Broward County periodontist Charlie Adelson was testifying in his defense on Thursday during his trial for the 2014 murder of a Florida State University law professor.
Adelson, who lived in Fort Lauderdale, stands accused of hiring the hitmen who killed Daniel Markel, his former brother-in-law, amid a custody dispute with his sister.
Adelson said the killers were not hitmen. His defense: A girlfriend, a romantic rival, and their gang member friend extorted him.
Daniel Rashbaum, his defense attorney: “Do you love your nephews?”
Adelson answered in the affirmative.
Rashbamu: “Would you ever take their father away from them?”
Adelson: “Never in a million years.”
Prosecutors accused Markel of being the mastermind of a murder-for-hire plot. The FBI and detectives found Katherine “Katie” Magbanua, who was Adelson’s girlfriend, was the connection between Adelson and Sigfredo “Tuto” Garcia and Luis “Tato” Rivera, the convicted killers.
“I always suspected that it was Sigfredo who did it … He was an angry guy,” Adelson said.
Garcia is the father of Magbanua’s kids, and Rivera, a known Latin King gang member, is their friend. Adelson said he had never even heard about Rivera before.
“I wasn’t part of the murder,” Adelson said.
Markel was shot in the head twice on July 18, 2014, in his parked car, just outside of his home in Tallahassee, and died about 14 hours later, according to the FBI.
Adelson said he was working in Palm Beach County when his mother messaged him and he called her back. He said she told him that Markel had been shot in Tallahassee.
“I was pretty upset about what I had just heard,” Adelson said.
During their testimonies in court, Magbanua and Adelson both agreed that she came over to his Fort Lauderdale apartment after he told her about the shooting. They also agreed that Magbanua served as a mediator between the killers and Adelson.
“It’s my fault for running my mouth the way I did,” she told Adelson about Markel’s murder, according to Adelson. She also allegedly said, “Listen, this is all my fault … My friend killed Dan. He wants you to pay him. ”
Adelson said Magbanua instructed him to pay her in installments, so she could then pay the killers, and to avoid telling anyone or the police, so they wouldn’t then kill him or his family.
“She was just apologizing and telling me that her friend is crazy and she was telling me that she was going to protect me,” Adelson said.
Adelson said that after the two broke up in July, he continued meeting with her to make the cash payments. Then, Adelson said, Magbanua asked him if he could pay $1,000 through his company, so she could get health insurance for her kids.
“I needed her for my safety,” Adelson said, adding that he agreed to help.
Since his mother kept the books in his practice, he said he asked her to issue the checks for Magbanua, and because of this he eventually told his mother about the extortion — asking her not to tell his father, his sister, or anyone who would tell the police, which would put their lives at risk.
“My dad never knew what happened to me,” Adelson said.
Adelson said Magbanua was “constantly broke,” so while they were friends he decided to continue to give her gifts because he wanted to “keep her happy.”
“I didn’t think she had anything to do with it. I didn’t even want to believe that she had anything to do with it,” Adelson said later adding, “I thought that if I went to the police they would kill me” and “I was worried about my safety.”
Rashbaum played some of the FBI recordings of Adelson’s conversations that the prosecution had already played for the jury during the trial, and he asked Adelson for context.
“I thought she got dragged into this in the same way I got dragged into this,” Adelson said about Magbanua’s involvement.
Adelson said he met his mother after an undercover FBI agent pretended to extort her while mentioning Magbanua in South Beach. Adelson said his mother was “very scared” and “she wanted to go to the police” and tell his father.
Adelson said he asked his mother to wait and told her that she was going to talk to Magbanua to see if she knew what was going on. After his meeting with her on April 20, 2016, he said he told his mother they had concluded it was the police.
“I believe there is no danger to my family at this time — very minimal,” Adelson told his defense attorney during his testimony about the undercover FBI agent.
Adelson said he also met with his dad after his mother had told him everything, and told him he thought that the person who had approached his mom was law enforcement.
Adelson said they were at Matsuri, a Japanese restaurant near Coral Gables when a man sat next to his father and placed a bag on the counter.
“He is either the rudest guy ever or he could be a police officer,” Adelson said about the undercover FBI agent who recorded the conversation.
During his testimony, Rivera admitted to being the head of the Latin King’s North Miami branch, getting the murder gun, and renting the getaway car. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for 19 years in prison in 2016.
Garcia and Magbanua were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Her appeal is pending.
Detectives arrested Adelson last year. Leon County Circuit Judge Stephen Everett is presiding over his trial for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
Everett said the court was in recess until 8:45 a.m., on Friday. Rashbaum told Everett in court that Adelson was not done with his testimony yet.
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