Did Lawyer Plot with Her Wealthy Family to Kill Ex-Husband? Dan Markel Case Analysis and Update

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I offer an update on the case of Dan marel just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the crime then offer my analysis Dan marel was born on October 9 1972 in Montreal Canada and was raised in Toronto he earned a bachelor's degree a master's degree and in 2001 a JD after working as a law clerk Dan joined a law firm that represented White Collar defendants in 2005 he became a professor at Florida State University in February 2006 Dan married a law student named Wendy adelon and the couple moved to Talahassee Wendy graduated from law school that same year they went on to have a son in 2009 and another son in 2010 wend these parents are named Harvey and Donna sue adelen Donna worked in Harvey's South Florida dental practice and was once a contestant on the television show Wheel of Fortune Wendy had two brothers Robert and Charles only the latter is relevant to this story Charles went by the name Charlie he worked for his father as a dentist and was well known for his lavish and action-packed lifestyle despite having a promising start Dan and Wendy had a terrible marriage Wendy filed for divorce in September of 2012 and the divorce was finalized in July of 2013 there were a lot of hard feelings and custody was hotly debated the court ordered a 5050 custody Arrangement which did not make Wendy happy she wanted to move to South Florida with her two sons to be near her family but in June of 2013 a judge ruled in Dan's favor and prevented this relocation now moving to the timeline of the crime on July 18 2014 41-year-old Dan marel returned to his house on trescott Drive in Talahassee just before 11:00 a.m. after running a few errands he was on the phone as he pulled his vehicle into the garage he mentioned that someone unfamiliar was in his driveway right after this Dan Marquel was shot twice in the head while still in his vehicle a neighbor heard the gunshots walked over to check on Dan and found him mortally wounded the neighbor called 911 at 11:02 a.m. when the police arrived they found Dan slumped over in the driver's seat of his vehicle he was taken to a hospital where he died the neighbor said that he noticed a car leaving right after the shooting he thought it was a Toyota Prius from video surveillance the police figured out that the neighbor was correct about the make and model of the vehicle they tracked down the Toyota Prius and discovered it was owned by a car rental company and had been rented to a man named Lewis Rivera phone records connected Lewis to another man named sigfredo Garcia right after the murder these two men went on a spending spray the police eventually developed a theory of the crime here's what they think happened sigfredo gar recruited LS Rivera to kill Dan marel as part of a murder for hire the two men had taken their orders from a woman named Katherine mcbow she in turn received her orders from Charlie and Donna adelon again Charlie is Wendy's brother and Donna is Wendy's mother the objective of the murder was to end the custody dispute between Wendy and Dan Wendy could now have her sons to herself and move closer to her family members investigators had evidence to support this theory for example Catherine had been romantically involved with both Charlie and sigfredo Lewis called Catherine right after the murder and Catherine received a substantial amount of money from Charlie and Donna the police had a theory but not enough evidence for an arrest in April of 2016 they implemented a sting operation to encourage the adelon to make a mistake an undercover FBI agent approached Donna adelen in public he handed her a piece of paper that had $5,000 written on it the object here was to convince Donna that she was being blackmailed Donna called Charlie and had a cryptic conversation about the encounter Charlie called Catherine and had another cryptic conversation later he was recorded in a restaurant talking to Catherine it sounded like Charlie mentioned killing someone but the audio was terrible later the audio was cleaned up and became a key piece of evidence in this case on May 26 2016 34-year-old sigfredo Garcia was arrested and charged with first-degree murder 3 weeks later on June 17 2016 Lewis Rivera was indicted on charges of first-degree murder he was already in prison for unrelated charges so finding him was easy Lewis entered into a plea agreement with the state he agreed to testify against his conspirators in exchange for 19 years in prison Le was implicated sigfredo and Katherine but he did not know who was behind the murder plot the only thing he knew was the case involved a woman who wanted full custody of her children less than four months later on October 1 2016 Katherine was charged with murder on October 4 Lewis Rivera pleaded guilty to murder in accordance with his ple bargain 3 years later in October of 2019 sigfredo and Catherine went on trial together on October 11 SFO was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility parole plus 30 years the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict as far as Katherine the state announced that they would retry her for Dan's murder on April 21 2022 prior to Katherine's second trial Charlie adelen was arrested and charged with first-degree murder conspiracy to commit murder and solic itation to commit murder his mother Donna and his sister Wendy were named by the state as conspirators but they were not charged the next month Catherine had her second trial on May 27 she was found guilty of first-degree murder conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder Katherine was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 60 years Charlie adelen went on trial in the fall of 2023 he testified in his own defense and offered a convoluted story about how he was the victim of extortion on November 6 Charlie was convicted of all charges and eventually received the same sentence as Catherine life in prison plus 60 years on November 7 the day after Charlie's conviction Donna and Harvey adelon booked a flight from Miami International Airport to Dubai leaving on November 13 and a flight on November 15 from Dubai to Vietnam the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Vietnam Charlie who of course was in custody communicated with his mother Donna on recorded phone calls during one phone conversation when it sounded like Charlie had been dropped from the call Donna continued to talk to somebody else who was near her she may not have realized that she was still being recorded Donna mentioned the topic of extradition on November 13 as 73-year-old Donna adelon was was getting ready to board the flight to Dubai with the final destination of Vietnam she was placed under arrest and charged with first degree murder conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder at the time making this video she is awaiting trial and her daughter Wendy adelen has not been charged with any crime now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts in a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one the guilt of the players in this case who have already been convicted is really not in question leis Rivera confessed sigfredo Garcia was captured on video in the Toyota Prius with Lewis after being convicted Catherine implicated herself when she testified against Charlie and Charlie testified that he handed Katherine money although he was trying to make it look like it was extortion item number two Lewis and sigfredo were already criminals prior to Dan's murder they appeared to be sensation-seeking impulsive irresp responsible sadistic violent and antisocial they had a deficit of critical thinking skills as far as cine I think she just wanted money and was comfortable with the idea of Murder She did not care if Dan lived or died none of these three offenders could be classified as a master criminal item number three Charlie adelen appeared to be Reckless impulsive irresponsible and sensation seeking but at the same time he was conscientious enough to become a dentist and make a good living Charlie told stories to people about him evading taxes lying to the police and possessing automatic weapons one witness said that Charlie was at the center of blackmail attempts it sounds like Charlie was fortunate to avoid negative encounters with law enforcement prior to the murder he was just waiting for his big chance to get arrested Charlie wanted to have an exciting lifestyle and thought of himself as a tough guy however the Ring weer of this murder plot may have been as mother Donna this brings me to item number four Donna adelon strongly disliked Dan Marcal she offered Wendy several ideas on how to encourage Dan to change his mind about the kids moving to South Florida she was prepared to offer him a substantial amount of money and she thought that Wendy should tell Dan that the children would be enrolled in Catholic school this would make Dan upset because he was highly committed to his Jewish faith when Dan was murdered he was actively trying to prevent Donna from seeing her grandchildren unsupervised because she had allegedly said unkind things about him in my opinion Donna is probably guilty as charged I believe that she simply wanted Dan to be dead this may have started with a dispute about custody but her ultimate motive was her pride and vindictiveness if this was really about the children how was Donna going to see them from Vietnam Donna made a Mistake by not fleeing the country a long time ago she may have waited so long because she was overconfident truly believing that her son Charle would be found not guilty this demonstrates how Donna has a lack of critical thinking skills and has no empathy she is unable to understand how other people perceive her moving to item number five was Wendy adson involved in Dan maral's Murder She has always denied responsibility but the state accused her of being a conspirator she was never charged but they clearly believe she is guilty let's take a look at the evidence both for and against the idea that Wendy is guilty starting with the inculpatory factors Wendy was involved in a custody dispute when Dan was Murder She had the most obvious motive of anyone she of course was close to Donna and Charlie as a family member and knew Catherine Wendy appeared to be manipulative and vindictive she had planned on divorcing Dan Long before she actually separated from him Wendy maintained the appearance of working on the marriage for example she planned a surprise birthday party for Dan knowing that she would be gone by the time his birthday arrived Wendy told the police that she drove past Dan's house on the morning he was killed later she denied this but claimed that she could see crime scene tape from almost a mile away right after the murder Wendy moved to South Florida with her children and changed their last name from marel to adelon this Behavior was foreshadowed in a book that Wendy published in 2011 titled this is our story a character in the book who left her husband changed the last name of her children the Hitmen knew that Dan would be leaving on the day after they killed him Wendy knew this as well moving to the exculpatory factors Wendy's Alby was that her television was being repaired by a technician Donna is the one who actually ordered the repair Wendy admitted that she had an acrimonious divorce mentioned that her family hated Dan and revealed a joke that Charlie made where he talked about hiring a Hitman if Wendy was in a conspiracy with her family members she didn't seem to be covering for them too well no physical evidence ties Wendy to the murder none of the conspirators implicated Wendy it is conceivable that Donna and Charlie acted without Wendy's knowledge if they wanted Dan to be dead there was no advantage to informing Wendy about a plan as long as she had an alibi again Wendy's Alibi was arranged by her mother Donna when considering the available evidence do I think that Wendy adelon is guilty I believe she is guilty in reality but she is not guilty Beyond a reasonable doubt the state would have a hard time convicting her based on the current evidence and I doubt anyone else is going to testify against her what do I think happened in this case this is just a theory my opinion throughout the acrimonia custody dispute Wendy became increasingly angry with her ex-husband Dan she complained to her mother Donna who was already not a member of the Dan marel fan club Wendy manipulated her mother by demonstrating how Dan's continued survival would be harmful to Donna when Dan filed a motion to prevent Donna from seeing the children that was all the provocation Donna needed she introduced the idea of murder and easily recruited her son Charlie because he had antisocial Tendencies and a terminal desire to win his mother's approval Donna told Wendy about the plan but Wendy adopted an attitude of the less I know the better with her training as an attorney she realized that she would be the obvious suspect she did not ask for any of the details because she did not want to know Wendy wanted to retain the ability to convincingly deny any involvement now moving to my final thoughts in a sense Wendy adelon may have orchestrated the perfect murder at least from her perspective she complained until family members became homicidal and then stepped away to watch the fireworks from a safe distance Wendy was able to weaponize Donna's vindictiveness insecurity arrogance and sense of entitlement she was also able to weaponize Charlie's impulsivity grandiosity sensation seeking and callousness these same narcissistic characteristics which facilitated the murder now ensure that her family members will not turn on her Wendy is safe in a forc field of narcissism those are my thoughts on the case of Dan marel please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Length: 15min 50sec (950 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 24 2024