Donna Adelson what did she do has become a pressing question answered definitively on September 4, 2025, when the 75-year-old matriarch was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation in the 2014 shooting death of her former son-in-law Dan Markel. The verdict marks the end of an 11-year legal saga that captivated the nation and destroyed a prominent Florida family.
Donna Adelson, the matriarch of a wealthy South Florida family, was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation in the 2014 killing of her former son-in-law, Daniel Markel, a law professor at Florida State University. The courtroom erupted in emotion as Donna Adelson gasped and began sobbing as the judge read the three verdicts aloud.
The Murder Plot That Shocked Florida
Donna Adelson is accused of conspiring with her son, Charlie, to hire hitmen to kill Markel for $100,000. The elaborate murder-for-hire scheme targeted Dan Markel, who was fatally shot twice in the head while in his car in his Tallahassee garage in July 2014.
The motive centered around a bitter custody battle. Her daughter Wendi was in the midst of a custody battle with Markel at the time of his murder. Markel, 41, a Harvard law grad, was a prominent Florida State University law professor who shared custody of his two young sons with Wendi Adelson.
Family Web of Crime
The Adelson family’s involvement in the murder spans multiple generations. She stands to potentially join her son Charlie in prison for the murder of her ex-son-in-law Dan Markel. Three others are also in prison. Her son Charlie was convicted, as well as Magbanua and the two hitmen, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.
What makes this case particularly shocking is how a seemingly respectable family orchestrated such a heinous crime. The prosecution painted Donna Adelson as the mastermind who coordinated with her dentist son Charlie to eliminate Dan Markel permanently.
Desperate Attempt to Flee
Adding drama to the case, Donna Adelson was arrested at the airport with a one-way ticket to Vietnam following her son’s conviction. A last-chance arrest on the jet bridge of an international flight. Talks of fleeing the country just days after Donna Adelson’s son, Charlie Adelson, was found guilty of murder.
The attempted escape highlighted the family’s desperation as law enforcement closed in on the conspiracy’s remaining members.
Trial That Gripped the Nation
Her trial began on August 22, 2025, and featured dramatic testimony from multiple witnesses. Adelson, 75, faces life in prison if convicted of a first-degree murder charge, making the stakes incredibly high for the elderly defendant.
Throughout the proceedings, the defense maintained her innocence, but the evidence proved overwhelming. The jury deliberated carefully before delivering their unanimous guilty verdicts on all three charges.
What This Means
The question of Donna Adelson what did she do has been answered through months of testimony and evidence. She orchestrated, funded, and facilitated a murder-for-hire plot that claimed the life of an innocent father and respected academic. Her actions destroyed not only Dan Markel’s life but also fractured families and left two young boys without their father.
Donna Adelson, the 75-year-old grandmother accused of helping orchestrate the murder-for-hire of Dan Markel, was convicted on Sept. 4, more than 11 years after the law professor was gunned down. The conviction brings some measure of justice to a case that has haunted Tallahassee and the legal community for over a decade.
The elderly matriarch now faces the possibility of spending the rest of her life behind bars, a fitting consequence for her role in this calculated and cold-blooded murder conspiracy that robbed two children of their father and the academic world of a brilliant legal mind.