Crime, Dan Markel, Deaths, Murder

The Dan Markel Case: Why Isn't Katherine Magbanua Cooperating?

Is Katherine Magbanua innocent, or incentivized?

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Katherine Magbanua in court on Tuesday, holding her head high.

Katherine Magbanua in court on Tuesday, holding her head high.

It sounds like the holidays won’t be happy for Katherine Magbanua, the woman accused of acting as a conduit between two alleged hitmen and whoever ordered the murder of Professor Dan Markel. Unless something surprising happens in court on Friday, when her bond hearing will take place, Magbanua will be spending Christmas behind bars. Like certain law firm associates, she won’t be attending many holiday parties.

Is it possible that Magbanua might be granted bail? In theory, yes. In practice, unlikely, given the seriousness of the charges — first-degree murder — and the possibility that she might flee.

Could Katherine Magbanua be cutting a deal with prosecutors, perhaps one that might allow her to see her children over the holidays? For now she is maintaining her silence, as reported by the Tallahassee Democrat:

Katherine Magbanua is not working with investigators, instead pleading not guilty and requesting a February trial date on charges of first degree murder in the shooting of Dan Markel….

Tuesday, she sat in the same Leon County courtroom as the suspected gunman and father of two of her children Sigfredo Garcia.

The two did not make eye contact save for a quick glance after the 31-year-old Magbanua entered her plea alongside her two Miami attorneys. A trial date has been set for Feb. 27. She was indicted on first-degree murder charges last week.

So we’re looking at a trial in late February — unless Magbanua changes her mind and reaches an agreement with the government before then. One source of ours in Florida thinks it’s possible, especially if Friday doesn’t go well for her: “After she gets denied bond, the dominoes fall.”

But Magbanua hasn’t broken yet, even though she was arrested more than two months ago, and even though another defendant — confessed hitman Luis Rivera — has accused her of “doing everything” to make the murder happen. And Katie Magbanua’s lawyers, Christopher DeCoste and Tara Kawass, have repeatedly insisted that she won’t be cooperating, stating that she’s completely innocent, that Rivera is a lying thug, and that she “has the truth on her side.”

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So maybe Magbanua isn’t cooperating because she’s innocent. But some followers of the case have different opinions. See, for example, the reader comments on this WCTV story (some of them a bit irreverent; and you wonder why we removed comments from Above the Law earlier this year).

If this were a made-for-TV movie — which it is not — one could imagine the following plot. Two co-defendants, a husband and wife who have two children together, maintain their silence about a crime to the end — even if it means spending the rest of their lives behind bars. Why? Because someone — maybe someone who also helps out with their legal fees — has made special financial arrangements for their kids, perhaps through secret offshore accounts. So staying silent would represent two parents making the ultimate sacrifice for their children.

Parents making sacrifices and taking risks, and even engaging in criminal activity, to ensure a better future for their children? Hollywood loves such stories. See, e.g., Hell or High Water (which I’d recommend if you haven’t seen it already).

But Hollywood also loves stories in which the guilty are brought to justice. We’ll have to see which story line prevails in this all-too-real drama.

Katherine Magbanua pleads not guilty in Markel killing [Tallahassee Democrat]
Woman accused in FSU professor’s murder pleads not guilty [WCTV]
Trial Set for Woman Charged in Markel Murder [WTXL]

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Earlier: The Dan Markel Case: Katherine Magbanua Indicted For First-Degree Murder
The Dan Markel Case: Katherine Magbanua’s Date With Destiny
The Dan Markel Case: Is Katherine Magbanua Cutting A Deal?

DBL square headshotDavid Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

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