A 75-year-old South Florida woman received a life sentence Monday for orchestrating the contract killing of her former son-in-law more than a decade ago.
Donna Adelson was handed the maximum penalty without possibility of parole for first-degree murder, plus an additional 30 years for conspiracy and solicitation charges to be served consecutively. The wealthy family matriarch had been convicted last month following a lengthy trial for her role in the 2014 death of Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel.
Circuit Judge Stephen Everett delivered the sentence after Adelson maintained her innocence in an emotional courtroom statement. Dressed in a purple jail jumpsuit and shackled, Adelson declared herself "an innocent woman convicted of this terrible crime without evidence."
"What happened to Danny is unforgivable. But I am an innocent woman convicted of this terrible crime without evidence," Adelson told the court. "I've always respected the law. I've never gotten a parking ticket, but I'm going to prison for a murder I did not commit."
Judge Everett repeatedly interrupted Adelson's comments, criticizing what he characterized as an "utter lack of remorse" for the crime. The judge highlighted that evidence in the case was clear despite Adelson's continued denials.
The murder stemmed from a bitter custody dispute between Markel and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, who is Donna Adelson's daughter. The couple had divorced in 2013 after seven years of marriage, and Markel had obtained a court order preventing his ex-wife from relocating their two young sons to South Florida to be closer to her family.
Prosecutors portrayed Donna Adelson as the driving force behind the murder plot during her trial. They argued the family matriarch orchestrated the killing because she "hated" Markel for blocking her daughter and grandsons from moving closer to the rest of the Adelson family, more than 370 miles away in South Florida.
"The defendant said that she would never, never, never give up and never stop fighting for Wendi and the boys to be relocated to Miami. And she never did," prosecutor Sarah Kathryn Dugan said during opening statements.
The prosecution alleged that family members considered offering Markel $1 million to allow the relocation before ultimately deciding to have him killed. Authorities say the plot involved hiring gunmen who shot Markel in the head in his Tallahassee garage.
Defense attorneys argued during the trial that insufficient evidence linked Adelson to the murder conspiracy. Attorney Jackie Fulford dismissed the prosecution's case as a sensational "story" about a "matriarch mastermind," without supporting evidence.
Donna Adelson becomes the fifth person sentenced in connection with what prosecutors described as an elaborate murder-for-hire scheme. Her son, Charles Adelson, is already serving a life sentence for his role in the plot, along with two others involved in carrying out the killing.
The case has captivated Florida residents for over a decade due to its shocking details involving wealthy family dynamics, messy divorce proceedings, and custody battles that resulted in murder. The prosecution called family members as witnesses during the trial, including Charles and Wendi Adelson.
Authorities arrested Donna Adelson at Miami International Airport in 2023, one week after her son's conviction. She and her husband Harvey were attempting to board a one-way flight to Vietnam, a country without an extradition treaty with the United States.
Luis Rivera, one of the hired gunmen, testified during the trial that he did not believe Donna Adelson was involved in the murder. Rivera said he understood the killing was meant to give Wendi Adelson full custody of her two sons.
Wendi Adelson and her father, Harvey, have denied any involvement in the murder and have not been charged. Donna Adelson has indicated she plans to appeal her conviction and sentence.