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

[FreddyG]

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.

Interesting, I've not heard this. If it's true that she provided information confirming DM's location the week of the hit, then that would be a pretty clear act in furtherance of the conspiracy. All the other points you make are valid, but they go to her consciousness of the plot. Where the case against her suffers is the act in furtherance. If it could be proven that she gave necessary information to the plotters, that would seal her fate.

 

[ndrew]

RSBM - if a tree had fallen, crime scene tape would not have been used.

Do we know if the tape had writing on it that indicated "crime scene" or was it "caution" tape.

 

[Weki]

Just a stray comment related to the alternate juror in this case reaching out to defense. I just saw some of CourtTV’s tweets on the “Taking Care of Maya” trial regarding a juror note asking for reports (not admitted in evidence) or else the plaintiff (presumably) would be lucky to get a judgment to pay for gas or something to that effect. Someone Tweet replied saying lately it seems like jurors are getting outta hand! And it really had me thinking. It does feel like lately we trial watchers feel insecure about verdicts and I think it has to do with a lack of trust in jurors because we’re seeing just more silly shenanigans. I may be over thinking it but I was baffled by the juror’s improper grammar and impertinence in the ‘Taking Care of Maya’ trial. And of course we have the Murdaugh jurors and this alternate juror in this trial. JMO

 

[Blue Shakehead]

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 about Charlie and the TV. The timing of her believing she could be a suspect is not a coincidence.

 

[lulu212]

Did Wendi Adelson tell Charlie where Dan was going to be the morning of his murder? Did Dan's voicemail give her the comfort that the kids were already at Creative pre-school?

0:00 Wendi has a calendar appointment "Fix TV" for 8:00 am on July 18, 2014. Appointment is deleted from her phone before her police interview later that afternoon.
8:09am Wendi calls Donna Adelson (no answer)
8:10am Donna calls Wendi Adelson (no answer)
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.
9:58am Charlie calls Magbanua for 6 minutes and 46 seconds
10:06 Charlie calls Wendi (no answer)
10:07 Magbanua calls Charlie for 1 minute and 9 seconds.
10:09 Charlie calls Magbanua for 5 minutes and 54

When did SG and LR first get spotted tracking Dan? They weren't waiting at the gym, were they?

 

[Cutie]

When did SG and LR first get spotted tracking Dan? They weren't waiting at the gym, were they?

They followed him home from the gym. The gym parking lot had cameras and the footage was released later. It's eerie watching the rental car trailing Dan's car.

 

[clearskies1]

Did the people at the lunch report that she was agitated or not acting normally?

No information released on this issue that I'm aware of.

 

[Seattle1]

When did SG and LR first get spotted tracking Dan? They weren't waiting at the gym, were they?

I believe there is surveillance of the hitmen both at the Daycare and also the Gym carparks.

I can't even fathom sitting in the car with your homie, waiting for your subject to finish working out so you can follow him home and shoot him in the head.

Do they wait in silence?

And if they talk, about what? Where to stop for dinner?

It's too much...

 

[clearskies1]

If I was approached by LE at a restaurant and asked to go to the police station with LE (Isom drove her in his car), I don't think I would go unless I was told what it was about. I don't know if I'm unusual in feeling that way. I don't have a conclusion about it -- it was just surprising to me the way it happened. I think I would have demanded to be told because I would have been out of my mind with worry. JMO.

 

[ndrew]

Do we know if the tape had writing on it that indicated "crime scene" or was it "caution" tape.

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

 

[Blue Shakehead]

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.

 

[Windward Gal]

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…

 

[Weki]

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…

Extortion? Lol

 

[B4igo2it]

"Everyone thought that the pair was perfect, ..." The Cinemaholic, 2020

"She even said that she had tried to cheat the system by marrying a man that she was not completely in love with."
BBM. That comment almost makes me think she wanted his genes more than his love! JMO

Where is Wendi Adelson Now?

The execution-style murder of a prominent law professor, Dan Markel, left everyone shocked. It occurred after 11 am on a Friday in 2014, and initially, no suspects were found. Later, however, three people were tried for a murder for hire plot that also incriminated Dan’s ex-wife’s family. They...

thecinemaholic.com

 

[Blue Shakehead]

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…

This is one thing I struggle with. I don't know why I do. I've been waiting for Charlie and all of the Adelsons to be charged/convicted for years. Still am. But I do not relish Charlie's future. It really does sound like a nightmare.

 

[amicuscurie]

This is one thing I struggle with. I don't know why I do. I've been waiting for Charlie and all of the Adelsons to be charged/convicted for years. Still am. But I do not relish Charlie's future. It really does sound like a nightmare.

It’s all such a waste of so many lives. Including so many children who won’t have parents. Charlie had a baby knowing this was a possibility. Katie discusses putting the envelope in her diaper bag. Just awful. How young were her children when she got involved in all this?

 

[Blue Shakehead]

I might be wrong but DM's message sounds like he is getting back to a request from WA?

Its hard to track this all down because the State hasn't released much of anything from Wendi's communications in 9 years - likely safekeeping for a Wendi trial.

From my understanding, Dan was surprised/shocked to learn that Wendi was trying to enroll Ben into the School of Arts & Sciences. She had emailed him with zero notice about this on the week of the 13th sometime and they had to make a decision before the following Monday. He had asked to speak with her/meet with her about it but she couldn't speak with him on the phone because she magically came down with laryngitis (despite spending the entire week going on walks with friends and on the phone constantly with everyone other than Dan Markel). She also avoided him on July 16th when she wanted to take the kids to Whole Foods but spotted him and scrammed to goto some burger place..... Anyway, Dan and Wendi were communicating by email about the school (likely to keep a legal paper trail, given that there were motions before the court about education/religion/etc.) and it sounds like they were supposed to talk or meet on July 18th.

 

[justice1960]

Life WOP + 30 + 30.

You been right on the money GordonX. The predictions you made in January, 2017 about KM cracking and why are spot on. Good job everybody on these threads are lucky to have the knowledge gained you are sharing with us...You definitely know and understand human nature...Thanks and God Bless!

 

[Blue Shakehead]

Interesting, I've not heard this. If it's true that she provided information confirming DM's location the week of the hit, then that would be a pretty clear act in furtherance of the conspiracy. All the other points you make are valid, but they go to her consciousness of the plot. Where the case against her suffers is the act in furtherance. If it could be proven that she gave necessary information to the plotters, that would seal her fate.

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.

 

[Blue Shakehead]

Last Wendi is Guilty post of the night and then Im done.

In her police interview, she clearly tells the story at 3 different times in the interview that she drove right up Trescott and stopped at the scene tape. She said there were several houses blocked off. She's caught red-handed visiting the scene and she knows it. T

This is not new. We all knew that. But what is completely absurd is that John Lauro is her lawyer who has clearly dissected every second of that interview. He's coached and attended every one of her testimonies. And in 2019, 2022 and 2023 trials - she completely denies this 2014 version. Why? Is it because she's got immunity and so "misremembering" isn't perjury - and if by telling a more innocent version, if believed by a jury, might result in a not guilty? WTF is happening here. And Georgia has never really gave her the business on this, because I suspect she's saving it for Florida vs Wendi Adelson.