Day 5 - October 3, 2019
Judge Hankinson ruled on door-opening and lesser-included-offense issues before a run of witnesses described Charlie Adelson's personal and workplace connections to Katherine Magbanua, including a wiretapped call in which Adelson coached an employee on what to tell police, and Sergeant Corbitt walked the jury through a phone-and-GPS timeline of the June and July 2014 Tallahassee trips.
Full day summary
3:35:23 1. June Umchinda — Direct/Cross/Redirect
Before testimony resumed, Judge Hankinson ruled on lingering door-opening questions and conducted a jury instruction conference, then the prosecution called June Umchinda — Charlie Adelson's former live-in girlfriend — who testified about his demeanor after the May 2016 arrests, a bedroom safe containing bundled cash, and financial dealings involving Katherine Magbanua. Defense counsel challenged her credibility through a July 2018 law enforcement interview conducted without her knowledge she was being recorded, her emotional state at the time, and pre-testimony text contact with Adelson.
Highlights
Evidentiary Rulings and Jury-Instruction Conference ruling Over objections from both defense teams — Kawass arguing manslaughter-as-principal was legally incoherent and DeCoste arguing the evidence did not support it — Judge ordered lesser-included instructions for second-degree murder and manslaughter as Category 1 lessers. Evidentiary Rulings and Jury-Instruction Conference “Truthfully, there are many cases where I'd love not to give any lesser-includeds, but I think the law is pretty clear that Category 1 lesser-includeds — either party, any party, can request, and the court's obligated to give them. So I'll overrule the defense objection.” — James C. Hankinson Judge candidly acknowledged the practical tension but overruled both defense teams on the lesser-included instructions, ordering second-degree murder and manslaughter given to the jury. Evidentiary Rulings and Jury-Instruction Conference ruling After Kawass objected that there was no evidence Magbanua ever possessed a firearm, Judge agreed the personal-use firearm finding was effectively a judgment of acquittal as to Magbanua and directed that the reclassification instruction be modified to name 'defendant Garcia' specifically. Evidentiary Rulings and Jury-Instruction Conference “We object, Your Honor. There is no indication whatsoever that she was ever in possession of a firearm.” — Tara Kawass Kawass's objection directly prompted the judge to modify the firearm reclassification instruction to name Garcia specifically, treating personal firearm use as effectively acquitted as to Magbanua. June Umchinda - Direct testimony highlight Umchinda described Adelson becoming 'nervous and worried and just not himself' after the 2016 arrests, explaining without prompting that he was stressed because 'they were tracing things back to him' — a voluntary attribution linking his anxiety directly to the investigation targeting him. June Umchinda - Direct “Um, well, obviously they were tracing things back to him, so he was, um, nervous and worried and just not himself.” — June Umchinda Umchinda attributed Adelson's post-arrest anxiety directly to investigators closing in on him — language she volunteered without a leading question, supporting a consciousness-of-guilt inference. June Umchinda - Direct impeachment After initially minimizing the cash detail (saying she saw only a staple on one bill, not stacks), Umchinda was confronted with the transcript of her 2018 recorded interview; after reviewing it, she acknowledged having described 'stacks of hundreds' stapled together in bundles. June Umchinda - Cross testimony highlight Umchinda concedes that police — not she — raised the topic of stapled money bundles during the 2018 interview; she had not volunteered the detail on her own. June Umchinda - Juror Questions testimony highlight Jurors ask about Umchinda's pre-testimony communications with Charlie Adelson. She reveals she texted him first — explaining she was flying in to testify — and that they exchanged messages back and forth throughout the night before she took the stand. June Umchinda - Juror Questions “Um, yesterday — I'm sorry, I was flying, I'm trying to think of exactly. Yesterday, um, yesterday I texted him first, because I left work. What I texted him — I was leaving work at lunchtime to go on a plane to come here, so I texted him first to let him know.” — June Umchinda Umchinda discloses that she — not Adelson — initiated the pre-testimony text exchange, framing it as a routine travel notification; the admission that she reached out to the alleged central co-conspirator on the eve of her testimony is the detail jurors pressed to elicit.
2. Yindra Velazquez Mascaro — Direct/Cross/Redirect
Yindra Velazquez Mascaro, childhood friend and godmother to one of Katherine Magbanua's children, completed her full examination — direct, cross by both defense teams, redirect, and juror questions — tracing Magbanua's employment history, a Lexus transfer for which Mascaro saw no money change hands but could not rule out later payment, and the overnight childcare and next-morning phone call on the date Dan Markel was murdered.
Highlights
Yindra Velazquez Mascaro - Direct testimony highlight Mascaro testified that Charlie Adelson gave Magbanua a black Lexus — which she described in her deposition as 'pristine' — after Magbanua's Mazda stopped running entirely. Magbanua never told Mascaro she had purchased or paid for the vehicle, and Mascaro understood it to be a gift. The transfer occurred in late 2015 or early 2016 while Magbanua was back together with Garcia. Yindra Velazquez Mascaro - Direct testimony highlight Mascaro recounted that Magbanua left her children overnight and called on July 18 after the shooting, saying Charlie's brother-in-law had had an accident and Charlie was going to check on his sister. Mascaro later learned the event was Markel's murder.
4. Erika Johnson — Direct/Cross/Redirect/Recross
Erika Johnson's complete testimony as a dental assistant at the Adelson Institute, covering a June 2016 police visit, a wiretapped call in which Charlie Adelson coached her while officers waited, and conflicting evidence on whether Katherine Magbanua was ever employed there.
Highlights
Erika Johnson - Direct evidence event Judge Hankinson excused the jury so Johnson could listen privately to the wiretapped recording of her June 2016 call with Charlie Adelson after she refused pre-trial and again on the stand. After the break, she authenticated the recording, confirmed both voices, and admitted it was fair and accurate. Erika Johnson - Direct testimony highlight The wiretapped recording captured Charlie Adelson coaching Johnson on what to say to officers — claiming the office belonged to his father and that police were 'talking to the wrong doctor' — while also checking whether officers were still present and closing by saying he would call her back from a landline. Erika Johnson - Direct “Yeah, so I would do this. I would not speak to anybody.” — [audio recording] The wiretapped recording captures Charlie Adelson instructing his employee not to speak to the officers who arrived seeking Magbanua's personnel file — a direction the prosecution frames as consciousness of guilt. Erika Johnson - Redirect evidence event State's Exhibit 180 — the CD of the wiretapped call between Johnson and Charlie Adelson — was published and played for the jury after the lunch break, including Adelson's coaching language directing Johnson to tell police they were speaking to the wrong doctor. Erika Johnson - Redirect “Tell them that you will — so it's actually you're talking to the wrong doctor, that you will, it's not your office.” — [audio recording] Charlie Adelson's explicit coaching language directing Johnson to tell police they had the wrong doctor — the central content the wiretap was admitted to prove and the clearest recorded evidence of his effort to direct the response to the police visit.
5. Christopher Corbitt — Direct/Cross (Recall 1)
Recalled TPD Sergeant Christopher Corbitt presented cell-site, GPS, SunPass, and bank-record evidence mapping Garcia and Rivera's movements during the June 2014 scouting trip and the July 2014 murder trip, followed by cross-examination from both defense attorneys and three end-of-day rulings on iCloud evidence, witness sequestration, and the wiretapped Adelson call.
Highlights
Christopher Corbitt - Direct (Recall, Part 2) testimony highlight Garcia's phone generated no events from roughly 10:30 a.m. through a 12:30 p.m. call to Magbanua, with two incoming calls being routed to voicemail during the gap — consistent, Corbitt acknowledged, with the handset being powered off. The phone permanently ceased activity after 5:12 a.m. on July 19th, with the T-Mobile account terminating in August. Christopher Corbitt - Direct (Recall, Part 2) testimony highlight Corbitt traced the murder-morning communication chain: a Wendi-to-Charlie Adelson 18-minute call at 9:19 a.m. while Garcia and Rivera were at Premier Gym; a 30-second Charlie-to-Donna call at 9:38 a.m.; rapid Charlie-Magbanua exchanges at 9:57–10:09 a.m.; and post-shooting Donna-Charlie calls at 11:06 and 11:02, followed by further Adelson-Magbanua communications. A red marker on Corbitt's slide denoted the shooting window. Christopher Corbitt - Direct (Recall, Part 2) testimony highlight Corbitt confirmed that after reviewing all phone records and Charlie Adelson's iCloud, there was no evidence of any communication between the Adelsons and Rivera, no direct communication between Charlie Adelson and Garcia, and only a single unconnected attempted call from Garcia to Harvey Adelson on July 1, 2014. All three Adelson phones were absent from Tallahassee on the murder date. Christopher Corbitt - Cross impeachment Zangeneh walked Corbitt through Rivera's driver's license, car rental agreement, and Budget Inn administration card — all listing 1805 Normandy Drive, Miami Beach — and extracted Corbitt's agreement that this documented address is inconsistent with the North Miami location labeled 'Rivera's residence' on the prosecution's demonstrative maps. Christopher Corbitt - Cross impeachment Defense Exhibit 7 covering the June 4-5 scouting trip showed only a single 29-second Garcia-to-Magbanua call during the approximately eight-to-ten-hour drive to Tallahassee. Corbitt agreed he would not characterize that as constant phone contact, contradicting the account attributed to Rivera. Christopher Corbitt - Cross “I would not.” — Christopher Corbitt Corbitt conceded he would not characterize a single 29-second call over an eight-to-ten-hour drive as Garcia being 'constantly on the phone' with Magbanua — directly contradicting the account attributed to Rivera about the June scouting trip. iCloud Evidence, Sequestration, and Wiretap Rulings ruling After recalling Corbitt, who confirmed he used the same iCloud records during direct to provide dinner-meeting context, Judge Hankinson ruled the State had opened the door and overruled the prosecution's Rule 403 objection to defense use of the April 25, 2014 Magbanua-Adelson texts. Traffic Citation and Cell-Site Demonstrative Rulings ruling After reviewing Exhibit 122 and questioning Cappleman about its significance to the vehicle-exchange theory, Judge Hankinson declined to admit it, finding its probative value unclear with two trial days remaining. Traffic Citation and Cell-Site Demonstrative Rulings “Frankly, I don't see the great significance of it. I'm not going to admit it at this point in time.” — James C. Hankinson Judge's ruling excluding Exhibit 122, resolving the discovery dispute by declining admission while leaving the issue open.