Witness

June Umchinda

Former girlfriend of Charlie Adelson; prosecution witness in all three trials on his cash practices, behavioral changes following key arrests, and Donna Adelson's statements about the Markel investigation.

Appeared Magbanua Retrial Charlie Adelson Donna Adelson

565 lines · 7 appearances · 10 mentions · 3 trials

About

Umchinda provides the only consistent firsthand account of Charlie Adelson's private conduct and communications across the 2015–2017 window spanning the initial Garcia-Rivera arrests, the FBI undercover operation, and Magbanua's arrest; her cumulative testimony across three proceedings anchors the behavioral-change and consciousness-of-guilt narrative in the archive record, and the progressive layering of credibility challenges across trials is itself a documented cross-trial pattern.

Across Trials

Umchinda's role was structurally consistent across all three trials — prosecution witness presenting the same core testimony about Charlie Adelson's cash practices, behavioral deterioration following key investigative events, and the Donna Adelson balcony exchange — but the credibility frame applied to her account deepened with each proceeding. In the first trial, defense challenges centered on the circumstances of her 2018 FBI interview and whether emotional vulnerability had shaped her earliest disclosures, with cross-examination also surfacing that Charlie had concealed his ongoing contact with Magbanua and that media reports had confused Umchinda's identity with Magbanua's. By the second trial, cross-examination formally established that she had no direct knowledge of events in 2014, the murder year, capping the temporal scope of her relevance to the conspiracy period, and introduced the FBI extortion sting targeting Donna as an alternate explanation for Charlie's post-arrest agitation. In the third trial, impeachment reached its sharpest point when cross-examination drew out Umchinda's own sworn account from the second trial, in which she had characterized the haunting-from-the-grave remark as her interpretation of Donna's emotional distress rather than Donna's actual words — a qualification absent from the third trial's direct examination. Her courthouse availability also became part of the formal record in the third proceeding, with Judge Everett directing an all-hands search and noting the situation had arisen before. Across all three trials the prosecution consistently declined to rehabilitate her on redirect following cross-examination, leaving her concessions before each jury unaddressed.

Trial Record (17)

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

Trial Summary

Called by the prosecution to describe her roughly two-year relationship with Charlie Adelson, Umchinda testified about his cash practices, a marked behavioral change following the Garcia-Rivera arrests, and a balcony exchange in which Donna Adelson made distressed remarks about Dan Markel.

Appearances (2)

Direct

June Umchinda - Direct

Day 4 Cross

June Umchinda - Cross

Day 4

Mentioned (5)

Procedural

Pre-Lunch Housekeeping — Defense Rule of Completeness Argument Denied Identified as a likely next witness for the afternoon session

Day 4 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Part 1) Named as one of Charlie Adelson's other ex-girlfriends to establish Magbanua was not his only ex, making his direct call to Magbanua more significant

Day 5 Cross

Katherine Magbanua - Cross

Day 7 Closing

Closing Argument - Tara Kawass

Day 8 Rebuttal

Rebuttal Closing - Georgia Cappleman Testified about Donna Adelson's balcony statement; referenced by Cappleman to contextualize Magbanua's 'weight on our shoulders' text

Day 8

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

Trial Summary

Called by the prosecution as Charlie Adelson's last serious girlfriend, Umchinda testified about his instruction to stay silent with police, his behavioral shift following Katherine Magbanua's 2016 arrest, and a horoscope remark the prosecution connected to consciousness of guilt.

Appearances (3)

Direct

June Umchinda - Direct

Day 2 Cross

June Umchinda - Cross

Day 2 Redirect

June Umchinda - Redirect

Day 2

Mentioned (2)

Closing

Closing Argument - Georgia Cappleman

Day 8 Rebuttal

Rebuttal Closing - Georgia Cappleman

Day 8

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

Trial Summary

Charlie Adelson's former girlfriend from October 2015 through June 2017, called by the prosecution to testify about behavioral changes she observed in Charlie following the FBI's 2016 undercover operation and Katherine Magbanua's arrest, and about statements Donna Adelson made as the investigation intensified.

Appearances (2)

Direct

June Umchinda - Direct

Day 3 Cross

June Umchinda - Cross

Day 3

Mentioned (3)

Procedural

Witness Locating Delay — June Umchinda

Day 3 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Part 2) Charlie's girlfriend at the time; briefly mentioned in intercepted calls; Charlie contacts her to explain he will be late during the post-Monty's meeting period

Day 5 Closing

Closing Argument - Georgia Cappleman Charlie's ex-girlfriend; observed Donna as a 'mess' after the FBI bump and testified Donna said Danny was haunting her from the grave

Day 9