Trial date set for Florida dentist accused of hiring hitmen to kill sister’s ex-husband

A trial date has been set for April in the case against a Florida dentist accused of hiring a hitman to kill his sister’s ex-husband over eight years ago, according to reports. 

Jury selection for Charles “Charlie” Adelson will begin on April 24, 2023, in connection with the murder of prominent Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel, local news station WTXL.com reported. The website for Leon County Court records could not be accessed for confirmation on Friday. 

Adelson, 45, faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree murder for allegedly hiring a pair of hitmen to kill Markel in July 2014. 

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Jury selection is reportedly expected to last days, with opening statements slated to begin around the end of April or beginning of May. 

Tallahassee Police Department investigators have said Markel dropped his children off at daycare around 8:50 a.m. on July 18, 2014, roughly five miles from his home. He then made his way to Premier Health and Fitness Center, where he arrived around 9:12 a.m., according to a probable cause affidavit shared online in 2016. 

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Police found that a Toyota Prius had followed Markel not only into the parking lot of the fitness facility, but was also “trailing Markel’s car” before and after his time in the gym.

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“Investigators believe the suspects in the Prius followed the victim throughout the morning and back to this residence, where the victim was shot in the head as he sat in his car,” the affidavit states. “Markel’s neighbor heard what he believed to be a gunshot and looked out the window, where he saw a small silver or light-colored vehicle, resembling a Prius, backing out of the victim’s driveway.” 

Markel was rushed to a local hospital, but ultimately could not be saved. 

Adelson’s sister, Wendi Adelson, was Markel’s ex-wife, with whom he shared two children. Charlie Adelson was arrested in April 2022 after he was indicted by a grand jury. 

Florida’s Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell said in a statement at the time that investigators were able to improve the quality of a secretly recorded meeting between Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua, who was later convicted of acting as a go-between between Charlie and the alleged hitmen. 

The meeting was recorded in 2016 as part of an “undercover law enforcement operation,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman told Fox News Digital at the time of the arrest. The enhanced recording, “provided us with some new statements that we felt were damaging,” Cappleman said.

Wendi Adelson previously testified in court that her brother had made jokes more than once about hiring a hitman.

“He had bought me a TV when I got divorced and said it was a present and made a very bad joke, in bad taste, that it was cheaper than hiring a hitman,” Adelson said.