GUILTY FL - FSU Law Professor Dan Markel Murdered by Hitmen #17

[justice1960]

One of the many interesting things about Wendi’s police interview on day of murder.

Isom asks her if they can download her phone and she agrees. Says she will have to sign a form.

Then Isom starts asking questions about Charlie - the one who made the joke about the TV - to “eliminate him” as a suspect at 24:30. Asks her what kind of car he drives. She says he works all day driving to different offices as a periodontist and “works really hard. Early morning till late at night. He has a girlfriend. So he’s pretty much accounted for.” She confirms Charlie’s legal name. Charles Jay Adelson. Same spelling. A-D-E-L-S-O-N. Isom is asking and she s confirming all these details.

Here is the interesting part. At this exact moment, Wendi fully realizes that she’s just named him as a suspect and the detective has written his information down. At 26:15 of the interview you can see the horror on her face and she looks like she’s about to throw up.

Wendi: “Oh my god!!”
Isom (calmly) “What?”
Wendi: “WHAT?? Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening!”
Isom (calmly) “Alright. Let me go get the form for the phone…”
Wendi “Do I….do I need to, umm be read my Miranda rights or something if you are going to look at my phone?”
Isom (puzzled) “I….can read you Miranda if you want to hear that?”
Wendi: “I don’t know, I just want to make sure I’m being protected.”
Isom: “I have no reason, at this point, to suspect you in this incident, ok?”
Wendi: “I couldn’t tell from the way you were talking to me in the car if I was a suspect”
Isom: “well, no. The reason was I didn’t want to get into everything until we got up here”

Wendi’s tone went from “of course you can have my phone” horrified widow to “I don’t want to give you my phone if I’m a suspect” literally seconds after Isom asks for Charlie’s details. She has no idea what they know about her or Charlie at this point. She knows that if they download her phone, they’re gonna find *advertiser censored* about Charlie and the TV. The timing of her believing she could be a suspect is not a coincidently

IMHO. Just a matter of time before the shoe drops on her. Now it is on to DA/HA.

 

[cottonweaver]

More nuggets from Wendi’s interview:
..... RSBM
Isom: He called you at 9:02?
Wendi: He called me at 9:02. The repair guy was there. And honestly I leave my ringer off a lot of the times so I didn't even hear the call come in. He left me a message. I called him at 11:42 and left him a message, just saying "ok I want to talk about school for Ben and um, I assume I will see you at 4:30 today". When I figured he was going to take the kids swimming and he will drop them at the house at 4:30.
Isom: Ok. So in other words, the whole meeting at 10:30 or 11:15- didn't happen?
Wendi: just didn't happen.

---
RSBM

8:11am Donna texts Wendi Adelson: "Best Buy just called me and I told them to confirm with you. They are on their way over now to help you with the TV set in your living room."
8:20am Wendi texts Charlie: "This is so sweet. Deleted before police interview.
9:02am Dan Markel leaves Wendi a voicemail on Wendi's phone "I am going to be at the gym probably between 9:15 and 10:30 but I am happy to chat or meet with you. Maybe we can go for a walk at school or something like that. Let me know."
9:19am Wendi calls Charlie for 18 minutes and 17 seconds.

snipped just for focus.
quote 1
- double justification to Isom's question about why she doesn't reply to DM/see his comms at 9.02 ( Also 'honestly' - Just interesting if you were doing a statement analysis on her.)
- she leaves her ringer off lot of times... but is clearly attentive to her phone both before & after 9.02 ( quote 2)

Isom scents there might be a reason she delayed calling DM back 10.30/11.15am but doesn't pursue it, her version is that the call/talk arranged between DM& WA that morning ' just didn't happen'

Phone alerts off? Obviously it's not provable but it's a stretch. (Corbett provided some call logs for WA from morning until 2pm-ish when Isom picks her up. Logs show she's very attentive to her phone notifications, even when she's multi-tasking.

 

[amicuscurie]

Found the answer to my question. The words on the tape were "police line do not cross."

It’s possible the police would used the same tape for a downed tree, especially if there was an issue with electrical wires. Tape is tape, maybe they don’t have two kinds. (That’s if the police report for a downed tree; it could be some other emergency service.) I wouldn’t make too much of this. Who reads caution tape that closely?

That she allegedly saw several houses around Dan’s blocked off with ANY kind of tape, for ANY reason, and didn’t stop or ask why is the big picture. You’d see a downed tree if you were close enough to see the tape.

 

[amicuscurie]

dbm

 

[Missyrocks5]

More nuggets from Wendi’s interview:

Isom leaves room and comes back with the permission form to download her phone. Wendi is flipping through her phone/call history.

isom: Sorry. Are you ok?
Wendi: “Yeah. No!(cries) Its fine. Our last interaction wasn’t nice!”
Isom: “ummm, what - you’re talking about…..personal?”
Wendi: “yeah, I’m just looking here (flips through phone). I didn’t want him to take the boys this afternoon. I had wanted to have them. And I talked it over with my brother and realized, you know, if their Dad wants to take them swimming, it’s not worth getting upset over. He sent me that message at 9:15 this morning”
Isom: “you were telling me before, when we were riding up here, that the agreement was that y’all were going to have some type of phone call at 11:15 this morning is that correct?”
Wendi: “well, not exactly. Just that we needed to have the talk at some point. We have to decide before Monday of what to do about his school - where Ben was going to goto school and he (Dan) said -“I’m gonna be done” - I thought it was 11:15 but when we listened to the message it was 10:30. When he said “I’m going to be out of" - he went to like, a workout class at the gym…at Premiere. said “I’m gonna be out of it by such and such time, you can call me then.” And I…I called. But I think - we can see what time I called him. I thought it was more of like. (Looks at phone). Lets see. 'Recent calls'. I called him....oh thats him calling at 9:02. I called him at 11:42 and got his answering machine.
Isom: He called you at 9:02?
Wendi: He called me at 9:02. The repair guy was there. And honestly I leave my ringer off a lot of the times so I didn't even hear the call come in. He left me a message. I called him at 11:42 and left him a message, just saying "ok I want to talk about school for Ben and um, I assume I will see you at 4:30 today". When I figured he was going to take the kids swimming and he will drop them at the house at 4:30.
Isom: Ok. So in other words, the whole meeting at 10:30 or 11:15- didn't happen?
Wendi: just didn't happen.

---
Why is this interesting? Well, this is right when Wendi is about to hand over her phone. He is going to see (possibly texts) that Wendi and Dan are arguing about Dan taking the kids swimming that afternoon. Which is odd, cause its his week. What grounds would Wendi have to question whether he can take them swimming that afternoon? Is it maybe because she knows that assassins are hunting Dan and he doesn't want him taking them out of pre-school at all?

Secondly, she has clearly lied to Isom already on the drive up to the police station about some meeting or conversation her and Dan were going to have at 11:15. So she has to explain to him what he is going to find out when they download her phone. She also probably knows an 18 minute conversation with Charlie about TV repair seems weird, so she adds that Charlie calmed her down about Dan taking the kids swimming. Which we know is NUTS because Charlie already has the kill squad in Tallahassee hunting Dan.

Wow. Thank you for transcribing these I've seen very little of that interview with the police. I know people have watched the whole thing and said it's unreal once you go back and really look at it how much she was lying. You were exactly right. She immediately realized, and was trying to come up with a story. She is very smart. Of course she & CA were discussing his schedule etc for 18 min because she got that voicemail from DM. But here's her story- I had my ringer turned off She also had her story for that whole week, claiming that she had laryngitis and couldn't talk to him. Clearly, she wasn't speaking to him because she knew what was going on.

I really don't think they will ever be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt though. She will have great attorneys. To me the biggest reason she had to have known in advance is that family is so close. No way they decided to take out her kids' father forever without her OK. They should however be working on DA's indictment right now.

 

[Missyrocks5]

I just watched an amazing episode of STS. Former inmates explained what Charlie’s life will be like behind bars. It’s even worse than I had imagined….a must-see episode JMO…

I'm sure he will be spreading around a lot of money to the biggest, baddest inmates'' relatives on the outside to keep him safe.

 

[ch_13]

Wow. Thank you for transcribing these I've seen very little of that interview with the police. I know people have watched the whole thing and said it's unreal once you go back and really look at it how much she was lying. You were exactly right. She immediately realized, and was trying to come up with a story. She is very smart. Of course she & CA were discussing his schedule etc for 18 min because she got that voicemail from DM. But here's her story- I had my ringer turned off She also had her story for that whole week, claiming that she had laryngitis and couldn't talk to him. Clearly, she wasn't speaking to him because she knew what was going on.

I really don't think they will ever be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt though. She will have great attorneys. To me the biggest reason she had to have known in advance is that family is so close. No way they decided to take out her kids' father forever without her OK. They should however be working on DA's indictment right now.

Of course, we really don't know all the evidence that the state has on WA.

For example, she apparently had a large group of friends and colleagues in Tallahassee, yet none (except LaCasse) have ever testified or spoken publicly about what Wendi did or said during the time around the murder. Nor have we heard any conversations between Charlie and Wendi that may have been caught on the wiretaps. There are also the men in South Florida who she was allegedly two-timing LaCasse with. What did she tell them about moving back to Miami in the future?

I'm hoping the state will find enough to at least charge her with conspiracy, if they can't make murder stick.

 

[Missyrocks5]

She forced her kids to watch a broken TV for weeks. She and her mom had Best Buy come assess the feasibility of fixing an obviously unfixable TV the morning of the murder. Her mom confirms the appointment and she texts her back "This is SWEET" and deletes it. After getting advice from a professional TV repairman, she STILL needs to confirm with her brother - who has now been found guilty of being the mastermind of the murder - whether it makes sense to fix it or replace it. This conversation is 18 minutes and 17 seconds.

This is the same TV her mastermind brother says he bought cause it was cheaper than hiring a hitmen, which is not true because the hitmen he actually did hire to kill Dan Markel during the exact window of time her broken TV is being assessed - was $100,000. She went to the furthest possible liquor store away from her house so she could drive past the crime scene using a short cut that is not a short cut. She admits in her police interview to driving on Trescott (which she now denies) and seeing the police tape.

She confirmed whether Dan Markel would be in town during the week of his murder and she made this confirmation at the same time she was having breakfast with her family members who almost certainly are guilty of planning and executing the murder. She is the only person connected to the conspiracy who would have any way of knowing that Dan Markel was flying out to NYC the next day and the murder had to happen on the 18th of July.

She is acting erratically and strange (and sick!) during both murder trips. She sends her boyfriend a "no contact" email a couple hours after demanding precise details about the time of his departure of his upcoming trip out of town. Its only the 2nd trip out of town he's taken in months, and the other trip was the first murder trip. The murderers rented silver cars for both trips - the first car was almost identical to his car at the time.

Then, there's all the circumstances after the murder. She tells the podcast that Dan Markel was likely killed by professional killers in 2015 before anyone in the public knew anything other than a Prius being involved. She was packing her childhood bedroom up weeks before the murder and then moved into it 2 days after the murder. She never spoke to police after July 20, 2014 but through her lawyers communicated how she and her family was fully cooperating with the investigation. She changed the kids names in any practical sense - 2 weeks after the murder and then officially 1 year later. There's so much more. She tried to get the Go Fund Me money and inquired through her lawyers about getting control of the Trust/Insurance policies. Despite not recieving 100% of the estate, she is still a major beneficiary of Dan Markels murder. She's actually the biggest winner. Financially, she doesnt have to pay lawyers, ker kids are set for life and she never has to save for their cars, houses, weddings or college. She recieves almost $5k/month in survivor benefits instead of the $800 per month in child support...AND she gets to move to Miami, which is the entire motive of this murder. There is no shortage of motive for Wendi in a Wendi trial. When Sigfredo is arrested - in her last conversations with Ruth Markel before severing the relationship between Ruth and her grandkids, she is fishing for information about what Ruth knows and who is getting arrested. She is frantic, but never bothers to phone the police to get information from them to solve the murder of her kids dad.

I think if this case went to a jury in 1993, its almost certainly a guilty verdict. I think there is still a case for conspiracy. But what are we missing? Almost all of the exculpatory evidence is from the bump (although its not ALL exculpatory). She's never on wires. She's not meeting anyone in secret. Which brings up an interesting counterfactual - what would have happened if SHE was the target in the bump? What would we know if her phones were wiretapped? We will never now. But I digress....there certainly is evidence on the wires that she might have been kept in the dark.

One thing about Wendi....as told by her friend Tamara Demko - is that she keeps everything close to the vest. Highly secretive. She's a planner but tells nobody her plans. Tamara was a good friend and she had no idea she was writing a book until it was released. She was planning the divorce for months with her lawyers and the legality of taking certain items and emptying out her share of bank accounts, without Dan or their friends having a clue.

On the other hand, she has all this built-in "plausible deniability". Why would I mention the hitman joke if I was apart of it? Why would I hand you my family? I didnt even bring up Jeff Lacasse, my friend did. etc etc etc. For all of those factors, I think it would be hard to win a case right now against her. But we only have the evidence that is public and the prosecution has used it very sparingly (like her text to DM about July 13-18). We have all Donna's incoming emails but none of Wendi's outgoing. We have seen maybe 2 or 3 of her texts during this time. Im guessing there is a lot more we don't know but obviously not quite enough for Cappleman to bring charges. Yet.

Well said. Especially the point that a 1993 jury would convict her. Years ago, prosecutor started saying that they saw the CSI TV show effect in their verdict. That's really sad. Mutz, the former TAL assistant state attorney, made the argument that the evidence in this case was so overwhelming, it was like DNA.

I just was posting that. She has very skilled Attorneys, it will not be a public defender. I agree that it will require deductive reasoning, and some jurors do not utilize that- see Casey Anthony's verdict. And in fairness, she has arguments to make wherein she insulated herself. If they could ever get their hands on the ‎WhatsApp messages, that would sink all of them 100%.

I just posted, but will say it again, the big picture is, there is no way that CA and DA would decide to take out the father of her kids permanently without her OK. That family was far too close. No way. And then you add to the mix of having to know his schedule, framing JL, etc. Sad but true. I don't think they have enough to get WA or AA. I just hope they get DA right away. Almost a decade that she's been able to live out her life outside is enough already.

 

[Missyrocks5]

Of course, we really don't know all the evidence that the state has on WA.

For example, she apparently had a large group of friends and colleagues in Tallahassee, yet none (except LaCasse) have ever testified or spoken publicly about what Wendi did or said during the time around the murder. Nor have we heard any conversations between Charlie and Wendi that may have been caught on the wiretaps. There are also the men in South Florida who she was allegedly two-timing LaCasse with. What did she tell them about moving back to Miami in the future?

I'm hoping the state will find enough to at least charge her with conspiracy, if they can't make murder stick.

I sure hope so. The we find out is that, due to the fact that it's so many years later, the phone records don't even exist anymore for some carriers. That's another problem.

 

[amicuscurie]

Is it possible they told her something was going to happen, but not exactly when or what, so she could have plausible deniability and look shocked when it happened? It seems like they weren’t sure it was going to happen, after all, the first attempt failed. The killers followed him from his house on both attempts, which suggests they weren’t told exactly where he would be and when.

 

[Blue Shakehead]

Is it possible they told her something was going to happen, but not exactly when or what, so she could have plausible deniability and look shocked when it happened? It seems like they weren’t sure it was going to happen, after all, the first attempt failed. The killers followed him from his house on both attempts, which suggests they weren’t told exactly where he would be and when.

The killers actually lost track of Dan on the first trip after he dropped the kids off at the daycare. On the second trip, either they got lucky and didnt lose him or someone tipped them off that his route was daycare > gym > home. Those 2 locations are pretty far from each other.

I'm trying to find the Magbanua>Sigfredo call details from the morning of the murder to test the possibility that Charlie might have told Magbanua about Dan going to the gym that morning (after DM's voicemail to Wendi). Of course, the police and FBI will have already figured this out, but it would be interesting for those of us in the dark to know...

 

[clearskies1]

In case anyone is interested, here is Det. Isom's testimony in Katie's 2022 trial regarding video of DM's vehicle and the suspect vehicle entering and exiting the gym parking lot. It appears that Dan's car entered the parking lot from a different side than the suspect vehicle did. Starting at 14:33.

 

[userunnamed]

What really bothered me, besides the obvious fact that there was a murder, was when CA referred to KM as "running her mouth." I can't believe he didn't see the problem with that. It comes across as misogynistic and directly contradicts his denial of having a playboy lifestyle. I'm sure the jury didn't look too fondly on that characterization.

 

[FreddyG]

She definitely confirmed that Dan would be in Tallahassee the week of the hit and she did so specifically when she was at her parent's residence on the weekend of Harvey's 70th birthday. The State presented evidence suggesting that Charlie and Donna were planning for Dan Markel's murder to be Harvey's birthday present. Which is beyond the pale, even for this pack of sadists.

I don't think we have proof of furtherance yet, unless the State were able to successfully argue that the TV business is all code for the murder, and her 18 minute call to Charlie about a "TV" was actually just her relaying information to Charlie about Dan's whereabouts that morning (Dan left her a voicemail 15 minutes before that call telling her he'd be at the gym until 10:30am.)

But overall, I agree. The case against Wendi is nowhere near as strong as Donna's. I am not a Carl Steinbeck in this regard. I do, however, believe they could absolutely nail Wendi with conspiracy to commit first degree murder, because the State does not have to prove that she acted in furtherance of. We'd only need to prove she intended for Markel to be murdered and that she agreed and conspired with Charlie, Donna and others to cause the murder to be committed. Thats 30 years.

Is the evidence of her confirming that in Lacasse's testimony? Because to me if that's lock solid true, and not just a plausible inference, then how is that not an act in furtherance? She would be helping the plot happen by providing crucial information, which was part of why it didn't work during the first attempt.

 

[Windward Gal]

If Donna wants to redeem herself for being a horrendous mother, she should fall on her sword. She should tell Charlie to throw her under the bus and she will back him up. Maybe Charlie could get 30 years and have a chance of getting out one day. Without Donna, there is no murder. I doubt she’ll do this though. JMO

 

[ilovewings]

Well said. Especially the point that a 1993 jury would convict her. Years ago, prosecutor started saying that they saw the CSI TV show effect in their verdict. That's really sad. Mutz, the former TAL assistant state attorney, made the argument that the evidence in this case was so overwhelming, it was like DNA.

I just was posting that. She has very skilled Attorneys, it will not be a public defender. I agree that it will require deductive reasoning, and some jurors do not utilize that- see Casey Anthony's verdict. And in fairness, she has arguments to make wherein she insulated herself. If they could ever get their hands on the ‎WhatsApp messages, that would sink all of them 100%.

I just posted, but will say it again, the big picture is, there is no way that CA and DA would decide to take out the father of her kids permanently without her OK. That family was far too close. No way. And then you add to the mix of having to know his schedule, framing JL, etc. Sad but true. I don't think they have enough to get WA or AA. I just hope they get DA right away. Almost a decade that she's been able to live out her life outside is enough already.

I have not one doubt that she instigated the murder of her husband and I dont have a doubt that
the DA knows it and wants to get her in the worst way. However, unless someone turns on her,
she will escape punishment ---it pains me to say that--Dan Markel deserves complete justice which
would include WA goingto prison.

 

[Mariposa]

Here is the interesting part. At this exact moment, Wendi fully realizes that she’s just named him as a suspect and the detective has written his information down. At 26:15 of the interview you can see the horror on her face and she looks like she’s about to throw up.

Wendi: “Oh my god!!”
Isom (calmly) “What?”
Wendi: “WHAT?? Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening!”
Isom (calmly) “Alright. Let me go get the form for the phone…”
Wendi “Do I….do I need to, umm be read my Miranda rights or something if you are going to look at my phone?”
Isom (puzzled) “I….can read you Miranda if you want to hear that?”
Wendi: “I don’t know, I just want to make sure I’m being protected.”
Isom: “I have no reason, at this point, to suspect you in this incident, ok?”
Wendi: “I couldn’t tell from the way you were talking to me in the car if I was a suspect”
Isom: “well, no. The reason was I didn’t want to get into everything until we got up here”

Wendi’s tone went from “of course you can have my phone” horrified widow to “I don’t want to give you my phone if I’m a suspect” literally seconds after Isom asks for Charlie’s details. She has no idea what they know about her or Charlie at this point. She knows that if they download her phone, they’re gonna find *advertiser censored* about Charlie and the TV. The timing of her believing she could be a suspect is not a coincidence.

RSBM

Good catch. Her sudden freaked out “Oh my god!” right at that point is odd. And her “What!?!”

 

[Tanager]

Wide-eyed WA is looking out for WA. I think she planned for CA to fall as a backup plan, and I think there is evidence that she has a passive but effective pattern of manipulating others to do her bidding. The TV talk alone tells me she knew about the intention to kill DM. I think the TV business was way too Hollywood an attempt at code for most people to believe. I think using TV as code was a ham-handed attempt to say,"See, any associations between TV and murder that you find are just a reference to CA's dumb joke". No murder plot here, just a dumb dumb joke that no one thinks is funny. I think this is the product of overthinking the plot.

WA's interview with the police was her layering confusing details into the mix. If a person is attempting to sow doubt, it is a better strategy to fling minor details implying many possibilities out there (including CA and JL) so that the police are confused in their investigation. WA HAD to broadly suggest that her family could be involved, as it was too obvious an option to avoid mentioning. It would be suspicious in its absence from her list of possibilities. It also, conveniently, put them in the line of fire in front of her. She also mixes in the truth to some degree when she knows there is irrefutable evidence out there. In the Alex M case, he used the same strategy in police interviews, and he also happens to be an attorney. When there are many investigative threads to follow, it is difficult to stitch together a consistent narrative. It is like the difference between untangling 2 necklaces or untangling the entire jumbled jewelry box. Not sure if that metaphor works for anyone but me.

Also, too solid an alibi casts suspicion, ironically. Innocent people will likely have basic alibis much of the time, I am guessing. I think she was going for a "good enough" alibi that would also permit her to drive by the crime scene to confirm the crime. I don't think you can have a mother as cruel as DA without developing a sadistic streak, yourself (Much of the time. There are some exceptional humans out there). Changing the middle and last names of the children was also completely unnecessary and savage. It is really inconsistent with the persona that WA presents to the world, and I think it deserves special attention. This is the real "her."

I think the A's assumed that the investigation would work outwards from WA, rather than from the hired killer side back to her. They put so much more effort into insulating WA from the mess than concealing connections to CA from the other side. Apparently, she was perfectly fine with that.

I think this whole mess is the result of WA's puppeteering. I have a concept I call the "little spider". Imagine a small spider crawling along the floor while a bright light casts its shadow on the wall in giant form. WA is the little spider, CA is the large shadow. I think she knows how to get her family members rabidly lathered up and foamy to the point of irrationality.

If I were friends with WA, I'd be very ashamed of participating in anything that remotely offers her shelter from suspicion. Even if they think she was not involved, justice requires people being willing to speak out, even when it makes them uncomfortable. Someone knows something important.

Sorry! What a tome. I really struggle to be brief.

 

[clearskies1]

Is the evidence of her confirming that in Lacasse's testimony? Because to me if that's lock solid true, and not just a plausible inference, then how is that not an act in furtherance? She would be helping the plot happen by providing crucial information, which was part of why it didn't work during the first attempt.

Wendi's text to Dan asking if he will be in Tallahassee July 14-18:

FL - FSU Law Professor Dan Markel Murdered by Hitmen *3 guilty* #15

Why was Harvard Law School calling her at 2pm the day of the murder?

www.websleuths.com

 

[Mariposa]

8:11am Donna texts Wendi Adelson: "Best Buy just called me and I told them to confirm with you. They are on their way over now to help you with the TV set in your living room."

RSBM

What a weird text. First of all that Donna was involved in setting up such a thing for her adult daughter on the opposite side of the state; but also it is so wordy.
Odd and hackneyed.