather than a personal directive. Cross did not address the door-knock account or Robert's reported reactions.
TPD officer Bill Brannon testified briefly about a maroon mid-2000s Honda Odyssey van — a model he recognized because his own family owned a 2006 version — that approached his perimeter roadblock on Trescott Drive between approximately noon and 1 PM on July 18, 2014. The driver pulled up, turned around, and left immediately without stopping to ask questions or process the blocked road, in contrast to every other vehicle Brannon had managed at roadblocks throughout his career. He was aware at the time that the victim's ex-wife drove that type of van. The defense waived cross-examination.
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