This episode maintained content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised. Hi, this is Tanya.
Hi this is Shannon, and we are Crimes.
And Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast.
Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya, how you doing?
I am good. How are you doing today?
I am doing pretty good? How about you?
Life is a sweet fruit?
Yes, it is in family. Oh bring the flavor, don't they yell?
It's that time of year, right, You're subjected to your family and yeah.
And surround and enjoy and love and other things too. So but yeah, you know, but I do. I have a funny story I want to tell you. Okay, let's hear it, all right. So Brooke and I Brooke is my twenty two year old daughter for those of you who don't know, and she is eighteen and a half weeks pregnant. So yes, I'm going to be a grandma. Randy, you know, it's going to create. And we know he's a boy. We call him beans. So anyway, Brook and I so Brooke, we were talking about how like herreditary,
our rage seems to be her hereditary. Just your common conversation over breakfast, and she goes, it was just so funny because you know, there's that formality of oh hey mom, oh hey honey, blah blah blah. And once she was like, oh, I remember this one time when you got mad, and just her inflection, I was like, Oh my gosh, she's gonna be this sounds like I might have left something that needs therapy or that's this sounds like cor bevery. So I was like, oh exactly. She goes, Oh, yeah,
I remember you were looking for your ATM card. She goes, I don't remember the bank. It was Huntington. She goes, we pulled over. You had been digging her out out of the side frantically, and you were getting mad and mad, and she goes, and then we pulled over and you
got out. You started looking all over the car. It was went under the seat and you grabbed it and you put it right in your face and you yelled cut except that I really laid on the oud like and I said, Brooklyn, you know that's me mad at the universe. Yeah, yelling at the universe, not the card.
You know, just Sat eighty eight.
She can't put anything away. It's not normal, it's not natural to do so, so just for her to share it as a I remember this rage story. I can you know? What? Is she ten? And I'm all like, motherfucker, where is this card?
Yes, my daughter has a core memory of me screaming at her. She was probably five or six, and she was either at Brownies or what is it when they're like before Brownies?
I forget, Yes, I know what you mean, at the Little Blue.
Best right, and she was running around and running around. I had told her to stop it, and she's running, running running. When we got in the car, I fucking unleashed. I like screamed at her and everything. So she says, you know, it's a core memory of mine, and I said, I'm sorry. It was before I was medicated.
I'd like to point out the importance of mental health, yea, all of us.
Yeah, before I rested my health. And I do apologize for that, and I'm sorry that I've scarred you for life with that.
But I love it that He's like, yeah, mom, and it's a core memory.
So now you know, I'm like, oh great, Oh we do our best. I know. So, yeah, it was. It was fabulous, you know. So we've started our children. But anyway, yes, all right, well I'll get into the episode now, yeah, I'm ready, Yes, before I started, just remind everyone to hit subscriber or follow. And our story takes place on July eighteenth, twenty fourteen, and it's around eleven am. A
man named Dan Markle was driving home. He had dropped his kids off at preschool and then he went to the gym for a workout before driving to his house, which was in Benton Hills, which is a suburb of Tallahassee, Florida.
Okay, Dan had i'd been in.
The midst of a bitter divorce and custody battle with his wife, whose name was Wendy Adelson. Both Dan and Wendy were law professors at Florida State University. Dan's family lived in Canada, and so he had an agreement with his mom that when he was driving he would call her to decompress. So on this date, he also had an arranged phone call with a teacher at a potential
school for one of his sons. His soon to be ex wife wanted to change the school their children would be going to the following year because like she had enrolled them without discussing it.
With Dan.
Oh, and so the phone call with the teacher was meant to discuss what had happened and why the school would be a good fit. So after hanging up with his mom, he called the teacher. As he continued his drive. With so much going on, Dan didn't notice that there was a silver green Prius that was following him. But when Dan pulled into his driveway in front of his house, he told the teacher that he was talking to you know, hold on, he said, there's someone in my driveway that
is unfamiliar to me. Then Peter heard a loud grunt, muffled voices, and labored breathing. He asked if Dan was okay, but Dan never returned to the call. Okay, So I don't know. I'm guessing the teacher hung up. Yeah, so you know, something's happening, and one of Dan's neighbors heard a gunshot. He looks in the direction of Dan's house and he sees the garage door was up and thought Dan was backing out, but instead he sees this silvery
green Prius leaving the driveway. So after a while he's noticed that Dan's car hasn't moved, and so he went to go check on Dan. Looking in the driver's side window, he saw his neighbor. Dan had been shot in the head through the glass. Window was shattered and there was blood, but Dan was still alive and moving.
Oh my gosh.
He called the police and unfortunately, though the dispatcher made an error in the prioritization of the call and categorized it as a traffic accident. So the first mobitter arrived at the house expecting to see like a fender bender, but you know no, and ambulance arrived nineteen minutes after the initial phone call. Dan was transported to Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare. After the shooting, the police set up crime scene tape to keep drivers and pedestrians from going down the road.
When this had been done, one of the officers noticed a maroon Honda Odyssey that had tried to make a turn onto the street soon after the shooting, and this fan ended up belonging to Wendy Adelson, Dan's ex wife or soon to be ex wife, who lived a short distance away from Dan. Wendy Adelson was found the afternoon of the shooting at a local restaurant where she was having lunch with friends. The police drove her to the
station about two point thirty. They didn't hear any details about why she was being brought in during the drive there. When she sat down with an officer after they arrived at the station, she was told that Dan had been shot and he wasn't likely to survive. As soon as she heard this news, she burst into tears, and she began to sob uncontrollably. They inquired about her plans for the day, you know, They were like, where what are you been?
Yeah?
Right, She said she'd been home earlier in the day waiting for a TV repairman. One of her sons had thrown a toy into their new flat screen TV, and the TV was a divorce gift from Wendy's older brother, Charlie, and they were trying to see if it was worth fixing. After the repairman left, she got ready for lunch with her friends, and then she ran to the liquor store to buy a bottle of bourbon for a stock the
bar wedding party that evening. During the highly emotional interview, Wendy was asked if there was anyone she knew who would want to get killed Dan. She said no. However, later in the interview, she spoke of a bad joke that her brother Charlie had made about the television he'd given her. He said, I looked into hiring a hit man and it was cheaper to get you the teeth.
Hah yeah yeah, real nee slapper right.
Even after disclosing this to police, Wendy doubled down that her brother would never have actually hired anyone to kill her husband. Going on to further explain, Wendy detailed that she was involved in ongoing litigation regarding the split of financial assets and connection with her divorce. Said that her parents were extremely angry with Dan, but they would never say a bad word about her children's father in front of the kids. When the police asked about Charlie, they
inquired into what type of car he drove. Describing her brother as a bit of a character, Wendy told him that Charlie is a periodontist who owns several cars, including an unmarked police car. I told them that he's a workaholic who starts early in the morning and goes until late at night, so if they wanted to find him, they could look at one of the many offices he worked in throughout South Florida. The interview with Wendy lasted five hours.
Wow.
Wendy expressed concern that whoever had been after her husband would probably be coming for the kids next which I don't know why to sleep but right, you know. And the police hadn't found any evidence of a break in and determined that the shooting wasn't random and somebody wanted Dan dead. Wendy had been asked about being seen trying to turn onto the road that Dan lived on with her kids, and she said she drove by regularly to help her like herself, process like her feelings about the divorce.
Oh okay.
However, it was mentioned later that it was strange she didn't call or reach out to anyone with concern about the crime scene tape surrounding live in. Right right after they were done questioning her, she asked the police if she should get a sitter for her children while she was going out that night at the stock the bar party. Oh wow, And this seems kind of weird because it was her week to have the kids. She was supposed to pick them up from preschool that afternoon, and she
had these plans for this party. So if she was going to get a sitter. You think she would have had one by then, right right?
Yeah?
And unless the party was family friendly, but a stock the bar party really does.
Dream doesn't sound bring your kids.
Yeah, it doesn't say all age is fun, right.
Kids welcome? That means get a sitter, No kids please, That's just desire.
So let me tell you a little bit about Dan. He was born October ninth, nineteen seventy two, making him a Libra libra, libra mail, libra mail. He achieved a mastery in political theory from Cambridge, and he went on to earn a law degree from Harvard in nineteen ninety.
I know la la.
He was active in the Jewish faith, and after he graduated, he won a prestigious fellowship that allowed him to spend a year's studying philosophy at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Oh my gosh, how what an opportunity, What a great life experience, right exactly.
In two thousand and five, Dan began teaching at Florida State University's College of Law, where he grew into a respected expert in criminal law and generously gave of his time and energy to be well connected in that field. Dan, who was thirty three years old at the time. He and Wendy met on jay Date, which is a niche dating website for people of the Jewish faith. If you didn't know, Wendy was an attractive twenty six year old law student at the University of Miami who had earned
a master's degree in international relations at Cambridge. Her family ran a successful dental practice in Tamarack, and the two got married in two thousand and six. Wendy was offered a job as a clinical professor at Florida State University as a spousal hire. I had no idea that that was a thing me either, but my nice and her focus was on human trafficking issues between Dan and the Addlsons.
Wendy's family began right away. While both the Markles and the Addlsons were Jewish and both families were each paying for half of the wedding, the Adelsons purchased catering that didn't follow Kosher guidelines. Yeah, that seems weird.
It does.
After guests had already begun eating, Dan was put in the unfortunate position to announce to his guests that the food was not kosher, which upset several people. I got, I know Additionally, Dan was told by the Adelsons to downplay his accomplishments so as not to overshadow Wendy during the wedding.
Oh my gosh, so you don't provide culture food at your Jewish wedding, and then you got a downplay so someone else can feel good. Are you kidding me? Oh my gosh, yeah, Dan, yeah, I just I don't get it, so I don't either.
During their marriage, they welcomed two boys, Benjamin and Lincoln. Dan was an exceptional father. He was tremendously proud, and he was heavily involved in his son's lives. As time passed, he decided he would like to immerse his boys in their faith, and he made an effort to begin observing some of the more orthodox beliefs in the Jewish faith. While he had wanted to begin observing Kosher meals, Wendy didn't desire to make this change. This led to her
having to prepare meals in her home separately. Dan began traveling for work, leaving Wendy at home to care for the kids alone. She would often make trips to southern Florida to spend time with her her parents and brothers. When Dan was gone, and it was clear she was unhappy living in Tallahassee and she wanted to move back to Miami where that had more of like an urban feel. In twenty eleven, This is Our Story, which was a
novel that was self published by Wendy Adelson. It came out and side note It received a three point three out of five on Goodreads Okay. The novel told the story of a human trafficking attorney, Lily. Lily's character was in a very unhappy situation after moving to a rural town in Florida with her husband, Josh. Josh professor. Yes, sound familiar.
I was gonna say, they always say write what you know?
What you know? His character was made out to be disrespectful to his wife and dismissive of her accomplishments. In the novel, Lily's character ended up leaving suddenly. She left behind worse papers for Josh to sign and moved away with a child she secretly adopted from a client who wasn't able to take care of the infant. Wendy admitted that Lily was somewhat quote unquote autobiographical character.
Yeah, loosely based my life, yeah.
Saying in the afterward of the novel. Quote, I selfishly wanted you to know a bit about my story, which has much, but not all, in common with Attorney Lily end quote. Apparently Dan never read his wife's novel, because if he had, he maybe wouldn't have been so surprised when on September tenth, twenty twelve, just over a year
after the novel was released, Wendy left. Dan returned home from a business trip and discovered that his wife had taken the two kids, most of the household possessions, and she left with no clue as to where they'd gone. Divorce papers were lying on the bed in the master bedroom.
Wow, no right, So the.
Divorce between the law professors to be very messy. For weeks, Wendy refused to tell him where she and their sons had gone. Dan made efforts to reconcile with his wife, even telling her that he would move to Miami immediately to keep their family together. My poor Wendy, it was too little, too late. Wendy had taken her children from Tallahassee, seven hours south to her parents' home in Coral Springs, which is one of the suburbs between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
I'm sorry, I just wise. I do know where Coral Spriggs is because on my Zillow list of homes I'll buy when I hit the lottery, Coral Sprigs looked like a lovely suburb of Miami, just well located. I've got a couple condos.
Well there you go.
Oh yes, well you said carl I was like, I know where that it is place. Thank you Zillow. Yes.
She was relieved to have been able to return to her parents and brother, Charlie, with whom she had a close relationship with. Her older brother, Robert, lived in New York and didn't communicate with any of the members of the family in Florida. Robert Adelson was the oldest child of the family. After leaving home, Robert began college, eventually becoming a successful sinus surgeon. He had met and fallen in love with an Indian woman and made plans to marry.
His parents didn't approve of her because she was Hindu, and they had wanted their children to meet and marry someone of the Jewish faith, which is ironic considering they didn't serve Kosher meals.
A right's wedding.
Buried the pressure of this you know between his family that led Robert to break up with his girlfriend. He quickly met and married a Jewish woman after that, but realized he had made a mistake, so within the marriage it was annulled and he went back to his former girlfriend and they got married. The ceremony was a mix of both Hindu in Jewish traditions. Robert's parents saved face during the ceremony, but seemed to have cut him off after the marriage. So back to Dan and Wendy. Dan
had established a life in Tallahassee. Wendy was making efforts to develop a home in Miami. The main issue of contention in their divorce was where the boys were going to live. On June twentieth, twenty thirteen, the judge denied Wendy's motion for relocation with her children. The following month, a divorce settlement was agreed upon. Dan would make a lump sum payment of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars and pay eight hundred and forty one dollars a month
in support. On top of it, custody the children would be fifty to fifty and Dan would keep the family home in Benton Hills, Wow. Although the settlement was made, the legal battles continued. Constant disputes were filed regarding everything from school plans to skyping with the kids. This sounds like my.
Worst client magic, Yes it does.
During the separation, Dan had been told by his sons that Donna, Wendy's mother, was making disparaging remarks about him to his children, calling him stupid and saying that Dan was trying to keep her from her sunshines, which I guess is what she called the grandkids. After hearing one of the comments himself during one of the skyping calls between Dan and the boys, Dan asked the judge to no longer allow unsupervised visitation between Donna and her grandchildren.
Fearing parental alienation. Dan informed the judge that Wendy's parents were aggressive in controlling the hearing for the motion to prohibit Wendy's mother from unsupervised visitation with her grandchildren was scheduled, but would never be heard because Dan Markle would have passed away before it reached the courtroom. In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, July nineteenth, twenty fourteen,
Dan succumbed to his injuries. Investigators immediately began looking into every possible ability of who could have wanted Dan dad and why. During Wendy's interview, she told the officers not just about her brother Charlie, but also about her former boyfriend, Jeffrey Laus. Jeffrey was also a professor at FSU working in the College of Social Work. Wendy claimed that Jeffrey didn't like Dan because Dan Hurtney. So Jeffrey was brought
in for questioning on July twenty first, twenty fourteen. Police were able to verify that Jeffrey wasn't a suspect, as he'd been hundreds of miles away at the time of the murder. During the course of three long interviews with police, Jeffrey gave the officers several theories he had about the murder, stemming from his nine month long relationship with Wendy. This
is getting juicy right. During his first police interview on July twenty first, Jeffrey informed them that Wendy had disclosed to him that the Addisons were desperate to get Wendy back to Miami. He felt like Wendy's family infant tialized her and she wasn't treated like an adult. He claimed that he'd heard during a discussion the previous summer between Wendy and her mom, Donna, that they've been thinking about converting the children to Catholicism. Kind Dan's back, just to
hurt him. After the petition to relocate the boys was denied, Wendy told Jeff, Charlie hates Danny. That's her brother, Charlie, okay, and it seriously looked into all the options possible to take care of this.
Problem in my little right.
In one chilling statement, Wendy made clear Charlie had looked into how much it would cost to have someone killed.
Another you know. So they just cracked me up, Like, are you gonna look on the public library? You know what I'm saying, because you're gonna leave a trail, uh whether unless you get a burner phone you're gonna afford people will look you know, You're they're gonna look at your history. This is you know, how do you make poison? How do you do this? It's all right there of your history.
Right Like okay, yeah, your history is going to be looked at. If you fucking talk to one person that one person's going to tell another person's day.
Well, dude, people are just so stupid. I looked at the hiring a hit man. What's the first step in that?
Google, That's what the first step is.
Yeah, Facebook, marketplace, Yeah, Craig Let's Yeah.
What do you do you ask around?
What do you do you yourself?
Hit men in my area?
Exactly crazy? Oh, people are stupid, and he's a periodontist. I expect more from a white collar. That's sloppy. That's just sloppy.
Jeff also referenced a conversation he'd had with Charlie when they'd been first introduced around mid March of that year. Charlie shared that there were some financial irregularity, and Jeff told the police they should be looking into the Addison's dental practice. There might be tax fraud happening, and they should look at the movement of assets between members of the family. This is a fact that was grasped onto
as a part of the motive. So if Wendy was to be found out having participated in illegal acts in order to evade taxes, she could lose her job and possibly hard Additionally, in that same conversation between Jeff and Charlie, Charlie had been discussing in front of Wendy and Jeff sex acts he'd performed on his girlfriend to quote punish her for her behavior. End quote.
Jeff said, whoa, whoa, whoa whoap did you read say that Charlie is telling me stories? Yes, okay, he's telling his sister, okay about punishing her. Okay, okay.
So Jeff said, Charlie reeks of anti so social behavior, and that quote his social radar is way off.
To say the least. Yeah, read the room. Yeah, read the room, Charlie.
And you know Jeff's opinion. You got to remember he was a professor in social work with a focus in mental health and psychiatric medications. Oh, probably kind of knew what he was talking about.
Yeah, yeah, a little very good. Yeah, very He wasn't just armchairing it like I would, right.
That I read or.
Whatever the articles from years gone by.
Yeah, I'd be like, he's very antisocial.
He was like, no clue, what right, that's typical antisocial behavior right there. Yeah, because my years of doctor still and for Google.
Yeah, so Jeff told the police quote Charlie popped into my head within thirty seconds of hearing about Dan being shot. He didn't think Charlie would have done it himself, but he had friends on both sides of the track, and there's a possibility that he would hire someone from the quote Cuban neighborhood end quote.
Okay.
He said too that the Adelsons hated Dan in a way. He said he'd never seen this kind of obsession and like basically their hobby was hating Dan.
Wow. Yeah.
And he's also heard on the police video during his interview saying, quote, I would just say I would be investigating Charlie Adelson. I don't know if he did this, but if you're looking at someone, don't miss him.
Nice right.
Just two days later, on July twenty third, grainy surveillance footage of the silvery green priess that had been seen in Dan's driveway was released and called a vehicle of interest. There was clear evidence of Dan being stalked by two men in the priests before the murder. A resident of an apartment complex called police to inform them that they'd seen a priest in the parking lot and two men got out of it and started walking down by a
nature trail by Dan's house. On August twelfth, twenty fourteen, Jeff went in to the police department. He had been going through old text messages and had put together that he and Wendy had made plans to go to California on July eleventh through seventeenth, and Dan was shot on the eighteenth. He said that they had made the reservation four months prior, and Wendy later canceled them a month
before they were supposed to leave. He also said that he'd heard from Wendy and some mutual friends that Wendy's brother Charlie, had texted her in the beginning of August, asking if she'd like to go celebrate. Jeff was later told that during the dinner that Wendy was at that
she'd pamited at the dinner table. Jeff said he believed that Wendy may have been indirectly responsible for Dan's murder, and the police informed him that Wendy wasn't a sign aspect, to which he replied, quote, well she should be, and.
Yeah, I don't understand with them going through a divorce, and as soon as you hear spouse or recent acts, a number one suspect, you know can't be weird.
He's like a college professor, like, who's going to fucking just shoot him, right, Yeah, this not Robin. I mean he didn't get robbed, they didn't steal his car, they didn't take no, none of that happens. And he was shot in his driveway. So like, I don't know, it just doesn't seem like it's a random.
No, not at all. In the Prius number one when you first said the model was like, oh, Priuses have been around that long twenty fourteen PRIs, Oh my goodness. Yeah.
In mid September twenty fourteen, as the investigation continued, Florida State University had a memorial service. Hundreds packed the hall while people stood up one by one to honor their colleague, friend, teacher, and family member. In January twenty fifteen, investigators caught up to a key witness, a self confessed drug dealer, who told police he sold cocaine to one of their suspects. This was a man named Sigfrido Garcia. This suspect also claimed to have runted a hotel room in his own
name and another suspect, Louis Riviera. The witness gave the police an hour long interview in which he claimed that Sigfriedo had flagged him down just after midnight. On July sixteenth, outside of a cheap motel to ask where he could get some drugs. Cecredo bought some cocaine from the man and the two hung out for several hours before he left. The witness told the police that while he and Sigfrido snorted the coke, Lewis sat on a bed with a handgun.
He saw Sigfrido and Louis the next day standing next to the rented Prius, which had broken down. The witness gave the a ride to buy parts to fix the car, and then rented them a hotel room in his name. They paid them back in cash.
Wow. Yeah.
In July twenty fifteen, police, so this is like a year later. Police came across a video from a city bus showing that same Prius. From the angle the video was taken out, they were able to see a toll transponder in the window. This made investigators believe that the killers weren't from Tallahassee due to the few toll roads in the area. Police then went and pulled the toll records for all priuses hiding into Tallahassee around the time of the murder. The records led them to a car
runtal agency in Miami. It turned out that there were fewer than ten Priuses rented during the span of time in the state of Florida. It could have been the same car. Looking at the runnal agreement, the vehicle had been rented to Louis Riviera, who was a leader in the Latin Kings Gang.
Ooh yeah.
The second phone number on the rental contract was traced to Sigfriedo Garcia, who was Lewis's childhood friend and he had a colorful felony record. Please were able to ping both cell phones within the vicinity of Dan's home at the time of the murder. When Dan was shot, Charlie Adelson was dating a woman named Katherine Magnanua. She had been working off and on at the dental practice and was also the mother of children of Sigfriedo Garcia. She's Sigfredo's baby mama.
That's right. She can help you out right.
When police looked into the phone records of Catherine and Charlie, they noticed a pattern of contact that took place in the weeks leading up to the murder. When a phone call would take place between Catherine and Charlie, there would be another phone call right after between Catherine and Secriedo, and another between Charlie and Donna his mom.
Okay.
Immediately after the murder, Donna Adelson talked to Charlie on the phone for seven minutes, and then Charlie made two calls to Catherine, with one of those calls lasting five minutes. An hour later, Secreto called Catherine. This was the first phone call he made after the shooting. After the murder, Lewis and Secreto purchased several cars and motorcycles. Around that same time, Catherine began receiving paychecks from the Adelson's dental office.
The found that Catherine had deposited more than forty one thousand dollars in cash and more than seventeen thousand dollars in checks from the Addelson Institute into her bank account between July twenty fourteen and November twenty fifteen. The checks were signed by Donna Adelson. Dude, this is such a fucking paper trail.
Like it is. It's so good. I mean, once you hit the vein, man, you really hit it. I am not. I love how they've been like tracking the phone calls. Okay, once Catherine speaks to what chuck.
Yeah, Charlie yeah.
Charlie yeah. And then Charlie mother and she calls Sigtredo.
Yeah.
I like that they could pick up those patterns. Yeah, the trail, right, yeah, the trail for sure.
The Addison family claimed Catherine was employed by the clinic. However, the police Affidavid states that Catherine was only found to be working at the dental practice one time during the length of the investigation. The police believe Charlie was financially supporting Catherine in payment for Dan's murder after she and Charlie had broken up. He had even paid for her post breakup glow up in the form of a boob job.
Oh my gosh. So then she leaves Scredo, what does she leave Sigfredo and glows up or makes herself new?
Yeah, makes herself new?
Right. I can't let you know what. I can't say. I wouldn't do the same. I mean, I do have some Pinterest pictures in my own special file of work I'd like done. But so, yeah, she does the glow and I'm imagining, you know, if he's a dentist, you're going to get the pills involved. So the's payments of pills prime making that up. Yeah, that's not in the story. That's just my life observation. Adding to the story.
In early twenty sixteen, the FBI arranged to have an undercover officer bump into Donna Adelson posing as Lewis's brother. The officer handed Donna a news article referencing Dan's murder with five thousand dollars and a phone number written on it. In the conversation, the officer told Donna that he knows that the Adelsons are taking care of Catherine and Sigfriedo.
He said that Lewis is in prison now and that he'd also helped with their quote problem up North End quote and they needed to take care of him too. The purpose of this operation was to get the suspects talking to each other, and it worked. In April twenty sixteen, Charlie met his ex girlfriend Catherine at Hilchi Vita restaurant in Miami. The FBI got a forty minute long recording at this restaurant about how to deal with someone they
believed to be either a blackmailer or police. Charlie suggested making a one time charity payment to the blackmailer or else killing him end quote. And so help me God, if they fuck with my family, it's gonna be like fucking the Nazi shit, because this will be done. You know what I'm saying. I mean, Katie, I don't care what I spend. Okay, I swear to God, Katie, Katie, the person doesn't know end quote.
Wow. Yeah.
In May twenty sixteen, police announced first degree murder charges for Dan's murder against Siegfrido and Lewis the rest Fi. David alleges that Charlie Adelson quote reportedly did not like Dan and did not get along with him end quote.
A probable cause Affidavid alleges that the two men were enlisted to commit this egregious act, and police believe the motive for the killing stemmed from the desperate desire of the Addison family to relocate Wendy and the children to South Florida, along with the pending court hearing that might have impacted their access to the grandchildren because remember Dan had filed that motion to supervised grandparent time.
Right. Yeah.
In June, both men were indicted. Court documents made public that month link Secrito to Charlie Adelson, Charlie's former girlfriend, Catherine was also the mother I told you of Sircrito's children, and Sigrido pleaded not guilty, and the state informed him they planned to seek the death penalty. His trial was set for November fourteenth, twenty sixteen. Louis Rivera was extradited to a federal prison to remain incarcerated on unrelated charges.
Because he was incarcerated that the undercover officer had told Donna remember right ye on September eighth, Lewis chose to demand a speedy trial, which was set for October twenty fourth, twenty sixteen, so before Cifrito's setded up, leading guilty to second degree murder on October fourth, twenty sixteen, and ultimately
was sentenced to nineteen years in prison. The sentence would run concurrently with a federal sentence in an unrelated case for his statements and cooperation with prosecutors so he is going to snitch. Evidence from the recording the FBI had gotten of Catherine's meeting with Charlie at the dolci Vita restaurant was used to arrest Catherine on charge of the first degree murder on October first, twenty sixteen. She was offered immunity in exchange for cooperation, but she refused.
I know that is ballsy, right, that is balzy.
Catherine in Cifriedo would be tried together in October twenty nineteen. In trial, Sigfriedo was found guilty of first degree murder, in which sentenced to life in prison. Catherine's first trial was ruled a mistrial. She was scheduled to be tried again in April twenty twenty, which was eventually delayed due to the pande and then come up again until the
spring of twenty twenty two. During the long break between trials, the prosecution found an audio forensic expert to enhance the recording of the Dulce Vita meeting between Catherine and Charlie. Because of the audio enhancement, Charlie Addison was arrested on April twenty first, twenty twenty two, and charged with first degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation of murder in connection with the shooting of Dan Markle.
Finally get to the I know, I mean you have the two trigger guys or you know, the trigger guy, and then the domino effect to the fiery you know, the hired money, great money behind the operation yes.
Catherine's retrial began March sixteenth, twenty twenty two. On May twenty seventh, the jury returned after eight hours of deliberation and with a guilty verdict of first degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison. Charlie Andelson's trial was to begin in the spring of twenty twenty three, but was delayed. On September twenty ninth, twenty twenty three, Catherine turned state's witness oh he expected
to testify against her ex boyfriend. Charlie's trial began on October twenty third, twenty twenty three. Jeffrey La case Lacas took this early in the trial and detailed everything that he told the police throughout their investigation. Louis Rivera took the stand the following day. He detailed for the jurors how he was enlisted to go to Tallahassee to murder Dan.
He described tailgating Dan with Sigfrido Garcia. They followed him when he dropped off his kids at their preschool and watched as he drove to the gym then back to his house. Lewis told the court room how when they pulled into the driveway, Sigfrido had jumped out, gone behind Dan's car to the driver's side window and shot him twice. Wow Lewis admitted that he and Secrito had driven from Miami to Tallahassee on two separate occasions in the summer
of twenty fourteen. He stated how he didn't know that he was going to participate in murder until he was in the car on the way to Tallahassee. He took him Initially, he thought he was going up north to up North Florida to commit a rock. Sigfriedo told him during the car ride that he'd been hired to kill Dan. He included the fact that Catherine was involved. Lewis stated, quote, he said, we were going to kill the man for some kids, for a lady, because the lady wanted her kids back.
End quote.
He told jurors he knew Wendy Adelson was paying for the hit job.
Oh my gosh. No, right, that's a big finger pointer right there, I know.
In opening statements, the prosecution stated that Lewis and Sopriedo were hired by the Andilson family and a murder for hire plot posed and paid for by Charlie, Wendy and Donna Adelson. Lewis stated that Catherine was the first person Secreto called on the ride back to Miami after the shooting. When they returned, Sigcredo, Lewis and Catherine split one hundred thousand dollars between them for the hit. Lewis said he got thirty five, Cicrido got forty, and Catherine took the rest.
Which wow, like twenty five yeah, thirty wait, thirty five yeah, thirty five, seventy five yeah yeah wow.
On November sixth, twenty twenty three, Charlie Addilson was found guilty a first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder. On December twelfth, he was sentence to life in prison plus sixty years.
Wow. He really he won't be a free man.
Oh he's not going new way noe.
Wow.
A week after Charlie was sound guilty, his parents, Donna and Harvey Addelson, were stopped in Miami in a national airport trying to board a flight with one way tickets to Vietnam. Non is a country with no extradition treaty with the US.
Wow. That speaks volumes come on, don't hopeful, Jesus, I know now you're gonna don't even deny you know, you know right.
Donna Addison was arrested two days later. She was indicted for Dan Marko's murder. In the beginning of December. She was placed in solitary confinement. I'm not sure why. When her attorneys brought up that she was facing cruel and unusual punishment. Her jaw dropped when a jail official explained that she had allegedly made comments that she wanted to die, and she'd made suicidal statements on jail house calls, which had been recorded and monitored. Pleeted not guilty in December.
The trial was scheduled for the spring of twenty twenty four, but has been delayed and seventeenth, twenty twenty four, her trial was ended before it even began when, on the first day of jury selection, her defense attorney withdrew due
to conflict of interest concerns. He had also been Charlie's defense attorney, and the plan was for Donna was that Charlie was going to take the stand, which would force his own defense attorney to cross examine him, so he couldn't be Donna's attorney because he would have xamine Charlie, which is a huge conflict of interest. Right, Wendy who, So the trial.
Hasn't began yet, Right, Donna's.
Still in prison. Wendy, who has denied involvement with the murder and testified under immunity at several trials, has not been charged. Neither has her father, Harvey Adelson. Wendy Edison had her son's last name changed to Addison, and she totally cut off the Marco family visitation with the kids. In twenty sixteen, after Lewis Garcia's arrest, Affi David named
her family members as cocon spiras in the Yeah. In twenty twenty, Ruth and Phil Markle began pushing for legislation to give grandparents in Florida more rights to visit their grandchildren after the death of a parent. Markel Act was passed in twenty twenty two and signed into law by Governor DeSantis.
Wow, and that's the end.
Of what I have. Michigan has grandparent rights.
Doing good.
You have to meet like certain criteria, but one of them is if like your child is deceased. One of the reasons why you can petition for grandparents visiting.
Well, for sure, grandparents are very important. Healthy grandparents are very important, and you know the childhood development, absolutely, you're specialthy. Healthy grandparents are very much And you know, I was thinking about, you know, their Jewish faith in their life, and now I know. On Facebook, I follow this woman. Her name's Miriam, and she always and I love her because she started, Hi, I'm Mariam, I'm an Orthodox Jew, and I'm going to show you a little bit what
it's like in my day. So like she goes over what makes food kosher and not. You know, it's very and within a minute of a real I love her. You know about just everything you want to know about being Orthodox to you and I want to say I remember, I want to say that she said that her family growing up didn't turn Orthodox until she was older, so they were always you're always Jewish, but Orthodox is that's when you're really aware of the Jewish laws regarding all things,
but especially food. So I think maybe the Orthodox has something a great deal to do with the kosher, you know, observing just from my little I know she's she's just a bundle of wonderful information.
I know nothing about Judaism. I mean the closest I've learned is Netflix has a show called Nobody Wants This's watched it. No, it's adorable. You should watch it. It's good and it is about a Jewish rabbi who falls in love with.
A shiksa oh yeah.
Like a non Jewish woman. The rabbi is played by Adam Brody and he's adorable. Yeah. The woman is Kristen Bell.
Okay, I will check that out Netflix, youseud Netflix.
And they're only half hour episodes. I mean you will fly through them because the story is so fucking cute. I can't.
I really I can't wait.
Like, you know, there's problems because he's a rabbi and you know, blah blah blah.
So anyway, now yeah, Netflix, love it.
I want to thank you Shannon for listening, and thank you core one for listening to this week's episode.
Yeah we go.
I just want to remind everyone to hit subscriber follow and whatever app you're listening to. If if you would like to join our patrion or a members only group, you can go to Patreon p A t r e o n dot com slash t nt crimes. You can sign up there, or you can sign up through the podcast app on your iPhone and what that is. What you get is we publish an extra episode a week that's not published to the general public. That is a pay only episode. And you know, if you want to
do that, check that out. You could go to our website Crimes and Consequences dot com. You can listen to episodes there. Shannon got the website all caught up.
Because she wants looking.
Chris, I think that's everything.
Yeah, I think that's.
All the business. So until our next.
Episode, Yes, until next time you guys, take care. We love you, Tanya, I love you, I love you, and I love you guys.
Everyone.
It's a big love fest, so it always ends. Yeah, So I'll see you bye bye.
Don't pop, don't people