To say the nation has been following the story of the murder of Dan Markel is an understatement, because the Surviving The Survivor YouTube channel boasts nearly 100k subscribers from around the world. Emmy award winning journalist Joel Waldman and his mother, Karmela (The Survivor), are the founders of this unique gathering.
They have been focusing on true crime, I would guess, because Karmela survived the crime of history, the Holocaust.
The case of the FSU law professor, gunned down in his garage in 2014 in a professional, murder-for-hire hit, has led to one plea, three convictions, and now a fourth trial. The short version is as follows:
Wendy Adelson filed for divorce against Dan Markel. The subsequent custody battle, it has been proven in court in the conviction of Charlie Adelson (Wendy's older brother), was bitter, nasty and was the seed of a plot to end Dan's life and get his two sons out of Tallahassee forever. Dan was prevailing in various legal motions against his former wife and had a motion pending to keep Wendy's mother, Donna, from seeing his sons without court supervision. That was motion was to be heard in a Leon County courtroom one month after his murder.
A lover of Charlie's was the "middle" person in the plot and made arrangements for the father of her children and an associate of his to head to Florida's capital and murder Markel. She was the connection to the driver and the triggerman. The driver offered a plea, the triggerman, and the girlfriend were convicted in separate trials. Charlie was convicted beyond a reasonable doubt last November of being instrumental in the plan which led to the murder of Markel. It took the jury about three hours, so convincing was the evidence. He currently serving his sentence at Wakulla Correctional.
We now come to the person who many believe was the driving force behind the plan. Wendy's mom, Donna Adelson. To say this woman is mean-spirited is being charitable. Her emails to Wendy, her phone calls, her actions while under investigation and her arrest (with her husband, Harvey) while attempting to flee the country with one-way tickets to Vietnam are discussed in this live broadcast, I was asked to join two attorneys, Stephen Webster and Jeremy Mutz, to discuss Donna, her chosen legal counsel, and the broad issues of this case. I have been a guest on a few occasions over the duration of the STS coverage.