Dan Markel Murder: Ex-Girlfriend Flips, Claims Charlie Adelson Asked Her to Find Hit Man

Katherine Magbanua, the ex-girlfriend of Charlie Adelson, told a Leon County court she is ready to come clean after years of maintaining her innocence for the 2014 murder of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel.

"I believe the truth needed to come out now so the family can get some type of closure," she testified on October 30 during Adelson's murder trial.

Adelson is accused of enlisting Magbanua, his then-girlfriend, to hire two hit men, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, who ambushed Markel in his home in Tallahassee.

Magbanua, who is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in Markel's death, had long denied that she was the middleman between Adelson and the hit men. Since the murder, she largely remained silent and refused to provide any link between Garcia and the Adelson family.

However, Magbanua said publicly for the first time yesterday that she lied when she testified during her two trials in 2019 and 2022 in hopes of getting acquitted. She said she refused to accept a plea deal and cooperate because that would have required her to give up Garcia, who was the father of her children.

"Because in order to give up Charlie, I had to give up Sigfredo, so I couldn't do that," said Magbanua, wearing a blue prison uniform.

During her testimony, she admitted that she took part in the murder-for-hire plot for money and as a favor for Adelson, who she said orchestrated the killing. She described how Adelson allegedly set the plan in motion in 2013.

"We were at a Halloween party on Lincoln Road, and right before we were about to go, he got in the car with me and asked me, 'Do you know anybody that could harm someone?'" Magbanua said on the stand.

Magbanua testified Adelson, a Broward County dentist, would tell her that his mother, Donna, had not been sleeping and eating because of an ongoing family dispute with Adelson's brother-in-law. She said she ultimately learned he was referring to Markel, although she did not know his name until after the murder.

"He painted this picture that this was a terrible man and was making his family go through a lot custody-wise with his sister," she added.

Adelson gave her a sealed Manila envelope, which she passed along to Garcia with information about Markel to carry out the murder, Magbanua testified.

"He wore a glove, so there were no fingerprints on it. He was very specific about not opening it and not looking inside it. He also told me that he didn't print it from his office," she said.

It was around June or July 2014, Magbanua said, when Adelson became "adamant about this job getting done." The night after the hit men traveled to Tallahassee and carried out the killing, she said, she visited Adelson and found him frantic with a gun in his hand. Adelson gave her a stack of stapled cash the morning after, which she said she believed was damp and moldy, leading her to speculate that Donna had physically washed the money.

In the months following the murder, Magbanua said, she received checks that Donna had signed from the family's dental office, the Adelson Institute. She also admitted she never worked at the office. Dental assistant Clariza Lebredo, who worked at the practice for 40 years, later testified she only saw Magbanua as a patient.

As Magbanua testified, Adelson looked on stoically, wearing a suit and blue-and-white tie. At times, he took notes and rested his head on his hand, appearing pale.

When questioned by Adelson's defense attorney, Daniel Rashbaum, Magbuana denied that she came forward with an eye toward getting out of prison early.

"What you said to this jury about 20 minutes ago, 'I am here today to tell the truth.' I want to get your exact words. 'Because I want to do the right thing,'" Rashbaum recalled. "Isn't it because you want to go home, and that's the only way you can ever go home is to help them? That's the only way you can go home by not being dead."

Magbanua responded, "I was not promised anything. I am doing this solely on myself. Clearly, you don't even see my attorneys in this room."

Rashbaum said that Garcia, who prosecutors say pulled the trigger on Markel, hated Adelson and believed Magbanua was the love of his life. The defense attorney drew attention to instances where Magbanua admittedly lied to Adelson but not Garcia during the investigation.

"You keep saying that the state hasn't promised you anything, but you're hoping that they're going to help you?" Rashbaum asked in his last question on cross-examination.

"Of course, I want to see my children again," Magbanua responded.

Rashbaum told the jury during opening statements that Magbanua was the mastermind who arranged the hit as part of a plot to extort and blackmail the Adelson family.

"You will learn that Charlie was told if he didn't pay within the next 48 hours, he or one of his family members would be next," Rashbaum said during opening statements.

On cross-examination, when the defense asked Magbanua point blank whether she organized the plot, she snapped back, "No, that was Charlie."

Garcia, Rivera, and Magbanua have all been convicted in the murder plot.

Garcia was sentenced to life in prison in 2019, whereas Rivera cooperated with prosecutors and received a 19-year sentence.

Magbanua was given a life sentence in July 2022. She was retried in May 2022 after her case ended in a mistrial in 2019.