Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - "KILLER-MOM-IN-LAW" SUSPECT PRIMPS BEFORE TRIAL IN MURDER HIT ON LAW-PROF SON-IN-LAW

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Donna Adelson is accused of masterminding the shooting death of her former son-in-law, Dan Markel. Adelson was arrested at Miami International Airport in an alleged attempt to flee to a non-extradition country. Investigators believe Adelson had Markel killed following the divorce from her daughter, Wendi, after a judge and Dan denied her request to move herself and the two children to South Florida, closer to her family. Donna Adelson is the fifth person charged in the murder-for-hire plot of her former son-in-law, a Florida State University law professor and well-known throughout Tallahassee. The first person brought to justice, Luis Rivera, agreed to a plea deal. Rivera testifies he and his lifelong friend, Sigfredo Garcia, drove from Miami to Tallahassee to carry out the hit, and Garcia was the triggerman. Rivera, once a Latin Kings gang leader, accepted a 19-year prison sentence in exchange for flipping on his close friend. This week, in Donna Adelson's trial, some of the most dynamic pieces of evidence are the money changing hands and the wiretaps. Mary Hull, from the Florida Department of Financial Services, breaks down financial records before and after the murder of Dan Markel. Rivera admits on the stand he received over $33,000 for the hit. Also, the jury hears the feds' wiretaps, Charlie and Donna Adelson talk in code, and the bump, which was orchestrated to trap the co-conspirators into a phone frenzy.  Joining Nancy Grace today: Eric Faddis - Partner at Varner Faddis Elite Legal, Former Felony Prosecutor and Current Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Attorney; Instagram: @e_fad @varnerfaddis; TikTok: @varnerfaddis Dr. Shari Schwartz - Forensic Psychologist (specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy), Author: "Criminal Behavior" and "Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology;" X @TrialDoc Ron Bateman - Former Sheriff for Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Former Homicide and Undercover Narcotics Detective, Author of Crime Trilogy "Silent Blue Tears" (and currently directing and producing a film documentary on the murders at the Capital Gazette Newspaper in Annapolis); TikTok: @Ron.Bateman.655 Dr. Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), NEW Podcast "Mayhem in the Morgue” (launched last week);Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University) Gigi McKelvey - Journalist and Host of Podcast “Pretty Lies and Alibis;" Facebook, IG, TikTok: @PrettyLiesAndAlibis, TX: @PrettiesLiesAlibi Dave Mack - Crime Stories Investigative Reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. The so-called killer mother-in-law suspect prompts fixing her hair as she goes to trial in a murder case where the state alleges she masterminded an execution, a paid. hit on her own son-in-law, the law professor. That's right, a so-called killer mother-in-law, but for real. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

I want to thank you for being with us. A loving father and esteemed law professor is gunned down at his own home in his own vehicle. We heard and looked in the garage door was up. And I thought the gentleman was backing out. I went back to my house, but he never backed out, and I came back over. Is he breathing? I can't tell that. I'm assuming he's breathing if he's moving his head around.

Did you ever hear him talk or anything? No. Okay. Now, that's a great place to launch a trial playing for the jury, the 911 call. In most cases, that is the closest thing we have to what really happened. So let's start right there. listen. 9-1. Once the rest of your emergency, okay, tell me exactly what happened.

We heard, looked in, the garage goal was up, and I thought the gentleman was backing out, and I went back to my house, but he never backed out, and I came back over, and his driver's side window is shattered. He's moving his head around, but he's not responding. I've called his name, ask what's going on, not call his name, but asking what's happening. He's not responding.

to that but his head's kind of rolling around. Okay, is he conscious? Well, I can't tell. Okay. Is he breathing? I can't tell that. I'm assuming he's breathing if he's moving his head around. Did you ever hear him talk or anything?

No. Okay. You said he's sitting in the car, right? Correct, on the driver's seat. Oh, my stars, when I hear about the execution style hit on a loving dad of two little boys, two little boys, a loving dad, devoted to his children. When I hear that, it just pounds it in.

He was alive. He didn't get shot and just die instantly. He was still trying to speak. He was still moving his head around. Professor Dan Markell. I had heard of him as being a renowned law. professor, just crackling with legal intelligence, totally devoted to his family. There's his wife, Wendy, also a lawyer, one of the only remaining members of the family that has not been implicated

in his murder. Wow. Okay. Hearing that 911 call and realizing that he's moving his head around trying to speak to a neighbor is excruciating. I've thought it through myself. Did the victim die immediately? Did they know what was happening to them? What were their last moments on earth? Was he thinking about his children? Will I ever see them again?

Am I going to live or die? Let's listen to more of that 911 call. We're going to hear it just like the jury. So you're saying his head is bloody now? Yeah, it's been bloody. I mean, it's, the window shattered. I don't know if he's tried to shoot himself. I don't know what the situation is.

Is the driver's side window, correct? That's correct. He's still moving around, so he's alive. Okay. Looks like I should have an officer coming up the roadway. Okay, well, we need EMT. Well, the officer's going to be there first. They're not going to come until we figure out what's going on,

but they're on the way as well, okay? He'd better be if this guy's got a shot living. trial is happening and it is hot and heavy in the courtroom. In the last hours, the jury is hearing more about wiretaps. And let me tell you something, when the state goes to the effort, they're very, very difficult to get. I've gotten them. You have to go through a lot of constitutional hoops to prove to a judge. And judges don't really like to give you a wiretap. It's so invasive. A wiretap on your phone. Yes, you can wiretap a cell phone, your home. I've even had a cemetery sites and porches bugged. So a wiretap is very invasive. You got to go through a lot

to get a wiretap. That's what the jury heard about in the last hours, but I want to take you to the beginning of this case. How in the hay did a mild-mannered law professor end up dead execution style in his own garage in his own car? I mean, he's pulling in home home. to see his children and his wife and bam he shot dead listen to this dan markelle comes home to find the house empty his wife and two boys gone and divorce papers left on a bed dan markelle describes the day as his pearl harbor without warning life as he knew it was gone for six weeks dan markle says he doesn't know where his children are much less his soon-to-be ex-wife markelle claims Adelson is getting help from Mother Donna Adelson and brother Charles Adelson keeping her location secret.

Their divorce order is for them to share joint custody of the children. My stars. The whole family is in on keeping the children, the two little boys, away from daddy. Let me tell you something. Dave Mack joining me along with G.G. McKelvey. First to you, Dave Mack, Crime Stories investigative reporter, Dave Mack, There was never an allegation that Professor Markell beat the children, abused the children, starve the children. In fact, if anything, he indulged them. He petted them too much. They were his mini-meas.

He adored them. So the whole family gets in league with the wife, Wendy Adelson, to hide the children from the dad. What? What? It is so shocking, Nancy, that, okay, the marriage is at that point where Wendy wants out. Now, you've got to remember that Wendy Aedelson's family is all in South Florida, and that's where she wants to go with her children. We're talking to an eight-hour difference between where the Markells live in the northern part of Florida

and where the Ailsen family lives in Southern Florida, rather. And when Wendy doesn't get that approval. to move with that's it that's where everything begins nancy they actually i say they the ails and family you mentioned dan markell comes home to an empty house right well he had gone to a convention and he was like the keynote speaker at this big event they made sure that he got the message that wendy wanted a divorce right before he went on stage they played it out perfectly and there were some proud of damaging him like that It was amazing what they did to this man.

Oh, my stars. You know, hold on, Gigi. Let me go to Eric Fattis really quickly. Guys, Eric Fattis, veteran trial lawyer, TV legal analyst, founding partner, Varner Fattis, elite legal, former felony prosecutor. That's important. Now defense attorney. Eric, when you are about to go to trial, strike a jury,

give a legal presentation in front of hundreds of lawyers who are going to be asked, firing legal questions at you. You got to be sharp. It's like a Wimbledon tennis match. You can't miss a thing. I remember thinking in court, I'd be watching the witness and watching the jury. Watch the witness, watch the jury as questioning would take place, like a tennis match. Because if you miss one word, one sentence, legal term, you're screwed.

Anything could go wrong. And so right before he takes the stage in front of 100. Hundreds of lawyers. That's when he gets hit with the news. Your wife wants a divorce and he comes home. The house is picked clean and screw the furniture. The children are gone. Oh, I can't even imagine that fattice.

You come home and your children are gone. That is what happened to him. Oh, gosh. I mean, that is going to shake anybody up, let alone someone who is preparing for a big professional presentation. You've got to be on your game. You've got to be listening. there are details you've got to take in.

You've got to make sure you don't miss anything. This is a high stakes presentation for him, and they did this in a calculated fashion intentionally to shake him up as much as they could. And really, you know, his life is crashing in upon him immediately before he's about to give this kind of a speech, I mean, clearly problematic and show some malice on their part. Well, I've got to tell you something fattest.

I don't know about you, but when I would go into Tri-Case, I would wait until everyone was ready, and I had a reason for this. The jury, no, I wouldn't come in after the jury. That's rude. But I would wait until the defense was in place. The defendant, be it from jail or on bond, was in place. Everybody was seated.

Why? Then I'd go in because I did not want them speaking to me and throwing off my concentration before I went and waited for the jury coming in. I didn't want to think about anything at all other than what I was at. about to do. Tunnel vision has to be that way. And I can just imagine him going to take the podium and going, hey, here's the divorce papers. Anyway, back to what happened to Gigi McKelvey, investigative journalist, host of podcast, a hit podcast, Pretty Lies and Alibis, Gigi. I want to get back not from the speech that got totally ambushed. I want to get to the day he was murdered.

So he's coming home and what he drives in does the garage and the garage goes up and he goes into the garage. What happened then, Gigi? Well, we know that Dan was on the phone with a special school that Wendy wanted to enroll their oldest son. And so he was actively talking to somebody as this happened. He told the person on the phone there's someone unfamiliar to me in my driveway and he needed to see who that was. The person on the other end heard maybe a struggle, heard some loud noises and was asking you okay and he could hear groans. And so he tried to call in text and no response obviously. So Gigi McKelvey, isn't it true that the killer apparently followed Markell into or right behind him, basically trapping him in the garage.

That's correct. Pulled up to where he would not have been able to back out or move in any way or get out of his car without being face to face with somebody who was going to kill him. Ron Bateman joining me, former sheriff Anne Arundel County, Maryland, former homicide, undercover narcotics detective, and author of a crime trilogy, Silent Blue Tears. Ron, this is a hit. There's no two ways about it. There's no sex attack. Nothing is stolen. There's not a carjack. Nothing. They come up, bam, right in the head and leave. That's a hit. That's an execution. Premature with malice of forethought. Absolutely first degree murder 100%.

Now, another thing, Dave Mack joining me, Crime Stories investigative reporter, isn't it true that just before he was murdered, Professor Markell was on the phone with the wife, again, basically the only person left standing that hasn't been formally accused of murder. They had been talking that whole morning, and Markelle had left her a voicemail about wanting to talk about the boys. And she texted him, his plans won't work.

Then they argued about when Wendy could get the children. She was saying he could keep them a little bit longer and then he's dead. Isn't that the scenario? They're arguing about the children that morning. It was a constant discussion between Dan Markell and Wendy about the children and about when Dan would have time with them, when he would see them, where he would see them was a big part of this. Geography really plays into this entire case. But yes, Nancy, she kept him on the phone and distracted all morning. Okay, guys, again, Wendy Adelson has not been charged and has not

been named as a person of interest in her ex-husband's murder. She is a lawyer, a very good lawyer, she has not been named a P-O-I or suspect. Okay, what more do we know? Listen. After the court prevents Wendy Adelson from moving to South Florida with the children, Adelson's mother, Donna, suggests the family offer Markell $1 million to allow the children to relocate to South Florida. Donna and husband Harvey will contribute a third. Charlie Adelson, Wendy's brother, will contribute a third. Wendy will pay a third. Donna Adelson also suggests telling Markell that Wendy Adelson is going to have the boys converted to Catholicism. Knowing Markell and his family are strict a Jewish faith,

Donna Adelson believes the mere thought of his children being raised Catholic would convince him to let the boys move to Miami. Man, talk about down and dirty. To Dr. Sherry Schwartz joining us out of this jurisdiction, I might add, forensic psychologists specializing in capital mitigation and victim advocacy. She has written multiple books, the one I like the best. criminal behavior and the other one where law and psychology intersect. Dr. Sherry, thank you for being with us.

Dr. Sherry, number one, they try to bribe Markell, the mother, he's on trial right now for having her son executed. The mother-in-law literally from the gates of hell. Oh, yeah, don't be fooled by that right there. We'll just wait until you hear what we found on those wiretaps. she's presumed innocent until proven guilty. Dr. Sherry, number one, trying to bribe Markell offering him a million dollars, a cool mill. If he would let the boys relocate from Tallahassee hours away to Miami, he's like, hell no, I want to be with my children.

I don't even want this divorce. then after the bribe didn't work, she allegedly decides to torture him by telling him he is a devout and strict Jew. They're going to tell him that they are having the boys baptized and converted to Catholicism. Don't you know he did a backflip? Generally speaking, when you're talking about this level of cruel. We're, it's very similar to characteristics that we see in narcissistic parents. It's all about power, manipulation and control.

And when the person, the target in this case, Mr. Markell, doesn't go along with what the narcissist wants, there's a state of narcissistic rage where they will engage in acts of extreme cruelty, such as not just bribery, but threatening that they're going to convert the children to a different religion. Dr. Kendall Crowns is joining me, Chief Medical Examiner, Tarrant County. That's Fort Worth. He is the esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine that is at TCU, and he's a star of a brand-new hit podcast, Mayhem in the morgue. Dr. Kendall Crowns, I want you to hear the trajectory path of the bullet that tore through Dan Markell's face.

Listen. a criminal law professor was pulling into his driveway and on his cell phone when he was fatally shot. The killer was waiting for Markell outside his home in Tallahassee's Baton Hill section, then followed Markell into the garage when he opened it. Markell was shot in the side of the head through the window of his car. The bullet entered just beneath Markle's jawline. Dr. Kendall Crowns, I'm having my hot tea, but I think I need something a little stronger than that. Did you hear what was just said that the bullet entered just beneath

Markell's jawline. Now let's think this through. So he's driving on the left side of his vehicle. So it would have been the left jawline just below it and rips through his face and neck. And he lived. He lived. He was trying to talk, say something to the neighbor,

and his head was moving around. What happened? And how long could he have endured that before he died? So the gunshot wound of entrance going under his left jaw line would be you'd have in this area of your neck the crotid artery, the jugular vein, but if it's a little anterior, it may miss those, then continue through into the midsection of his neck, which would hit his trachea, his thyroid, and then continue out the right side of his neck, again, possibly

hitting the jugular and carotid. If those two vessels are hit, he's going to survive for minutes. If those two vessels are not hit, he's going to sit there inhaling blood through his damaged trachea, unable to speak because the area could involve his vocal cords and then sucking in blood and he could survive for quite a while with that injury. But if it hits the major vessels, he's going to die in minutes. What did you say about sucking in blood? So if it hits the trachea area, it'll cause blood to go into the airway or mainstem bronchus and you'll be sucking in that blood kind of gasping in the blood, not able to talk, but just making a noise because your vocal cords are damaged, but you're sucking in the blood. Dr. Kendall Crowns,

do you know what you're saying? Do you ever think about it? I mean, when I think about Markell, I immediately think about as two boys. Because one day, whenever they can mentally and emotionally take it, they're going to find out the details about how their dad died. And they're going to have to find out that their dad was sitting in his car, had been arguing about how much he wanted to see them and be in their lives and be the primary caregiver. And then he ends up with this horrendous injury, pain. beyond excruciating to the neck, the face, the head, and he's sucking in his own blood.

I mean, do you ever think about what you're saying, or is this like just a clinical analysis for you? Of course, I think about what I'm saying, but the emotionality of thinking about the individual's life outside of him, of the injuries that I see at autopsy, I try not to think about because if I get wrapped up in, the emotion of all of it, I wouldn't be able to do my job. So in a way, yes, it's very clinical to me. You ask me a question, and I will give you a clinical answer describing what's injured, not thinking about him, his family, the pain and suffering, etc. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Dr. Kendall Crown's question, you have children, right? a lot of them. I do. Yes.

Dr. Kendall Crowns, isn't it your dearest wish? I mean, it's mine. Maybe I'm projecting, but your dearest wish is to be there for your children's lives, not only for you to see them unfold, but to be there to help them in any little way you can, small or great. And just imagine with those hopes and dreams in your mind and in your heart. You are sitting in your front seat of your car, sucking in blood, wondering, will you ever see them again? The answer is no. I mean, did he have time to have those thoughts? Could he have?

Depending on if it's just the gunshot wound of the neck, he could have had time to think about what's happening, trying to yell for help, can't yell for help, and it's just inhaling in the blood. But it just depends on what areas get hit. But yes, he could be consciously thinking about what's going to be. going on at that present time. Why is law professor Dan Markell dead? Why was he murdered? He's not responding to that, but his head's kind of rolling around. OK, is he conscious?

Well, I can't tell. He heard the snoring respirations. He's not talking. He's mumbling. He has no idea what happened. And he's bleeding out. And he's going into death as his blood seeps out of his body. You know, I've asked this a million times.

Fatus, I know you're a dying the world of defense attorney, but does it ever strike you? Why is it always the good, the pure, the innocent, the decent people to get slaughtered? And then the dope dealers and the child molesters and the drug lords, the bad guys, they just have a field day. They somehow survive like roaches. But a loving dad, brilliant lawyer, which to me is a side issue, the fact that he's such a loving dad is what matters to me. Why did they have to die? You know, it's an incalculable loss. You know, we're talking about the trial of Donna Ailsen. You know what? Fadish, you're absolutely right. This is the trial of the monster in law, the suspect who ordered the hit, according to prosecutors, to murder her son

in law because he would not let his children move eight hours away to live by her. Wow, I wonder why. After trying to bribe him for a million dollars threatened to indoctrinate the boys in another religion, a plot unfolds. I haven't even gotten to all the wiretaps. You know what? You're going to totally wig when you hear this. But let's take it step by step because it can get complicated. Listen. Charlie Adelson, brother of Wendy Adelson, uses his girlfriend, Catherine McBanawa, to arrange a murder for hire using the father of her two children, Sigfredo Garcia, and his friend, Louis Rivera, to kill Dan Markell. The end result that Wendy Adelson can move her two children to South Florida near her family.

Exactly what happened when Dan Markell was killed. What happened when you got to the driveway of Dan Markell? Well, I pulled the right behind him. And Garcia jumped out and shot him. How many times did Garcia shoot Mr. Markell? Cold blood. Cold blood. Gigi McKelvey, joining us, investigative journalist.

star of pretty lies and alibis podcast. Gigi's been on the case from the very, very beginning. Gigi, cold, what? I mean, he just rattled it off. How many times you shoot him? Twice. He doesn't care about the children. He doesn't care about Markell's family.

Devastated family. Twice. Okay. Forget about that. Let me talk to you about the plot. Let me understand. Wendy Adelson, the mother. of the children, the one that got the divorce, the lawyer, her, Wendy Adelson's brother,

Charlie Adelson, and let me just tell everybody this is great for the shrink to figure out. On his car tag, he paid for a vanity tag that said, maestro. Really? Okay. Isn't he basically a dentist? Okay, that said. he decides to intervene, and he gets his girlfriend, Catherine Magbana, to arrange a hit. And the hit men are the father of her children, Siegfredo Garcia, and his friend Louis Rivera.

Okay, there is Catherine Magbanwa, and the father of her children, Siegfredo Garcia, and his Luis Rivera. Okay. Tell me how that whole thing went down, Gigi. And isn't it quite the coincidence? Isn't it odd that everybody around Wendy Adelson is dropping like flies? Now her mother is on trial. But she is unscathed, neither a person of interest or suspect. Tell me how this whole thing went down with the girlfriend, with Charlie Adelson's girlfriend. Man, she must have been a piece of work. because when I think of hitman, I don't think, hey, I'll ask my husband to get some of his low-life friends to pull off a hit. You know, they're not all nuns and priests and virgins, G, G.G. Birds of a feather, you know the rest.

So he thinks his girlfriend can arrange a murder, and guess what she does? Yeah, I mean, that's essentially what happened. And it was pretty soon after they started seeing each other at a Halloween party where they're getting in their car to leave. And he just asked her, hey, do you know anybody that would hurt? hurt somebody. And she said yes and left it there. And it wasn't until later on when the relocation was was a big issue with Donna. And we're going to hear that on these wiretap calls as this trial progresses. It was getting fever pitch. I don't think Charlie cared where Wendy and the boys lived. He's a playboy making millions of dollars every year. But it was important to Donna. And as time went

on and Donna got more frantic and more obsessed with the location issue, he finally went to her and said, we need to get this done. That is when she went to her baby daddy, Siegfredo Garcia, and proposed, would you like to make some money to take care of somebody? And he said yes. After that, he got his childhood friend Luis Rivera, who was the leader of the Miami sector of the Latin Kings to come along as a ride-along, essentially, and that's where the plot started. So, Charlie Adelson, aka The Maestro, who is Wendy Adelson. Oh, there he is. What a fine figure of a man.

Vanity plate, maestro, okay, whatever. So how is he making so much money, hand over fist, Gigi, how much money are we talking about? What did he do for a living? He's a periodontist. So that's a dental surgeon. Harvey, the father, was only a dentist and owned the Adelson Institute, which is their family dental practice. But Charlie would also travel around South Florida and do day work at these other dental offices,

and he got paid a lot of money. Also, the family preferred cash payments as opposed to credit card payments. Charlie was notorious for having a safe with stacks of hundreds of bills in there. But Charlie, yeah, he was driving around supercars. He had a boat, throwing money out left and right, and he had the means to have. What do you mean by a supercar? The last thing I want is a man pulling up an inexpensive car. I mean, a guy pulls up in a Lamborghini.

I'm like, bye-bye. You know what that means to me? That means he's having a midlife crisis or he feels like he's got to have a really expensive car to impress people because obviously his personality and intellect don't cut it. So not interested. My husband drives a beat-up SUV. Beat up. Totally beat up.

And he doesn't care. That's what I like about him. So this guy, what kind of car is a supercar? Charlie Adelson. I believe he had a Lamborghini, if I recall correctly. Oh, dear Lord of Navid. It must have been why I said Lamborghini. Oh, I can just see him driving up.

down the strip in Miami and his Lamborghini and Maestro on his vanity. So who's Dr. Boobner, B-O-O-B-N-E-R? Who? Dave Mack, who's Dr. Boobner? I notice that you, Dave Mack, keep talking about Dr. Boobner. And I'm wondering why. You just love to say Boobner. Who is that?

Well, you know, Dr. Boobner is a Miami doctor who is a breast. augmentation specialist and he refers to himself first as Dr. Boobner and then of course his patients are so happy with the results that they in turn call him Dr. Boobner and uh okay great what does he have to do with this case he's like the missing link in um in the Dan Markell uh murder mystery if you want to call it that the prosecutors that were investigating the case they actually were able to tie in Dr. Boobner between Catherine McBanawa and Charlie Adelson and that he did Catherine McBanawa's breast augmentation surgery as part of the payment she got from Charlie Adelson for helping to pull together.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, please speak no more. Are you hearing this, Fattis? I assume Faddis, you've seen the series of Moody who's called the Apple Dumpling Gang. Okay, he's got Don Nott's and others in it. Yeah, you need to see that. It's a Disney baby. I showed it to the children. But I think the title says it all.

So the go-between Catherine McBanois, who set up the hit for Charlie Edelson, for his mother, the monster-in-law, got paid with a breast, lift, implants. I'm so happy right now because that's not hard to trace, right? He paid her with knee breasts, A and B. Right, right, Nancy. But the key there is Charlie paid her. Charlie paid her. Not Donna. It's not Donna fronting the bill for these new press. At least that hasn't been proven in court you. And so what we're talking about is certainly this, you know, cohort of folks who are conspiring with one another. And then we have Donna. Adelson, who, according to the fence, is just kind of a protective grandma, protective mother. The one that tried the million dollar bribe?

Okay, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Did you not hear, um, you need to turn up your hearing aids? Did you not hear G.J. McElvey just say, Charlie Adelson didn't give a flying fig where those boys lived. He only did it because his mother drove him insane to do it. He doesn't care. He didn't have a dog of that fight, no skin in the game. He did it because his mother would not leave him.

him alone. He didn't care about the boys. But, but, but to, to say that that caused this murder for higher plot is a logical leap that I'm not sure the evidence has supported yet. And, and so, uh, you know, I just think that's a bit of a stretch. The prosecution, they've already got their pound of flesh with the four other convictions. And in defense is saying, hey, leave this. Oh, no, no, no, wait. Okay, wait a minute. You're talking about the conviction of the brother, the playboy Lamborghini brother, aka Maestro, the girlfriend with the breastlift, Catherine May Banwa, the hitman, and his gang cohort. Those four have been convicted. None of them care about where the boys live. The only one that cares is Donna Adelson,

who's on trial right now. Catherine Banwa testified under oath about how Charlie Edelson couldn't take a link without mommy saying, okay, you can go. So this was like a regular part

of the way this worked whenever this conversation came up? Yes, ma'am. He would consult his mother and come back and speak to you. Objective. Yes, ma'am. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Investigators use an undercover agent to make contact with Donna Adelson. The agent hands Donna Adelson a press release of Markell's murder, asks Adelson for $5,000 and provides a phone number. Investigators intercept a call Donna Adelson makes to Charlie asking him to meet with her about paperwork hand delivered to her outsider condo. Charlie asks if it involves him and Donna says probably both of us. Donna says she doesn't want to discuss this on the phone. Investigators continue to intercept calls.

This time, Charlie tells Mom not to talk about things in the apartment. Edelson asks his mother what the letter asked for. Donna says, this TV is probably about five. Charlie asked if they asked for $5,000. Donna Adelson responds affirmatively. Edelson calls Catherine McBanawa and explains someone approached his mother regarding her son and his ex-girlfriend and asking for money. Investigators record Adelson saying to Magbanawa,

my mom doesn't know these guys. He says, paying someone off is not an admission of guilt. Conversations continue between Charlie Adelson, Donna Adelson, Catherine McBanawa, and Sigfredo Garcia, all monitored by investigators. You know, Eric Fattis' worst nightmare is a wiretap. Hey, or an undercover agent. Eric Fattis, did you hear that?

an undercover agent approaches Adelson on the street. He's got a press release or an article about Markell's murder and says, hey, you owe me $5,000. I have info on you and your son. What does she do? She doesn't call police. She calls her son and goes, don't talk on the phone. And it makes it some crazy jargon to tell him a bribe of $5,000 to just, been put to her. And they go, when somebody says, don't talk on the phone, you know it's something bad or don't put it in writing, uh-uh, you don't want to leave a trail. And that's what she says. Well, hey, what it could be, it sounds a little bit like entrapment. It sounds a little bit like government overreach. It sounds a little bit like Charlie Adelson was involved in some

misdeeds. And the government's trying to rope in somebody who did not have any direct involvement. Look, the mother may have known that Charlie Adelson did what he did and may have wanted to talk with him about that. None of that is criminal. And the fact that she says, oh, it involves both of us. Well, she's the one who received the document and received the bump, which was this surreptitious encounter. And so, hey, look, you know, calling your son to talk about it is not a crime.

You know what? When you say things like Ron Bateman, come on, you know, let's school Eric Fattis, if it's possible. Bateman, former sheriff for Ann Arindale, Count. author, homicide, undercover, you name it, Bateman. When I hear the words, don't talk on the phone or don't talk in the apartment. Why not talk in your apartment? If some guy, I don't know, literally bumps into me on the street and tries to extract five

grand from me, I'm calling police, but neither one of them called police. In fact, they don't talk on the phone. All that started. Let me talk about that for one second. I've been in those positions. I have been the undercover guy. I have been the hit guy for a relationship that went bad. And I was the guy on the phone doing the undercover call, in this case, with a wife.

And it is so funny. And being undercover narcotic detector for a long time and gotten to this role as a hitman, people always talk on the phone. They try to talk in code. and I was talking in code to this one particular lady. It's just so funny. They're not as diabolical with their planning of a murder like people think they should be. I had Maryland's first, Life Without Parole case ever happened,

and it was a contract murder involving a wife and a husband. Totally different case where I was the undercover hitman. But again, it's just so funny how things just crumpled down. and the worst thing that you can have in any kind of crime is another person. And if there's another person, which in this case, there are several, they'll all turn on each other, which obviously in this case they have. What I call, in this case, and I don't know if I've coined this, if it's my own thing or not, but it's relationship terrorism, like that bomb that was dropped on the husband

before he went for the speaking engagement. And then these guys here, Garcia and Rivera, I mean, come on. You think there's no ring cameras across the street or at the front of the house? I mean, come on. It's just, it's so. And now it culminates from the hitman to the breastlift as payment for setting up the hit, to the son, the brother, Charlie Edelson, to the mother, Donna. Edelson on trial now. The only one unscathed is Wendy Adelson. And all of this,

according to prosecutors, was for her. She says she knew nothing of it. And speaking of Donna Adelson, she came this close, this close to getting out of the country and going to a non-extradition. jurisdiction specifically Vietnam caught at the airport listen it was his idea I said sweetheart let's go just get away we're just get away somewhere so we could have some time to think okay so your testimony is that you weren't trying to go to Vietnam because you wouldn't be able to be extradited from there so so my husband actually had said you know we've been to Vietnam before with friends, we were on vacation, and it really was like a place of peace.

And so he said, if we go to a non-extraditioned country, then if the law enforcement decided that they wanted to arrest you or me or whatever, both, he said, then he said, we won't be sitting in a foreign prison waiting months to go back. We can buy a ticket and we can go home. and my understanding was that I could go home and I could turn myself in if that's what they wanted. Yeah, that's how it typically does not work. You go to a non-extradition country and then when the cops want to arrest you, you just come home. Okay, that is what we call in the law flight as evidence of guilt.

You leave the scene of the crime or you leave before you can get caught. Everyone is wondering what else was heard on those tapped phone calls to Gigi McKelvey. We have been listening to Ellie on the stand now going on two days. What did they say? Yesterday they pretty much went through a couple of calls initially about Wendy. And I think what the prosecution was trying to do was show that Donna was complaining about relationships. and jobs that Wendy had chosen and she was having Charlie do her bidding for her. You need to talk to your sister, talk her out of this. You need to talk her into this.

So I think the first couple of calls, that's what that was for. Then we get into those bump calls that we've been talking about where there's panic. You know, Donna's not wanting to say much. Charlie notoriously repeats himself in these wiretap calls that we will hear throughout today. but it's what we're hearing is the absence of the question which ex-girlfriend what is five thousand dollars why is this random guy handing me some article about dan on the street what is going on no police called nothing at all except that phone call right after the charlie we need to have dinner this involves the two of us the tv was about five and they have determined over the course of these wiretaps TV is code for murder. Jeffrey LaCasse was dating Wendy Adelson around the time of Dan's murder and says he felt like he was being framed as the possible killer. LeCast says Wendy pushed for details about an upcoming trip to Atlanta on July 18th when he was leaving direction of travel. Turns out the killers rented a car similar in color and style to Lacass's gray Nissan Centra and travel in the same direction as Lacass as they head out of town.

He also notes he had plans to travel that route the same morning in June 2014 that the hitman arrived in Tallahassee during their first attempt to kill Markell. Gigi McElvey joining us, investigative journalist, so Wendy Adelson's boyfriend thought her family, including her, was trying to set him up to take the fall for the murder? Absolutely. And he told a story that would support that. He and Wendy actually were on a break at her request. She had just got back from a 10-week stay in Miami, and they met up. And she said, look, you know, I really just want some days alone. And this is at the time that the actual murder happened.

They met up one last time. And as they're going to their car, she turns and asks him about his trip that was happening the next day. Hey, what would cause you not to go on your trip? Which way are you going? And he thought it was odd. And so he goes on about his day and come to find out both times the first attempt that happened in June that law enforcement did not know about, in fact, until Luis Rivera told them in his proffer, they rented a car very similar to Jeff Lacasse's. And I don't think it's much of a coincidence that on two separate trips in two separate months, when the killers are in town, that's when Jeff LaCasse scheduled to go out. he would have taken a route that would have went very near Dan Markell's house about the same time

that the two hitmen would have been fleeing the area after the shooting. I absolutely think they tried to set Jeff up because it would be easy. He disliked Dan because he adopted the Edelson way of thinking about Dan at the time he was with Wendy. That's what you do sometimes when you're in relationship. So it could have been the perfect storm for him, but thank goodness he was able to prove very easy. other than brainwashing the boyfriend, Dave Mack, I'm interested. I'm curious about a conversation, according to the boyfriend Jeffrey Lacasse. He says, Wendy Adelson, the mom of the boys, Dan Markell's wife that wanted the divorce and moved the boys away.

Wendy Adelson, according to Lacass says, and I'm reading it verbatim, Can I tell you something confidentially? Last summer, my brother looked into all options possible to take care of the Danny Markell problem, including hiring a hitman, and it would cost about $15,000. Okay? Then there was a question, is this some kind of joke? Charlie made. And the boyfriend says,

This was no joke. Did that happen? Has the jury heard that evidence of the conversation with Wendy Adelson? They have. Jeff LaCasse actually has already testified, Nancy, and he broke this all out. Georgia Kaplanman, one of the prosecutors, actually was able to bring this out of him. And she even went back to, was this a joke kind of like how Charlie blew off the TV. as a divorce president kind of thing

as a joke and he was like no this is not a joke because think about it in context Nancy you've got Wendy Adelson volunteering that Charlie came up with a plan and it would cost 15 grand that's beyond joking that's not

an off-handed comment that is a very firm I got to get this off my chest kind of thing and she did you know what and I don't care how angry I get at my husband if someone said hey I'm going to give you a TV as a divorce present. It's cheaper than a hitman. They would get a total knuckle sandwich, okay? But according to what the boyfriend says, this was no joke. And let me remind everyone, Wendy

Aedelson has not been charged. She is not a person of interest in the murder of Dan Markell. Everyone in our country is innocent. They are presumed innocent until and unless the state pierces that presumption of innocence with guilt to prove the incident actually happened and the defendant is guilty. Wendy Adelson, as of tonight, has not been charged as a suspect or person of interest in this case, and we wait as justice unfolds for the so-called monster in law Donna Edelson. We remember an American hero, Detective Irving Calendar, Newark, PD,

killed in the line of duty, survived by grieving wife, Melissa, two sons, Irving and Robert, and beautiful niece, Zinaya. American hero, Detective Irving, Calendar.

Nancy Gray, signing off. Goodbye. My friend. This is an I-heart podcast.