Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Woman on trial for murder points finger at dentist
Case for 2014 killing of FSU professor continues
TALLAHASSEE – A woman standing trial for the killing of a Florida State University professor gave testimony Wednesday that cast guilt upon her former boyfriend, a South Florida dentist.
Charlie Adelson, a periodontist in Tamarac, was also brother-inlaw to the victim, Dan Markel.
When Markel was shot to death in his garage in 2014, he was in the midst of a nasty divorce and bitter custody battle with Charlie Adelson’s sister, Wendi Adelson.
Katherine Magbanua testified that although she had no personal knowledge of any plot to kill, listening to prosecutors present their case had convinced her that Charlie Adelson was involved, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Prosecutors have never arrested nor charged Charlie Adelson, or his mother, Donna. But they have implicated them as the two behind the $100,000 paid to the killers.
Adelson’s Miami-based attorney, David Oskar Marcus, has consistently, and again on Wednesday, asserted his client’s innocence.
“The state has used Katie as a pawn in its desperate attempt to charge Charlie and his family,” Marcus said. “It even offered her full immunity from prosecution and the keys to her jail cell if she would just point the finger at Charlie.”
“But she said she could not do that because she had no actual knowledge that he was involved,” he said. “And that’s the truth.” Magbanua told jurors as much. “Why won’t you just lie and tell them Charlie was a part of this?” her defense lawyer, Tara Kawass, asked.
“I wish I could, then I would be free and with my children,” Magbanua said.
It is a knotted and tangled web that has led from South Florida to this murder-for-hire trial in Tallahassee.
Magbanua is on trial with her ex, Sigfredo Garcia. He is also the father of her two children.
Prosecutors say Magbanua was the link between the instigators and financiers behind the plot to kill.
They say she recruited the assassins, Sigfredo and his childhood best friend and Latin Kings gang member Luis Rivera.
On the witness stand, Magbanua portrayed Charlie Adelson, whom she met
in 2013, as a little off kilter with illusions of grandeur.
They haven’t spoken since 2016, she said.
“Do you think Charlie Adelson was involved in this?” Magbanua’s defense lawyer asked.
Magbanua answered in a single word: “Yes.”
The lawyer next asked: “Are you innocent?” Magbanua said, “yes.” Magbanua’s turn on the stand coincided with the dead professor’s birthday. It also concluded the testimony phase of his murder trial.
Markel would have turned 47.
Jurors will return Thursday to hear closing arguments.