Expert witness · Mary Hull Financial Investigations

Mary Hull

Prosecution forensic accounting expert who presented financial pattern analyses of Katherine Magbanua, Luis Rivera, Sigfredo Garcia, and the Adelson family across all three trials.

Appeared Magbanua Retrial Charlie Adelson Donna Adelson

1,428 lines · 9 appearances · 5 mentions · 3 trials

About

Hull is the primary financial witness across all three proceedings and provides the only forensic quantification of cash flows to and around the alleged co-conspirators. Her testimony establishes the evidentiary basis for the 2014 cash anomalies in Magbanua's accounts, the post-murder financial pattern breaks for Rivera and Garcia, and the Adelson Institute payroll structure — making her records, methodology, and the cross-examination concessions she granted across three proceedings the essential reference points for understanding how the financial narrative was constructed, contested, and refined throughout the case.

Across Trials

Hull's role was structurally unchanged across all three trials — prosecution forensic accounting expert presenting financial pattern evidence — but the scope and evidentiary density of her testimony grew with each proceeding, and the defense's cross-examination strategy shifted accordingly. In the first trial, the defense focused primarily on the limits of Hull's analytical scope: untracked cash-paying employment at nightclubs, modeling agencies, and real estate operations not reflected in law enforcement records, and Sigfredo Garcia as an unquantified but plausible alternative cash source. In the second trial, Hull's presentation was broadened to explicitly cover Rivera and Garcia alongside Magbanua, and the defense cross used her own findings to build an affirmative alternative narrative — drawing her agreement that the combined payment totals she documented were consistent with regular compensation from Charlie Adelson, and securing her concession that the "murder" label on her analytical charts could be substituted with "extortion" without altering the underlying data. By the third trial, the defense's cross was notably narrower in ambition: Fulford targeted peripheral matters — the age and resale value of a vehicle sold to Magbanua, a cash-discount rationale for Adelson Institute payment practices, and Harvey Adelson's ownership status during the relevant period — without challenging Magbanua's threefold cash increase, the 44 Donna-signed payroll checks, the three checks absent from QuickBooks, or the post-murder spending patterns for Rivera and Garcia. A pre-testimony hearsay ruling in the third trial excluded one planned exhibit before Hull testified. Across all three proceedings, Hull's core arithmetic went unchallenged on cross, and the defense's concessions on scope — that she worked only from records law enforcement provided and could not rule out cash income sources outside those records — were consistent throughout.

Trial Record (14)

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

Trial Summary

Called as the prosecution's financial analyst on Day 5, Hull presented a forensic review of Katherine Magbanua's banking records and employment income, tracing a spike in 2014 cash deposits against identified income sources; on cross, she conceded she could not account for multiple potential cash-paying jobs or determine the origin of specific deposits.

Appearances (3)

Mentioned (3)

Opening

Opening Statement - Tara Kawass

Day 1 Procedural

End of Day — Jail Call Admissibility Rulings and Scheduling Scheduled as second witness on Day 5

Day 4 Closing

Closing Argument - Tara Kawass

Day 8

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

Trial Summary

Called as the prosecution's forensic accounting expert, Hull presented financial analyses of Katherine Magbanua, Luis Rivera, and Charlie Adelson tracing cash flows around the July 2014 murder; on cross, she conceded that her chart labels and combined payment totals were consistent with the defense's alternative compensation narrative.

Appearances (3)

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

Trial Summary

Called as the prosecution's certified fraud examiner, Hull analyzed bank records, payroll documents, and iCloud messages to document post-murder cash influxes to the alleged hitmen, a threefold 2014 cash surge in Katherine Magbanua's accounts during a period of no documented employment, and Donna Adelson's personal signature on all 44 Adelson Institute payroll checks issued to Magbanua—three of which were absent from the Institute's own QuickBooks financial records.

Appearances (3)

Mentioned (2)

Procedural

Sidebar — Slide 38 Hearsay Ruling & Hull Late-Disclosure Accommodation

Day 3 Rebuttal

Rebuttal Closing - Georgia Cappleman Cappleman disputes the defense's assertion that Hull placed the Adelson Institute in Charlie's name until 2022; Cappleman says it changed hands in 2015

Day 9