Florida grandma sobs and swears her innocence in court as she faces life in prison for son-in-law’s murder plot

Donna Adelson, the matriarch of a wealthy Florida family, who was convicted last month for her role in the 2014 murder-for-hire plot of her son-in-law Dan Markel, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Adelson, who is soon to be 76, kept a blank expression on her face as she learned her fate in a Tallahassee courtroom on Monday.

Judge Stephen Everett ordered she spend the remainder of her life in prison for the first-degree murder charge. He sentenced her to another 30 years each on the conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder charges, saying they would run concurrent with each other but consecutive to the murder sentence, guaranteeing she will die behind bars.

Before Adelson was sentenced, she could not hold back her tears as she pleaded with the judge, insisting she was innocent of any involvement in Markel’s murder. The plot was allegedly to settle her daughter Wendi Adelson’s bitter custody battle with Markel.

“What happened to Danny is unforgivable – but I am an innocent woman convicted of this terrible crime without evidence,” she said as she sobbed in court.

She added that Markel, who was a law professor, “would have been appalled by the lack of justice” at her trial.

For two weeks in August, jurors at Adelson’s trial listened to sordid details about a messy divorce, tensions with wealthy in-laws and custody battles that culminated in the murder.

Prosecutors painted the grandmother as the “domineering” mastermind who helped fund the hit and conspired with her son, Charlie Adelson, to cover it up for years.

Adelson’s defense team argued there was no direct evidence that Adelson planned or funded the killing, pointing instead to her son Charlie, who was convicted of murder in Markel’s death in November 2023.

In a recorded jail call, Adelson told Charlie that she was “getting things in order and that she was making sure her grandchildren would be taken care of.”

A few days later, she was arrested at Miami International Airport while attempting to board a one-way flight to Vietnam, along with her husband Harvey.

Four others, including Charlie, his then-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua, and hitmen Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, are already serving time in prison for their roles in the murder. Adelson’s husband Harvey, and daughter, Wendi Adelson, have denied involvement in the murder and have not been charged.

Adelson did not testify in her defense during her trial, but often had to be reprimanded by the judge when she had outbursts in reaction to testimony.

But on Monday, Adelson took the chance to speak, sobbing as she replayed Markel’s final hours before he died, and said that he was “hunted by vicious killers.”

She claimed that she “had no knowledge” of the plan to kill Markel and that if she would have known, then “I would have stopped it,” she said.

Despite the judge warning her that she was showing an “utter lack of remorse,” he allowed her to continue.

“This is a lifetime of loss for those children,” she said in closing, referring to Markel’s two children, now without a father.

“They didn’t deserve this. His family didn’t deserve this. Danny didn’t deserve this,” she cried. “I promise to you with all my whole heart, I swear to you on my life, I was not involved in any way with Danny's murder.”