Wendi Adelson
In May of this year, almost two years after Florida State University law professor Dan Markel was brutally murdered in the driveway of his home, the Tallahassee police finally arrested and charged a man with the crime. The arrest of Sigfredo Garcia was followed shortly thereafter with the charging of his alleged co-conspirator, Luis Rivera, who was already in federal custody on unrelated charges.
How did law enforcement break the case after almost two years without any apparent progress? Additional details appear in a fascinating piece that recently appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat (which we mined for yesterday’s Quote of the Day). Here’s more from the Democrat:
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Within months of Dan Markel’s slaying, detectives had most of the evidence linking two South Florida men to the killing of the Florida State law professor.
But it took them until January 2015, another six months, to catch up to the one person who allegedly saw the two suspects in Tallahassee. That key witness turned out to be a self-confessed drug dealer who told police he sold cocaine to suspect Sigfredo Garcia and rented a hotel room in his own name for Garcia and fellow suspect Luis Rivera.
When Garcia and Rivera go to trial in November for murder, expect their defense lawyers to make much of this witness’s unsavory past. But it’s fairly common for some of the best witnesses to crimes to have criminal records themselves. Here’s what this witness claims:
The witness, in an hour-long police interview, picks both Garcia and Rivera out of a photo lineup. He then explains how he met the two men.
He said Garcia flagged him down just after midnight on July 16 outside the Budget Inn on West Tennessee Street. Garcia wanted to know where he could get some drugs. After the man sold Garcia cocaine, the two hung out for several hours and then the witness left.
He told investigators that while Garcia snorted and smoked cocaine, Rivera was seated on the bed with a handgun.
He said the next day, he saw the two men again. They were standing next to the rented Toyota Prius that would become integral to the case. The car broke down near the corner of Duval and Madison streets.
He gave them a ride to buy parts to fix the car, then rented them a hotel room off Raymond Diehl Road. Garcia and Rivera paid him cash to register the room in his name, he told investigators.
Garcia and Rivera drove from Miami in the rented Prius a few days before Markel was shot. Investigators say they were “enlisted” as part of a murder-for-hire plot.
As readers who have been following this case will recall, law enforcement authorities allege involvement in the plot by relatives of Wendi Adelson — the ex-wife of Dan Markel, who was involved in protracted and acrimonious litigation with him over issues relating to their divorce. For those who believe the Adelsons had involvement in Markel’s murder, the Tallahassee Democrat article contains information of interest:
The Fifth-Year Dilemma: Do I Stay Or Do I Go (In-House)?
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One of the reports describes an investigation into Jeffrey Lacasse, a former boyfriend of Wendi Adelson.
Lacasse, an FSU professor, was cleared as a suspect a few days after Markel’s death.
Several weeks later, on Aug. 12, Lacasse contacted Tallahassee police investigators to tell them about text messages between him and Wendi Adelson he had been reviewing. He said he and Adelson made reservations to travel to California July 11 to 17.
She canceled plans on June 4 – two weeks before Rivera and Garcia traveled to Tallahassee during what investigators say was a botched first attempt to kill her ex-husband.
It’s not mentioned in the article, but we’ve been advised that Adelson and Lacasse broke up that summer. And it sounds like Lacasse has some strong opinions about his ex-girlfriend:
Lacasse said Wendi and others had told him that three weeks after Markel was killed, her brother Charlie Adelson contacted her and asked her to go out and celebrate.
That dinner was memorable. Wendi Adelson vomited on the table. Lacasse found that highly suspicious.
“He believed that Wendi Adelson may be indirectly responsible for the murder of her ex-husband, Daniel Markel,” the Dec. 4, 2014 TPD report says. “When I informed him that Wendi was not a suspect, he stated ‘well, she should be.’”
If this account of a “celebratory” dinner is true, Wendi Adelson shouldn’t be the only one who’s sickened. I’ve previously expressed my belief that Wendi Adelson wasn’t involved in the planning of the murder and didn’t know about it before it happened. But this report on the Lacasse investigation raises the issue of whether she learned at some point, whether specifically or more vaguely, about possible involvement of her family — and whether any such point in time might have been, say, before she started writing and speaking about Markel’s death (which would be creepy).
If you thought this information from the Democrat piece was salacious, keep reading:
Three days after Markel was killed, a judge signed a search warrant for information on Wendi Adelson’s phone and investigators began searching her Web browser and email records.
On her computer, investigators found Google Chrome keyword searches for Markel’s girlfriend Amy Adler, Adler’s ex-husband and Adler’s brother. They also found that Wendi Adelson had searched several porn sites for “teacher/student porn.”
Don’t judge. As a wise puppet once sang, “The internet is for porn.”
The just released reports also detail the phone conversation interrupted when Markel was killed.
Markel was asking a School of Arts and Sciences teacher about Wendi Adelson seeking to enroll their two young children without his knowledge.
The teacher said he and Markel spoke for several minutes when he heard him say “hold on a second, there is someone in my driveway that is unfamiliar to me.”
The man told police he then heard a loud grunt, which did not sound good, muffled voices and then labored breathing.
He asked if Markel was OK, but got no reply.
Chilling. And if you click through to the full Tallahassee Democrat article, which you should, you’ll see a heartbreaking photo of Dan Markel’s shattered eyeglasses on the floor of his garage.
Through his lawyer, Wendi’s brother Charlie Adelson denies involvement in Markel’s death. And Charlie’s current girlfriend, June Umchinda, also can’t imagine that Charlie had anything to do with the killing. It’s important to keep in mind that despite all the armchair theorizing about Dan Markel’s death, no member of the Adelson family has yet been charged in connection with the murder.
It will be interesting to see whether Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera end up sharing any information with law enforcement. So far it appears they’re maintaining their innocence and their silence. But the prospect of the death penalty, which Garcia and Rivera could face if convicted, has in other cases caused greater candor.
UPDATE (8/3/2016, 2 p.m.): The Adelsons have hired a slew of top lawyers and issued a statement.
Documents reveal early Markel investigation [Tallahassee Democrat]
Earlier: Harsh Words From An Ex-Boyfriend Of Wendi Adelson, Ex-Wife Of Dan Markel
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].