Florida woman is charged with plotting her former son-in-law’s death a week after her son is convicted of murder

By Denise Royal, CNN

(CNN) — A Florida woman was arrested and charged with murder and other offenses in the 2014 fatal shooting of her former son-in-law – a week after her son was convicted of the same charges in the case.

Donna Adelson, 73, was arrested Monday night at Miami International Airport, FBI spokesperson Amanda Videll said. In addition to the first-degree murder charge, she faces charges of conspiracy and solicitation in the shooting death of renowned Florida State University law professor Dan Markel, according to a Monday probable cause affidavit.

Adelson’s arrest comes a week after a jury convicted her son, Charles Adelson, of the same crimes roughly a decade after Markel was fatally shot inside his car at his home in Tallahassee, Florida.

At the time of his murder, Markel was in the middle of a difficult custody battle with Donna Adelson’s daughter, Wendi, after a recent divorce.

Prosecutors allege Markel’s killing was the result of a murder-for-hire plot involving several people, including Donna Adelson, Charles Adelson and Katherine Magbanua – who was his girlfriend at the time – and carried out by two hitmen, Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia, prosecutors said. Garcia is also the father of Magbanua’s children.  

Magbanua, Garcia and Rivera are already serving prison time for their roles in Markel’s murder.

Donna Adelson’s arrest came a week after she and her husband, Harvey, booked flights to Vietnam departing from Miami airport on Monday, according to the probable cause affidavit.

In the days leading up to her arrest, Donna Adelson discussed getting her affairs in order, fleeing to a non-extradition country, as well as plans for suicide in calls with her son Charles after his guilty verdict, the document says.

Charles Adelson testified that his family had offered Markel $1 million to allow Wendi to move back to Miami with their two children.

Donna Adelson also told Wendi to threaten to convert Markel’s Jewish children to Catholicism, knowing how important his Jewish faith was to Markel, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Donna Adelson was being held at the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond, according to inmate records. She will be transferred to Leon County at an unspecified date due to security concerns, the FBI said.

Charles Adelson is set to be sentenced next month. He will face a mandatory life sentence for the first-degree murder conviction. He was the third person tried in the murder of the FSU law professor and the fourth convicted.

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