The Dan Markel Case: Trial Approaches

Is it finally here? After years of continuances and delays, and more than five long years after Dan Markel’s killing, could (some of) his murderers finally face justice?

The trial of two alleged murderers of Markel, the Florida State University law professor who was shot and killed in July 2014, will start on September 23. Last Wednesday, lawyers for the two defendants, Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua, told the court that they are ready to go to trial.

There’s still some pretrial wrangling going on, including arguments over witnesses. But barring something unforeseen, a final pretrial conference will take place on September 19, and jury selection will begin on September 23. The trial is expected to run between three and six weeks.

(I offer the “barring something unforeseen” caveat because, as followers of these proceedings well know, something always seems to come up on the brink of trial. I’ll believe trial has started once the jury is seated and lawyers are delivering opening statements. But this is the closest we’ve ever gotten to trial; 750 jury summonses have already been issued.)

Speaking of wrangling over testimony… when I last wrote about the case, back in June, I urged Judge James Hankinson to reconsider his decision to deny the defense a deposition of Wendi Adelson, Dan Markel’s ex-wife. As it turns out, Judge Hankinson did just that, and Wendi was duly deposed.

And speaking of Wendi Adelson… Jason Solomon, a friend of Dan Markel, has started an online petition that’s essentially an open letter to Wendi, urging her to allow Dan’s parents, Ruth and Phil Markel, to see their two grandchildren. As of this writing, the petition has 657 signatures; you can review and sign it here.

The case for allowing the Markels to see their grandchildren, whom they have not seen for more than three years, is exceedingly strong. If the petition isn’t enough for you, read Solomon’s thoughtful and compelling Medium essay on the subject.

To be sure, Solomon’s piece has a provocative title — What Should Happen When Your Mom and Brother Murder Your Ex? — but in terms of its content, it’s quite fair-minded. It acknowledges the arguments against allowing the Markels to see their grandkids (which it then refutes, in my view persuasively). And unlike many of the armchair sleuths who follow the case, Solomon expresses the view that Wendi was not involved in the planning of her ex-husband’s murder.

In other news about Wendi Adelson, it appears that she’s no longer the executive director of the IMPAC Fund, a position she assumed in the summer of 2017. If you go to the website of the immigration-focused nonprofit, you’ll see that Kathy Bird Carvajal is now its executive director.

What’s Wendi Adelson up to now? We don’t know. Her LinkedIn profile still lists her as ED of the IMPAC Fund. Whether her departure from the organization has anything to do with the Markel case is also unclear.

My guess is no. Mike Fernandez, the billionaire founder of the Fund, has already spoken out in defense of Wendi, who disclosed the circumstances surrounding her husband’s death to the Fund prior to her appointment.

And as one source of mine who knows Wendi socially told me, Fernandez is just one of several high-profile, civic-minded individuals who have embraced Wendi since her return to South Florida. It’s quite possible that Wendi, through these connections, has found another job.

But here’s one thing I think it’s safe to say: don’t expect to see Wendi Adelson anywhere near that courtroom on September 23.^[1]

P.S. For those of you who are new to this story and looking to catch up (and there’s a lot to catch up on), I refer you to two well-done, long-form treatments about the case that came out over the summer: Steve Miller’s piece for the Miami New Times, and the Tallahassee Democrat piece by Karl Etters, who has been covering the case since its inception.

P.P.S. For those of you who listened to Over My Dead Body, the podcast that focused on the Markel case for its first season, it just launched its second season, focused on a different case. And the first season will be coming to television — even though the story of the Markel case is far from over.

[1] It’s possible that Wendi might appear later in the trial to testify. As you’ll recall, the reason the defense sought to depose her is because she was listed as a possible witness by the prosecution, purportedly to supply background information and explain some of the relationships in the case. But I wouldn’t expert her to appear at the trial of her own accord — even though the proceedings are of obvious interest to her.

What Should Happen When Your Mom and Brother Murder Your Ex? [Medium]
Let Dan Markel’s Parents See their Grandkids [iPetitions]
Friend starts petition for Dan Markel’s parents to visit his children [WTXL]
Trial nears for Dan Markel murder case [WTXL]
Markel case still on track for trial later this month [WCTV]
Friend starts petition for Dan Markel’s parents to visit his children [WTXL]
A Professor’s Murder in Tallahassee Was a Contract Hit, Prosecutors Say [Miami New Times]

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David Lat, the founding editor of Above the Law, is a writer, speaker, and legal recruiter at Lateral Link, where he is a managing director in the New York office. David’s book, Supreme Ambitions: A Novel (2014), was described by the New York Times as “the most buzzed-about novel of the year” among legal elites. David previously worked as a federal prosecutor, a litigation associate at Wachtell Lipton, 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@laterallink.com.