Law enforcement · Tallahassee Police Department

Craig Isom

Retired TPD lead detective and the prosecution's primary investigative witness in both Magbanua trials.

1,073 lines · 10 appearances · 13 mentions · 3 trials

About

Isom is the only witness appearing in all three trial archives and the single witness who, across both Magbanua trials, presented the prosecution's complete evidentiary framework from investigation through arrest. His proceedings are the archive's primary reference points for the physical evidence chain, the Adelson motive structure, the Magbanua employment evidence, and the Rivera proffer circumstances, making them essential context for any reader tracing the case's evidentiary basis across trials.

Across Trials

Isom's role across the three proceedings runs from central anchor witness to absent-but-referenced investigator to central anchor witness, with the middle appearance the only one in which he does not testify. In the two testifying trials his substantive evidentiary contribution remained structurally consistent — the surveillance-to-tollway physical chain, Magbanua's Adelson Institute employment, and the Adelson family motive emails — but the defense's cross-examination strategy shifted materially. In the first trial the defense's primary attack targeted Luis Rivera's proffer credibility and the unrecorded September 30 session, drawing significant concessions about discovery timing and investigative gaps; the defense recalled Isom on Day 7 to extend that attack to cash-deposit sourcing, door-knock characterization, and a series of verbatim proffer inconsistencies. In the second trial the cross was narrower and more bounded, producing two targeted concessions — Donna Adelson's absence of direct financial benefit and Isom's lack of family law expertise — without mounting a sustained challenge to the physical evidence chain, the Magbanua employment findings, or any cooperating-witness credibility. The shift reflects a changed strategic landscape in which Rivera was no longer available as a live target to be dismantled through Isom's admissions.

Trial Record (23)

KM Magbanua Retrial May 18, 2022 – May 27, 2022

Trial Summary

Retired TPD lead detective Craig Isom testified twice — first as the prosecution's anchor fact witness presenting the investigation's evidentiary framework from crime scene through arrest, then recalled by the defense on Day 7 to challenge investigative gaps and the circumstances of the unrecorded September 30, 2016 Rivera proffer.

Appearances (6)

Craig Isom - Redirect

Day 1 Direct

Craig Isom - Direct (Recalled by Defense)

Day 7 Cross

Craig Isom - Cross

Day 7 Redirect

Craig Isom - Redirect

Day 7

Mentioned (9)

Direct

Jeffrey Lacasse - Direct

Day 2 Cross

Christopher Corbitt - Cross TPD lead detective who received Corbitt's CDR analysis results until his 2017 retirement

Day 4 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Part 1) TPD lead detective and co-lead with Sanford; conducted original Wendi Adelson interview containing TV/hitman statement

Day 5 Cross

Patrick Sanford - Cross TPD lead detective who wrote a report on the September 30 Rivera proffer session that Sanford did not separately document

Day 6 Cross

Patrick Sanford - Cross (Continued)

Day 6 Procedural

Defense case opening logistics and ruling on Rodriguez impeachment recording

Day 7 Direct

Sherry Bennett - Direct TPD lead detective; received arrest warrant by email from Bennett the night it was signed; was conducting Rivera's cooperation interview simultaneously with Bennett's Rodriguez call

Day 7 Direct

Jason Newlin - Direct TPD lead detective who authored the 31-page July 2016 report and conducted early Rivera interviews; his report is central to the discovery-access argument

Day 7 Closing

Closing Argument - Tara Kawass

Day 8

CA Charlie Adelson Oct 26, 2023 – Nov 6, 2023

Trial Summary

Craig Isom, a retired Tallahassee Police Department lead detective, appeared in this trial's record as the investigator who conducted videotaped interviews with prosecution witnesses Wendi Adelson and Jeffrey Lacasse during the Markel murder investigation.

Mentioned (3)

Cross

Wendi Adelson - Cross Questioned Wendi about Lacasse's car and travel schedule after McPherson named him

Day 2 Recross

Jeffrey Lacasse - Recross Named as the investigator who conducted the videotaped interview Lacasse cites as a substitute for his destroyed notes

Day 2 Redirect

Jeffrey Lacasse - Redirect (2nd)

Day 2

DA Donna Adelson Aug 22, 2025 – Sep 4, 2025

Trial Summary

Retired TPD lead detective who served as the prosecution's primary investigative witness, presenting the dual motive-and-physical-evidence case and establishing Katherine Magbanua as the sole identified link between the Adelson family and the Miami hitmen.

Appearances (4)

Direct

Craig Isom - Direct

Day 1 Direct

Craig Isom - Direct (Continued)

Day 1 Cross

Craig Isom - Cross

Day 1 Redirect

Craig Isom - Redirect

Day 1

Mentioned (1)

Cross

Patrick Sanford - Cross

Day 6