Law enforcement · FBI

Patrick Sanford

FBI Special Agent and lead Markel case investigator; prosecution's principal evidentiary witness across all three trials.

Appeared Magbanua Retrial Charlie Adelson Donna Adelson

3,243 lines · 19 appearances · 13 mentions · 3 trials

About

As the FBI lead investigator and the only witness to testify substantively in all three proceedings, Sanford provides the archive's single continuous thread through the full evidentiary record — from the initial murder-day investigation through the wiretap, the undercover operation, the successive trials, and the post-conviction arrest; his examination and cross-examination records across trials document both the prosecution's core evidentiary theory and the defense challenges that evolved as the case moved from one defendant to the next.

Across Trials

Sanford's evidentiary scope expanded across the three trials while his structural function — presenting the wiretap and undercover records as the prosecution's lead investigator — remained constant. In the first trial he served as the final prosecution witness, concentrated on narrating the post-bump call sequence against Magbanua, with cross limited largely to a 2019 deposition inconsistency on DOJ recording policy and a challenge to the fraction of intercepted calls played. In the second trial he appeared in two separate examination sequences — an initial Day 1 session laying the murder-day timeline, motive documents, and phantom employment, and a later recall session introducing the bump and Dolce Vita recording — with cross by Rashbaum broadening to motive theory, the extortion counter-narrative, and Charlie Adelson's non-flight conduct. In the third trial, with Donna Adelson as defendant, his testimony reorganized around evidence foregrounded in neither prior proceeding: Magbanua's post-conviction disclosures, the jail call, the airport arrest, and the day planners; cross-examination by Fulford correspondingly shifted emphasis to the investigation's evidentiary ceiling — the absence of a wiretap on Donna's own phone, no direct communication between Donna and either hitman — and to Magbanua's perjury history across two prior trials, a framing unavailable in the earlier proceedings.

Trial Record (32)

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

Trial Summary

FBI Special Agent Patrick Sanford served as the prosecution's lead investigative witness, narrating the April 2016 undercover bump operation and wiretap call sequence across four direct examination sessions; cross-examination challenged a 2019 deposition inconsistency on DOJ recording policy and elicited concessions on the fraction of intercepted calls played at trial.

Appearances (7)

Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Part 1)

Day 5 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Part 2)

Day 6 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Part 3)

Day 6 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Part 4)

Day 6 Cross

Patrick Sanford - Cross

Day 6 Cross

Patrick Sanford - Cross (Continued)

Day 6 Redirect

Patrick Sanford - Redirect

Day 6

Mentioned (7)

Cross

Craig Isom - Cross

Day 1 Cross

Christopher Corbitt - Cross FBI special agent who drafted reports incorporating Corbitt's cell analysis results

Day 4 Procedural

End of Day — Jail Call Admissibility Rulings and Scheduling FBI special agent scheduled to testify Day 5 or Wednesday; judge anticipates lengthy cross-examination

Day 4 Cross

Oscar Jimenez Jr. - Cross

Day 5 Direct

Sherry Bennett - Direct FBI Special Agent who was co-conducting Rivera's cooperation interview with Isom on September 30, 2016, while Bennett was on the phone with Rodriguez

Day 7 Direct

Jason Newlin - Direct FBI special agent present at early Rivera interviews and proffer meetings

Day 7 Closing

Closing Argument - Tara Kawass

Day 8

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

Trial Summary

FBI Special Agent Patrick Sanford served as the prosecution's primary narrative witness across two examination sequences spanning Day 1 and the recall portion of the trial, presenting the murder-day surveillance evidence, motive documents, and wiretap record, then returning under recall to introduce the undercover bump sequence and the Dolce Vita covert recording.

Appearances (7)

Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct

Day 1 Cross

Patrick Sanford - Cross

Day 1 Redirect

Patrick Sanford - Redirect

Day 1 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Recall)

Day 4 Direct

Patrick Sanford - Direct (Recall, Continued)

Day 5 Cross

Patrick Sanford - Cross (Recall)

Day 5 Redirect

Patrick Sanford - Redirect (Recall)

Day 5

Mentioned (3)

Cross

Katherine Magbanua - Cross FBI special agent present at both proffer sessions; documented frustration with Magbanua's minimization; left the room during the second proffer

Day 3 Procedural

Day 5 Morning — Court Opens, Agent Sanford Called In

Day 5 Closing

Closing Argument - Dan Rashbaum

Day 8

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

Trial Summary

Served as the prosecution's lead FBI investigator witness, presenting the multi-year wiretap, surveillance, and proffer record across three days of direct examination before defending the investigation's scope and evidentiary limits under cross-examination by defense counsel Jackie Fulford.