Posted on 10/13/2025 9:25:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Donna Adelson, 75, was found guilty last month of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation after a weekslong trial.
Donna Adelson, the matriarch of a wealthy South Florida family who was convicted in the hired killing of her former son-in-law, was sentenced Monday to life in prison for her role in the 2014 murder-for-hire of Daniel Markel.
A prominent Florida State University law professor, Markel was locked in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, Adelson's daughter, when he was gunned down in 2014 at his home in Tallahassee.
Adelson, 75, was found guilty last month of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation after a weekslong trial. She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, with an additional 30 years for the other two counts, to be served consecutively. Adelson has pledged to appeal. In an emotional statement ahead of the sentencing in a Tallahassee courtroom, Adelson swore she was innocent and cast her trial as a miscarriage of justice, overseen by a jury she said was unduly swayed by years of negative media coverage.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcmiami.com ...
Must be nice to be a rich jewish white woman in Florida. Usually successful premeditated murder for hire is death penalty territory.
Even better, the prosecutors call his ex-wife an unindicted conspirator. Wonder how she skated out of it?
"Can we all just get along?"
Since 1976, the state of Florida has executed 2 women (One in '98, for a murder in 1971 and one in 2002, for murders in '89 to '90.)
Since 1976, the state of Florida executed 117 men. So 117 vs. 2.
There are 288 men currently on death row in Florida vs. exactly 1 woman.
If you feel like that, you should do the job yourself
and claim self defense or an inability to help
during an accident.
Unless you are a member of a disciplined organization like the Mafia, you don’t hire things like that out.
I would have rented a nice boat and took him out
deep water fishing.
Came back distraught, he fell over when peeing over the side and I could not find him.
You be surprised how many drowned fisherman
in Puget sound they find with their
fly unzipped.
You have to be kidding!? A mother-in-law tells her son-in-law, "I rented a boat for the to of us to go out deep sea fishing." How many son-in-laws aren't going to find that suspicious?
It doesn’t hurt. There is famously a huge jewish community in Florida, just like Cubans. And apparently they were connected in the social scene.
Here’s a great article on how the daughter escaped even though there was enough evidence to charge her.
Hell, they waited 8 years to arrest her brother who was the pivot man for grandma. And they didn’t move on grandma until she was at the airport with a one-way ticket to non-extradition Vietnam!
“Adelson was the fifth person sentenced for what prosecutors say was a plot to kill Markel. Among those already serving a life sentence for the killing is Adelson’s son, Charles Adelson.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quite a story....article doesn’t have many details but this appears to suggest she got her son to be part of the gang that did it.
“I call foul. It has nothing to being Jewish, it has to do with being a woman.”
I know it’s stylish at the moment to be terrified to say it helped her, but she was a triple threat. Jewish, wealthy, and female. All of those checkmarks contributed to her avoiding the death penalty and the ex-wife not getting charged at all.
The guy didn’t deserve any of that treatment. He had 50/50 custody, and the ex refused to allow his parents to ever see the grandkids, and she wanted to move them 500 miles away.
Sounds like he married into a filthy family.
Why would anyone be terrified to say that now? If anything, now it is "hip" widely across the spectrum to pile on Jews. Of any time, in at least 80 years in the U.S., it would be safe to say that. And I'm not even sure the wealth card will help. To get a better lawyer, sure, but the only person that people are demanding to be free because he is rich, is Luigi Mangiones. The prosecutor could paint you as wealthy to make the jury mad at you.
Hey, I would want to be tried now as Jewish, how many of the jurors would automatically think you are guilty? I'm not sure how much better I'd have it being Catholic, but right now is not the best time to be on trial while Jewish.
“How many son-in-laws aren’t going to find that suspicious?”
LOL... very solid point! especially when mother in law has never -seen- a fish, unless it’s on the plate at a Michelin star restaurant!
She hasn’t. One or two additional prosecutions are coming. Wendy, the ex-spouse, and Harvey, her father, are on deck. This has been a fascinating series of prosecutions, handled superbly by the State. The incredible part was the hiring of two low-rent hit men. I think they killed Prof. Dan Markel for $15K. They stumbled and bumbled and were easily convicted. The woman who was the go-between hiring the killers for the family was tried with them and generated a hung jury. She was initially offered a very modest amount of prison time to plead and testify against the killers, but she refused and, after a retrial, was convicted and given life means life. Easily the stupidest decision in history. I think Wendy will be charged and convicted. I do not know if Harvey will be charged. He may have a Junior Soprano defense working - he is in his 80s and may plausibly be entering senility.
You have to be kidding!? A mother-in-law tells her son-in-law, “I rented a boat for the to of us to go out deep sea fishing.”
That didn’t work out for Big Pussy, in The Sopranos.
Well, it was more believable coming from his friends/accomplices/murderers.
“If anything, now it is “hip” widely across the spectrum to pile on Jews”
Hip to the kind of people most people don’t like. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fantastic advantage at times, and something that makes like much harder at other times. In Miami or the Villages, you get a friendly jury. Attending Columbia and having the temerity to try to walk to class, or wanting a job in Dearborn...a distinct disadvantage!
Horses for courses.
“I’m not sure how much better I’d have it being Catholic,”
Depends which type. If you made the FBI pro-life list, bad news. If you help bring in and settle the illegals and think women should be ordained, you’d skate!
15k.... it’s always amazing how cheap murder for hire is. I’d imagine prices would START at 100k. But it’s always something like that, or 7,300 bucks and a 2003 Corolla!
My fave with the Sopranos was how they hired some black gang drug dealers to do a hit, then called it off when they got a bad vibe. They pay them, THEN they pop them both and drive away... and it’s just another gang member got shot.
Loose ends solved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrvNCueMRak
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