Thursday, March 31st:
*Pretrial Hearing (@ am ET) - FL –
Daniel Eric Markel (41) (shot to death July 18, 2014, Tallahassee) -
*Katherine Magbanua (32/now 37) (Garcia's wife) arrested (Oct. 2016) & charged with first-degree murder & 1 count conspiracy & 1 count solicitation of murder were brought together into one case on Tuesday (3/20/18). Plead not guilty. Held without bond.
Murder for Hire hit man. They split a $100K payoff for murder KM has rejected several offers of immunity for her testimony.
First trial started on 9/23/19. Jury: 10 women & 2 men & 1 alternate (woman); was 2 alternates one (man) got sick & excused on 10/3/19. Jury Deliberations on 10/10/19: 4.5 hours. 10/11: 6.5 hours for guilty verdict on Garcia. Mistrial declared for Magbanua. (10-2 for guilty). Total 11 hours. Will remain in jail as a charged co-conspirator, and the State will try her case again.
Re-Trial was set to begin on 2/14/22 with jury selection was reset to 5/16/22. (should last 3 weeks).
Court info & trial from 9/23/19 thru 1/18/22 reference post #769 here:
MISTRIAL - FL - Dan Markel, 41, FSU Law Professor, Tallahassee, 18 July 2014 *arrests* #10
1/30/22 Update: Joint Motion to Continue trial set for 2/14/22 to permit a prosecution audio-forensics expert named Agent James McElveen from the FBI to complete his work. McElveen has apparently been hired to enhance the recording of KM & CA at the Dolce Vita restaurant. The motion says that completion of the audio-enhancement work "could bring an end to this case without the need for a retrial." Hearing set for 2/1/22 @ 3pm. Pretrial court hearings are scheduled for Wednesday, 2/2/22 & Thursday, 2/3/22 to determine what evidence may be excluded as well as whether alleged yet un-indicted co-conspirators in the Adelson family will have to testify. Her attorneys are set to argue that a number of video & audio recordings taken in the course of investigating the 2014 homicide should not be allowed in court.
2/1/22 Update: Judge Robert Wheeler reluctantly granted a continuance just two weeks from when jurors were to be seated. After both Magbanua’s defense team & prosecutors with the State Attorney’s Office agreed that a CIA analyst needed more time to analyze a key recording in the alleged murder-for-hire case. Trial will not happened until May, 2022. Attorneys say they need a month for work on enhancing the audio to be completed & then another month to analyze it & take depositions related to it. Two afternoons worth of court proceedings scheduled this week in the case were postponed.
