Dan Markel. Photo courtesy of CBS News.
Summary: Police have arrested a woman for allegedly facilitating the hit on FSU Law professor, Dan Markel.
On Saturday, police in Tallahassee arrested a woman who they say was involved in the 2014 murder plot of a Florida State University law professor.
In July 2014, law professor Dan Markel was shot twice in the head while in his car, which was parked in his garage. According to ABC News, police believe that the motive was the divorce between him and Wendi Adelson. Police believed that Adelson’s wealthy family were “desperate” to get her to move closer to them in south Florida, but Markel had successfully stopped the relocation of her and their children in a court battle.
Police allege that Katie Magbanua, 31, facilitated the murder-for-hire plot of Markel. On Saturday, she was arrested on the charge of first-degree murder, and she was taken to Broward County Jail.
On Sunday, Magbanua’s lawyer Tara Kawass said that “there was no reason to arrest her like this.” Kawass said that she wanted to focus on getting her client released on bond.
Months ago, Police had already arrested two men and charged them with Markel’s murder. Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera had criminal histories and may face the death penalty if convicted. They pled not guilty.
Magbanua was arrested for allegedly facilitating the meeting between the Adelson family and Garcia and Rivera. Officials said that Garcia and Rivera drove from Miami to Tallahassee, shot Markel in broad daylight, and then returned to Miami in their Toyota Prius immediately after the crime. Police said that after Markel was shot the hit men called Magbanua, who is the mother of Garcia’s children and who had a relationship with Wendi Adelson’s brother Charlie.
At the time of Garcia and Rivera’s arrests, police suspected Charlie Adelson and Magbanua’s involvement, but prosecutors declined to move forward at the time until more evidence was collected.
According to investigators, Magbanua deposited over $50,000 in cash 16 months after Markel’s murder, and she had received multiple checks from the Adelson family’s dental clinic. The Adelson family insisted that she was employed there, but police asset that she had only been into the clinic once during their investigation.
Charlie Adelson’s lawyer David Oscar Markus said that it was “sad” that the police arrested Magbanua, and the Adelson legal team implied that the Adelson connection to the crime was “fiction.”
No one in the Adelson family has yet to be charged.
Do you think the Adelson family was involved with Markel’s death? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: ABC News