'She Is The Curse': Dan Markel's Parents Speak After Jury's Guilty Verdict

Video Description

Dan Markel’s parents spoke in court after a Leon County, Florida, jury convicted Donna Adelson of all three counts for the 2014 contract murder of their son, who was Adelson‘s ex son-in-law. Ruth and Phil Markel attended every day of Donna‘s trial, and they were in court when Judge Stephen Everett read the verdict. Everett did not Adelson sentence today. Instead he scheduled sentencing for Oct. 14. You can watch the judge read the verdict aloud here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KbZ7IPO4nc 00:46 "For 11 years, we have been forced ... to a life filled with unimaginable pain and heartbreak." 02:28 "Dan was the boy's hero, and they have been forced to grow up without a father." 05:00 "Dan came home, and he found that Wendi and the boys were gone with most of their belongings. He called this devastation Pearl Harbor." 06:42 "Donna's recorded phone calls with Charlie reveal their lack of a moral compass or capacity for self reflection. She blames external forces for her family's curse. They're outside of her, but she is the curse, and lashes out angrily at witnesses who look and took the brave step to testify her own her modus operandi has always been to run, to run from Tallahassee and then to try to flee to Vietnam." 09:09 "Benjamin and Lincoln were only preschoolers when their father was murdered, and now they are forced to confront and try to understand the unthinkable crimes of murder." 10:35 "Good evening. My name is Phil Markel. I'm Danny's father. Judge Everett, I appreciate the opportunity to speak about the impact of Donna Adelson's actions on my families and the families of so many others. While this victim impact statement is addressed to you, Your Honor, it also intended for the Adelson family: Harvey, Charlie, Wendi and particularly Donna. I would like them to understand and reflect on the deep and irreparable damage they have caused the pain that they have caused my family is obvious and permanent, but they have also caused lifelong harm to their own immediate family and so many other families and children around Donna's selfishness, cruelty and complete disrespect for human life, along with that of her coconspirators have left families forever broken." Case background: Donna Adelson, 75, is accused of orchestrating the murder-for-hire of her former son-in-law because she wanted her daughter and grandchildren to move to Miami. Adelson is accused of conspiring with her son Charlie Adelson more than a decade ago to hire hitmen to kill Dan Markel, who was a Florida State University law professor and the father of her two young grandsons. Her defense is that she had no knowledge of what hitmen Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia were going to do, and that prosecutors are only focusing on her hatred for Markel to show she had a motive to want him murdered, when there's no evidence she was actually involved. Rivera, a former gang leader, is serving a 19-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against Garcia, who fired the fatal shots, as well as the woman who linked Garcia to the victim: Katherine "Katie" Magbanua, who was Garcia's on-again, off-again girlfriend and also was in a relationship with Adelson's son Charlie Adelson. Garcia was convicted in 2019 and Magbanua in 2022. Rivera also testified in Charlie Adelson's trial in 2023, and Adelson was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. After their son's trial, Donna Adelson and her husband, Harvey, bought one-way tickets to Vietnam. Police arrested her on the jetway at Miami International Airport on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder. ****************************************************************************** Become a member of Meghann's YouTube channel to show your support: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOHIOF-rFAeLOnH0ri5F62g/join Subscribe to Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff: https://www.legalaffairsandtrials.com/subscribe Support Meghann on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MeghannCuniff BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/meghanncuniff.bsky.social Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meghannmcuniff Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghanncuniff/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghanncuniff Threads: https://www.threads.net/@meghanncuniff Venmo: MeghannCuniff