FBI agents testify during Broward periodontist’s trial for FSU law professor’s murder
A Broward County periodontist listened to the testimony on Tuesday in court of the FBI special agents who helped to identify him as a suspect in the murder of a university law professor.
Charlie Adelson, of the Adelson Institute in Tamarac, stands accused of being the mastermind of the murder-for-hire plot that killed Daniel Markel, his former brother-in-law, in Tallahassee.
Oscar Jimenez, a retired FBI agent, said he pretended to be a Latin King gang member aiming to extort Adelson’s mother outside of her apartment on April 19, 2016, in Miami Beach.
“My instructions were to approach her and engage her in some type of conversation and to hand a flyer,” Jimenez said, later adding that he also called her and sent her text messages, but she never responded or sent him a payment.
Prosecutors play a video of Oscar Jimenez, an undercover FBI agent pretending to be a Latin King gang member, meeting with Donna Adelson on April 19, 2016, in South Beach.
Fear over the perceived extortion attempt prompted Adelson to meet on April 20, 2016 with his mother in South Beach and Katherine Magbanua in Fort Lauderdale.
Louis Bronstein, an FBI special agent, said he was one of the agents who recorded the conversation with Magbanua at the La Dolce Vita restaurant.
Bronstein said he used a device that was inside what appeared to be a computer bag and placed it about 8 to 10 feet away from them.
Bronstein said the room was noisy. James McElveen, a media forensics engineer, said in court that he processed the FBI recordings of the conversation at La Dolce Vita to “push down” the “competing voices” and noise in 2022.
“As a result of our enhancement more words are intelligible,” McEldeen said.
FBI Special Agent Patrick Sanford testifies in Leon County court on Tuesday during the trial of a Broward County periodontist for a 2014 murder in Tallahassee.
Markel, 41, who was born in Canada and taught at Florida State University, died on July 19, 2014.
Markel was talking on the phone in his car, when he was shot just outside of his home in Tallahassee, after dropping off his two sons at school, police said.
Patrick Sanford, an FBI special agent, testified that Markel died 14 hours after he was shot and before a planned trip to a conference in New York.
THE ALLEGED PLOT
Sanford said there were thousands of conversations recorded during the FBI’s investigation of Adelson, his sister, and his parents, who lived in South Beach.
The prosecution played recordings of phone conversations between Adelson and his mother about his sister’s love life and career decisions two years after the murder.
“She doesn’t see herself as a victim anymore, which is great,” Adelson said, according to the recording.
On Monday, during her testimony in court, Margbanua said she connected Adelson to the convicted hitmen, Sigfredo Garcia, of Miami Beach, the father of her children, and Luis “Tato” Rivera, of North Miami, a Latin King member.
Garcia, who was sentenced to life in prison, shot Markel in the head twice, at close range, while Rivera, who took a plea deal for 19 years in prison for second-degree murder, admitted to purchasing the gun and driving the getaway car.
Margbanua testified she received payment from the Adelson Institute, where she was not an employee, and she delivered cash payments to Garcia and Rivera from Adelson for both the planning expenses and the murder.
Adelson’s sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel were in the middle of a child custody dispute after she filed for divorce in 2012 and moved to South Florida with their two sons. A Leon County judge denied her motion for relocation in 2013 and Markel sought to enforce the ruling in 2014.
Leon County Circuit Judge Stephen Everett is presiding over Charlie Adelson’s trial for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
This is a developing story.
