Days after Charlie Adelson was convicted for orchestrating the 2014 killing of his brother-in-law amid a contentious child custody battle, his mother called him in jail and revealed that she was about to flee the country.
In November 2023, Donna Adelson, a Miami Beach grandmother and matriarch of the wealthy Adelson family, told her dentist son on the recorded jail calls that she was “getting things in order and that she was making sure her grandchildren would be taken care of.”
Just one week later, with a one-way ticket to Vietnam in her hand, a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, Donna and her husband Harvey Adelson arrived at the Miami International Airport. But they were stopped by the authorities and she was taken into custody on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder in the 2014 killing of her former son-in-law Dan Markel.
Now, two years later, Donna is the latest family member to go on trial for what prosecutors say was a murder-for-hire plot to kill the 41-year-old Florida State University law professor who was gunned down outside his Tallahassee home on July 19, 2014.
Jury selection began Monday for the now-75 year old with opening statements set for Friday and the trial expected to last until September 8.

Prosecutors say Donna helped orchestrate the plot to murder Markel, conspiring with her son Charlie Adelson and his then-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua, who they say served as the go-between with two men hired to carry out the killing, Sigfredo “Tuto” Garcia and his friend Latin Kings leader Luis Rivera.
Magbanua and Garcia are serving life sentences and Rivera is serving a 19-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against the others.
Wendi Adelson and her father, Harvey Adelson, have denied involvement and have not been charged.
Here’s what to know about the case:
Disturbing jailhouse calls led to Donna Adelson’s arrest
The family matriarch had been on prosecutors’ radar for some time, according to Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell, who told The Associated Press that while he believes his prosecutors already had enough evidence to convict Donna before her arrest, it had to be accelerated when investigators learned of her plans to leave the country.
Those plans were discovered in jailhouse calls made following Charlie’s guilty verdict in November 2023. The calls involved Donna telling her son that she was “getting things in order, creating trusts, and making sure her grandchildren are taken care of.”

She talked about suicide on the call, according to an arrest affidavit, but then admitted her plans to flee to a non-extradition country. That country was Vietnam with a stop in Dubai. The two countries do not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
“Donna discusses plans for a suicide, but also discusses plans to flee to a non-extradition country,” according to the affidavit.
“Donna Sue Adelson has considerable financial resources to accomplish this,” the affidavit continued. “On Nov. 7, 2023, Donna and Harvey Adelson booked flights to Vietnam with a stop in Dubai.”
“It was going to be complicated and really difficult trying to bring them back, depending on where they ended up in the world,” Campbell added. “The arrest was not just based on the flight, but that played a part in the timing.”
What happened to Dan Markel?
On July 18, 2014, Dan Markel was gunned down in the driveway outside his Tallahassee home. He was 44 years old.
Just 48 hours later, his ex-wife Wendi and their two boys moved to a house that was within walking distance of the Adelson family home, prosecutors said. She later changed her sons’ last name from Markel to Adelson.
The Adelsons immediately became suspects following Markel’s murder. Wendi told detectives that the killing could have been arranged on her behalf, because her parents – including her mother Donna, were “very angry at Markel.”
Wendi, who has denied involvement with the murder and testified under immunity at several trials, has not been charged.
Neither has her father, Harvey Adelson.
Emails reveal Donna Adelson ‘hated’ her son-in-law
Prosecutors have repeatedly said Donna “hated” her former son-in-law Markel, who had been in a bitter custody battle with Wendi.
He had a court order barring her move from Tallahassee back to South Florida with their two young sons.
Authorities say the Adelsons offered Markel $1 million to let his ex-wife and sons move, but when he refused, Charlie Adelson and other members of the family began plotting his death.
In a key email sent in July 2013, she told her daughter: “It’s time to take control of your life and not let Jibbers think he’s just ‘won’ anything by having you remain in Tallahassee, eight hours away from the only family you have, and lose out on what will be a job that will afford you and your children advantages that they will never otherwise be able to enjoy.”
“Let’s show this [expletive] what will make him absolutely miserable,” the email continued. “You know his weak points; money, religion, control.”
“You have 5 weeks before your court date,” she wrote, underlining that text. “I know you have a hob that keeps you very busy. However, the rest of your life, and consequently, dad’s mine and yes, even Charlie’s, will be affected by how well you can perform/act before July 31st.”
An investigation was launched and in 2016, an FBI agent, impersonating an extortionist, approached Donna outside her home and demanded $5,000 to not turn information about the shooting over to investigators.
This sparked a slew of calls and meetings between Donna and her son. In the first call, she told him they needed to discuss “some paperwork” and that “you probably have a general idea what I’m talking about.”
Wiretaps of the phone calls between Charlie and his mother played a role at his trial.
A sting operation called “The Bump,” revealed there was a pattern of phone calls leading up to and around the time of the murder, calls “were always” made in this order: Donna Adelson to Charlie Adelson to Katherine Magbanua to Sigfredo Garcia, only for those calls to be returned in reverse order.
Now the next few weeks will reveal how much those calls play a role in Donna’s own trial.