South Florida matriarch sentenced to life in prison for hired killing of her ex-son-in-law

NBC Miami ^ | 10/13/25 | Kate Payne

[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.

[rellic]

Judging from what happened, I don’t think that guy was all
that bright, so it would have been easy.
I’m blessed, all my in-laws loved me.
My mother went through 4 husbands and she drug me
through 3 of them so I’m no stranger
to marriage problems.
I had the opportunity to know and make
friends with my my in-laws before I
married their daughter.
Been married over 48 years.
She’s just like her mom and dad with her life
experiences being the center. It is
amazing how much kids mirror
their parents.

[CaptainK]

The female go between,Katherine Magbanua, had dated Charlie Adelson the brother of Wendy.

[Secret Agent Man]

She should get the death penalty. Hideous creature of filth.

[Secret Agent Man]

This is the sex bias that exists in the american injustice system.

[Celtic Conservative]

“Wonder how she skated out of it?”

She likely snitched on her mother.

CC

[ViLaLuz]

Paging LT Columbo

[PLMerite]

Totally without reading the whole article, is this the same family of Adelsons?

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4346245/posts

[Mercat]

Well, she is 75 years old. I doubt she’ll be out before she dies. I wish there had also been a hefty fine for her victim’s family and I wish that they had said what happened with her grandchildren. Hopefully they didn’t go to the evil mom.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

No. Completely unrelated. It’s a relatively common name.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

No one has skated. The ex-wife is next, unless her father is tried first. The pattern of prosecution may strike some as glacially paced, but there is method to the prosecutor’s approach (and COVID delayed the trial of the son for about 2 years).

I must say the prosecutors are doing a brilliant job of it. It has been an incremental process, each trial building on the previous one. Wendy Adelson is a lawyer herself, with substantial academic credentials. She was cautious in her testimony in the latest trial. There was nothing she could do to help her mother out in that case, but she used a technique of repeating back the question to the prosecutor when she was being examined on the witness stand. Made very little sense given the context and the (lack of) complexity of the questions, but she seemed to do it with every question. I think Wendy is perhaps the hardest to pin down in terms of her direct testimony, but by having prosecuted almost everyone else in this sordid mess already, there is so much information already in evidence that she is boxed in.

The fascinating aspect is - here is a family that in many regards was quite successful - financially, academically, professionally. And yet as a family they countenanced killing a person for their convenience - so the grandchildren would be physically closer, and the distance to visit them would not be so inconvenient. That is pretty sick.