Murdered Law Professor Dan Markel’s Friend Speaks on Ex-Wife Wendi Adelson, Family's Murder Charges

we are morally obligated to obey not only laws that seem quite obviously correct Mala and say laws that are obviously liberalism compatible laws that would ban say rape or murder or robbery but also what I call dumb but not illiberal laws that was Dan marel speaking at a conference on the law in 2012 more than two years before his murder marquel's friends say he was a brilliant legal mind but more importantly his favorite job was being a dad I'm manette Le and this is a special edition of crime fix where we're looking at the murder of Dan marel and talking with one of his friends about who he was as a person and most importantly as a father so much of the focus in this case has been on wir Taps stacks of stapled $100 bills and of course the bump which happens during trials and sadly the murder victim gets lost in all of it so we're going to tell you more about Dan Marcal today but first we want to recap the case quickly just in case you aren't familiar Amil with it Dan marel was shot to death as he sat in the driveway of his home in Tallahassee back on July 18th of 2014 he was a law professor at Florida State University and he had just returned home from working out after dropping off his two young Sons at daycare he died the next day it would take some time but eventually two men were arrested and charged with shooting and killing marel they were Latin King's gang leader Luis Rivera and sigfredo Garcia Rivera would later admit the murder was a hired hit the mother of Garcia's Children Katie magbanua had paid them to carry out the killing for her ex-boyfriend Charlie adelen a dentist from Miami Charlie adon's sister Wendy adelen had been married to marel and they were embroiled in a court battle over her desire to move the children to Miami marel had also accused Wendy Edelson of hiding assets during their divorce Charlie edleson is now serving a life sentence for his role in the crime now Charlie and Wendy's mother Donna adelen is Accused in the conspiracy she has pleaded not guilty Wendy and her father Harvey adelen are considered unindicted co-conspirators and I recently reached out to the state attorney's office in Tallahassee and asked whether we could expect more arrests in the case and I was told no comment although some who followed the case believe it could happen joining me to talk about Dan marel is someone who was friends with him he's also the co-founder of the justice for Dan marel Facebook page he is Jason Solomon Jason thank you for coming on we appreciate it thanks for having me yeah uh tell me um how did you meet Dan marel yeah so I met Dan when we were both uh law professors starting at the same time um he at Florida State uh me at the University of Georgia we wrote on some similar topics he wrote on the criminal justice system I wrote on the Civil Justice System um and so we would see each other at conferences and read each other's work Dan was a great connector of people and so he was very active in connecting law professors like me certainly in the Southeast and around the country um to try to learn from one another as as we did our work Jason Solomon and Dan maral were both professors and he said they were both married to women who were equally as ambitious as they were which can be challenging in a marriage so they had a lot in common and would discuss those challenges so you had kind of a front row seat it sounds like to the issues he was having with Wendy yeah I did and I think um you know he was both very committed to his career and also very committed to his family both his kids and and his marriage and certainly um you know I know that there was a time when um certainly he and and Wendy were trying to work on the issues in their marriage I know they were attending counseling and I think Dan thought that that was going okay and that they were making progress um but as happens there came a point where where Wendy uh thought otherwise and decided uh that she did not want to continue to invest in the marriage and then um you know certainly they they tried to co-parent and tried to work things through in the divorce but um but things went downhill was he surprised when she filed for divorce he was surprised he was very surprised um it's not that he didn't know that she had unhappiness in the marriage as I said they were in counseling so um but he thought they were making progress and he was committed to to continuing to make progress even after she left he tried to um get her back and get her to to to continue to work on the marriage I know he um wrote her a a very long letter that I that I know he he ran by me and and several other friends back then um to to try to say that you know he was he was committed to working on the marriage and HED she would be as well we've seen Wendy adelen on the witness stand most recently at Charlie adon's trial so what did Jason Solomon think of her I like her I I didn't know her well but I liked her I mean I think um you know one thing that's get gets lost in some of the coverage around around this and some of the um coverage of course what became a a terrible divorce and then worse is they were a quite happy couple in the first four or five years um so they were very affectionate with one another they were very committed to one another um they had kids but would take little trips and get the grandparents to sit and and um to to take care of the kids and go on little trips together um so they were really um you know a wonderful couple and you know she was smart and charming and um so you know I thought well of her how was Dan with his children this is something that a couple of other people have mentioned to me that he was just a really loving devoted father did you have a chance to witness that yeah I did he was he was a really really devoted father he he loved um uh you know going to the kids preschool or daycare and um joining for Circle time uh what they had I guess I don't know what they did read stories and all that but he was always talking about wanting to do that um even after he and Wendy separated it was important to him um both that he'd be able to join this circle time at the day school even on days when he um wasn't with the kids and when they were with Wendy it was also important to him and frankly one of the uh big sticking points uh during the separation or or during the divorce litigation was that um one thing that he pushed for and that Wendy agreed to uh was that he would FaceTime with the kids every night even if um even if he didn't have them and so you know they were young kids and so that was something that um didn't always happen uh as agreed to whether it was because they were young kids and it's hard to to Wrangle young kids uh to get on a a call at a certain time or whether it was because you know wend he didn't sufficiently prioritize it I don't know but that was something that was very upsetting to him it was very upsetting to him um both because he really didn't want to miss a minute with those kids and that's why um both the divorce itself and then the failure to have these daily call calls was very upsetting to him and so uh that's one of the factors that that led him to um I think being more aggressive in the in the divorce litigation because he felt like he had been taken advantage of and was being taken advantage of Jason Solomon also recalled one thing that was pretty remarkable that Dan marel was willing to do to keep Wendy Iden happy and to ensure he was with his children as much as possible I think that you know her mom was a big driver over filing that motion and trying to to you know I think they set it up so that um a lawyer in Miami offered Wendy a job and so I think you know her mom was very committed to getting Wendy and the kids back to South Florida and frankly Dan actually entertained the idea of agreeing to that move um when Wendy first approached him before um Wendy even filed that motion and you know Dan's idea was that he would keep his job at Florida State move to Miami and commute back every week during the semesters um which would have been you know quite the the the commute but um you know he was committed to to having equal custody with the with of the children um and you know frankly I was one of I think several friends who uh helped talk him out of agreeing to that uh that that was unfair of Wendy to ask him to move to South Florida after she was the one who asked uh for the divorce um but the point is that you know her mom I think was very influential over what Wendy was doing has there been anything that's really surprised you um as we've learned more through Charlie's trial now we've had the release of the phone calls between Donna and Charlie and now her arrest has there has there anything that's has there been anything that's surprised you or are you just kind of like you know what nothing surprises me about this anymore well I think I'd say a few things I think um Dan used to say about Wendy and her relationship to her mother um and I don't know I frankly don't remember whether this is something that he said to me before they separated or after but he occasionally made a side comment like yeah you know Wendy was never really able to cut the umbilical cord um you know referring to that very close in meshed relationship with her mother and how much her mother was involved frankly in in their in their marriage in Dan and Wendy's marriage um and so that was always an issue and of course now with the release of the phone calls with Donna the mom and Charlie um the brother you can see how in mesed they all were um with one another and and with Donna the mom um and what what tragic consequences that that that has had I think the other thing I'd say that that that relates to that um is that you know I think Wendy and the position she is in now and has been all along um she's in a tough spot I think she's at a point where now it is known to the world that her brother and her mother killed the father of her children and her ex-husband Dan marel everybody knows that so as she's going about her business talking to her friends talking to whoever she's interacting with everyone knows that and yet she has remain silent um about what she knows about what they did and now her sons know that and her sons are old enough I believe they're 14 and 13 or 14 and 15 um that they know and they know about Charlie's conviction and they must know that their grandmother's been arrested and all that and I think Wendy's at a point where she really needs to to if she can distance herself from her family and make clear that she thinks that what they did was terrible and then if she's not doing that which she's not at the moment um then that can only lead to Stronger inferences that she must have been involved and I think right now a dilemma she must have is she is she going to be able to save her relationship with her children for the long term because as they get older and as they find out that it was Wendy's family and perhaps Wendy that killed their father they're just going to cut them you know they're they're they're not going to be able to forgive her and so I think she has a real choice to make and I'm curious as to uh how she is dealing with that at this point at least publicly Wendy adelen is backing her family she says they were not involved in Dan marquel's murder do you want the culpable parties held account accountable for murdering the father of your children absolutely I'm grateful they're already in jail but not if it's your family it's not my family I mean somebody hired him right not necessarily somebody paid him I learned something this morning yeah me too you didn't want them held accountable if it was your family members didn't you tell law enforcement that that's not what I told law enforcement what did you tell law enforcement I told them that the person who did this should be held responsible and that I had nothing to do with it but on jail calls it's clear that Donna adelon is very frustrated with her daughter as is Charlie for being distant so she says this morning I thought she'd be racing over here last night dear Mom I know you are upset by the verdict but the anger directed at me is not justified I don't know how much anger don't I'm not responsible in any way for Charlie situation I am not guilty because I did not do anything wrong and I was not involved in any way with Danny's death there she was when I was interviewed by the police and testified in court I told the truth as I was required to do I cannot control how the prosecutor used my statement to Charlie's trial again I didn't say that Jason Solomon believes it's possible that other arrests could be on the horizon in D marquel's murder I also asked him about the possibility of Charlie adelen doing what his ex-girlfriend Katie mag banoa did maintaining his innocence during trial and then getting to prison and deciding to testify against others for the state I don't know what I don't know that he'll get some kind of great break from the prosecution from that but he may get something like what Katie mboa might get which is the opportunity to see daylight again um at some point the opportunity for parole even if not a reduction in sentence and that might be enough um because frankly I think he might frankly uh turn on Wendy eventually just because he just becomes increasingly bitter that he's sitting there in jail while she's out living her life Jason Solomon and some other friends started the justice for Dan marel Facebook and Twitter pages to remember Dan marel and to keep people up to date on the case some time had passed before arrests were made and the page was a way to keep the case in the public eye yeah so I think it was a few years um after his murder when they hadn't they're really hadn't been much progress at least publicly and Dan was the kind of person because of um you know the kind of job and kind of career he had had um that you know he's from um Toronto he went to school in the United States then he moved to Florida to become to become a law professor he had spent some time in Israel um here and there and so he really had friends around the world and so there were so many people around the world who couldn't believe that this had happened and wanted to know how it could have happened and wanted to believe that there was going to be Justice and so you know we just created um you know a Facebook page so that people could get any updates to the extent there were updates that people could stay informed that people could share thoughts and that people could join together as we eventually did to urge the relevant authorities um to move forward uh against um you know the relevant the relevant suspects once once more information came out the murder of Dan marel was so senseless Jason Solomon is hoping that people can look at it and learn something from it Donna adelon will be back in court next month this has ruined so many lives um you think about Charlie's own son you think about Dan Dan and Wendy's kids kids you think about the kids of sigfredo Garcia and Katie mboa both of their parents are in jail I just hope if there's any very little good that can come from this and the attention to it is that people in the future who think hey maybe I should hire a hitman to get rid of somebody who you know I think my life would be better if they were gone um doesn't usually work out that way it ruins a lot of lives besides the immorality of it um you know a lot of lives have gotten ruined in the process um the chances of people getting away with it are slim people just need to figure out other ways to work out their problems and going down this road is not good for anybody that's it for this edition of crime fix thanks so much for joining us we will be you back here tomorrow night until then have a great night

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 116,063

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: K2htIZl0nw0

Length: 17min 25sec (1045 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 28 2023