South Florida matriarch off to prison after murder of FSU professor ex-son-in law
The matriarch of a prominent Broward family was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for her role in a murder-for-hire plot to kill her ex-son-in-law, a well-respected law professor at Florida State University.
Donna Adelson, 75, was convicted on Sept. 4 in a Tallahassee courtroom of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation for masterminding the 2014 murder of Dan Markel, the ex-husband of her daughter Wendi Adelson. Markel and Wendi were in the middle of a vicious custody battle over their two children when Markel was gunned down in his Tallahassee driveway.
Donna, a former teacher, was known in Broward for working part-time in her husband’s dentistry practice while juggling the demands of three children, volunteering and keeping an active membership in her Coral Springs synagogue, according to the Herald’s reporting.
READ MORE: From mom of a ‘five-star family’ to murder-for-hire charge: Donna Adelson’s dark fall
.jpg "IMG_2508 (1).jpg")
Yet the grandmother and community pillar was entangled in one of South Florida’s most notorious murder-for-hire plots.
Donna, her son Charles Adelson, Charles’ ex-girlfriend and two hitmen have been convicted for their roles in conspiring to murder the 41-year-old Markel, an esteemed academic with expertise in criminal law, in July 2014. And while longtime friends spoke highly of Donna during Monday’s sentencing hearing - or wrote letters to the judge on her behalf - Markel’s parents painted a different portrait of the woman convicted of playing a part in their son’s murder.
‘Justice must be served’
“Dan’s life was marked by his devotion to family, education, and community,” his mother Ruth Markel said when Donna was found guilty. “...Dan’s murder has shattered our family and caused deep permanent pain. This was a particularly senseless crime...”
In a 10-minute address to the court Monday, Ruth slammed Donna for her role in the murder — and for how she treated Markel while he was alive.
“It is a murder of grief, a murder of selfishly prioritizing one’s own desires over what is just or right,” Ruth said. “And at its core, this was a murder of convenience. So that one grandmother could live closer to her grandchildren, she killed their father and ripped the children from the other grandparents.”
Ruth continued: “Donna Adelson has caused immense devastation and an untimely undeserved murder through her actions. While no trial or verdict can ever heal the profound wounds caused by Dan’s murder, justice must be served.”
Markel’s father Phil Markel urged the Adelson family to reflect on the harm they caused their family — including Markel and Wendi’s two sons.
“Donna’s selfishness, cruelty and complete disrespect for human life, along with that of her co-conspirators, have left families forever broken,” Phil said. “...In the Jewish custom, we have an expression to always wish others to live to 120 years of age. For Donna, I wish her to live to 120 alone in her jail cell. I wish that every day of her remaining days she thinks about the harm she has caused to so many, especially those two boys she claims to have loved so much.”
Phil then posed a question aimed at Donna: “Was it worth it?”
Adelsons’ friends spoke up
Several of the Adelsons’ longtime friends testified and wrote letters on Donna’s behalf. Appearing in court via Zoom at Monday’s sentencing hearing, Dr. Ben Graber said he has known the Adelsons for four decades and was in “total shock” over Donna’s arrest — and conviction.
Donna, dressed in purple jail attire, teared up as Graber, a Broward obstetrician/gynecologist and former state lawmaker, spoke.
“I’m sorry I can’t be there to hug you, and I’m sorry that we didn’t get to have that dinner after your trial was over,” Graber said. “I’m here on your behalf to let you know that you have friends... It’s a tragedy for me to be here and have to talk about this.”
Graber said he believes Donna, who did not testify on her behalf at her trial, is innocent and was “exploited” by her son Charles, who he said had “issues.” Donna, he said, probably “tried to be a loving mother, subdued by guilt, by silence, by denial...”
Charles, 48, was sentenced to life behind bars for hiring two hit men from Miami to kill Markel and is serving his sentence in a prison in South Dakota. Charles was a periodontist and worked at his father’s dental practice.
“Knowing Donna... it makes no sense to me that she would pursue an activity that will destroy two families like it has,” Graber said.
Harvey, 81, Donna’s husband and a former Tamarac dentist, also addressed the court at sentencing.
“You are sending an innocent woman to prison,” he said. “You have taken my wife..., and you have taken my life. This is not justice. It is vengeance, and it is wrong.”
Donna, too, spoke at the hearing, choking up when she detailed Markel’s last moments before the murder. She said she couldn’t imagine the terror Markel felt when he was “hunted... [and] brutally murdered.”
But she quickly began to air out grievances — claiming that she had an unfair trial and that prosecutors did not have evidence that she plotted to murder Markel.
“[Prosecutors] claimed that I, this grandma, was the mastermind behind the murder,” she said. “I had no idea that other people planned to cut Danny’s life short... I had no knowledge that this horrible evil act was going to take place.”
Arrested at MIA en route to Vietnam
In 2023, Donna was arrested at Miami International Airport as she and her husband were about to board a one-way flight to Vietnam. The trip came one week after her son Charles was found guilty of his role in Markel’s murder.
Also convicted were Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera — the two hit men — and Katherine Magbanua, Charles’ former girlfriend who introduced him to the hit men. Garcia and Magbanua received life sentences. Rivera, a former gang leader of the Latin Kings, is serving 19 years after testifying against his co-defendants.
Prosecutors, throughout the trial, hinted at Donna’s motive: Helping her daughter Wendi, also a professor at FSU’s law school at the time, and her two grandchildren move to South Florida after Wendi’s divorce in 2013. Markel opposed Wendi relocating with the children.
Donna was known for taking control of all aspects of her three children’s future, steering them to become a doctor, a periodontist and a lawyer, according to the Herald’s previous reporting. As they got older, Donna weighed in on who they dated and married. Donna, prosecutors allege, involved herself in Wendi’s divorce.
Wendi and her father Harvey have not been charged with any crime and have denied involvement in the plot. After Donna’s conviction, prosecutors did not confirm whether they seek to indict Wendi but said to “stay tuned,” according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
However, for years, police suspected that Charles arranged the murder of Markel. During the 2019 trial of one of the hitmen, Charles was labeled an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
READ MORE: Who paid for hit on FSU prof? In lurid trial, a Broward dentist’s name keeps coming up
Graber, in an interview with the Herald when Donna was arrested, described Charles as a risk-taker.
“I’ve known him since he was four years old,” Graber said. “He is a playboy. A middle child. He has delusions of grandeur. In his mind, he wants to be James Bond, but he is a periodontist.”
The Adelsons’ involvement in the murder case’s tangled web has riveted those in the state capital — and thousands of internet true crime sleuths — for nearly a decade.
Miami Herald staff writer Julie K. Brown contributed to this report
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 6:59 PM.
