Docs: Suspect in Fla. prof's murder linked to ex-wife's family
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The shooting of a Florida State University law professor in his upscale neighborhood two years ago was part of a murder-for-hire scheme that may have been set in motion by a bitter divorce between the victim, Daniel Markel, and his ex-wife Wendi Adelson, according to court records released Thursday.
The documents allege that amid the dispute, Adelson's family wanted her and the children to re-locate to south Florida, a move Markel opposed.
Sigfredo Garcia was arrested last week in South Florida in connection with Markel's July 2014 death. Markel was shot in the head as he talked on his cellphone in his garage. Garcia's lawyer, Jim Lewis, says his client will plead not guilty to the murder charge filed against him.
But a Tallahassee Police Department affidavit that was unsealed by a judge contends that Garcia did not act alone, and that his alleged involvement in the case was connected to Markel's contentious divorce from Adelson, a fellow attorney.
The documents allege Garcia and another man were "enlisted to commit this egregious act against someone they did not know and had never interacted with before the murder." It does not, however, say who is suspected of arranging the killing.
David Northway, a spokesman for Tallahassee police, said that so far no additional arrests have been made. Contacted by The Associated Press, he said investigators are "actively working" the case, but he wouldn't say anything else about the scope of their investigation or anyone under scrutiny.
Adelson has not returned phone calls made to her in the past week, but in an email she sent last Friday she stated that she hoped Garcia's arrest "will finally bring some closure" to the case. She did not respond immediately to calls and an email by The AP on Thursday.
Markel and his wife divorced in 2013, but before it was finalized court records show that the two fought over Adelson's push to move her two small children to South Florida to be closer to her family. At the time of Markel's death the two were battling over money after Adelson contended that Markel did not pay her as much as he was supposed to under their divorce agreement, the records show.
The documents say Wendi Adelson filed for divorce on Sept. 10, 2012. They say Markel returned home to find "his family gone, a majority of the contents of the house missing and the paperwork for the dissolution of the marriage displayed on his bed."
Markel, the documents say, learned that Adelson had moved with the children to her parent's home in Broward County in south Florida. They returned after Markel objected, the documents say, and on June 20, 2013 a judge denied Adelson's formal request to relocate with the children. The divorce was finalized several weeks later.
The documents say email evidence indicates Adelson's family "wanted Wendi to coerce Markel into allowing the relocation to south Florida."
Markel also sparred with Adelson's mother over alleged "disparaging remarks" made about him in the presence of his young sons, after which Markel asked a judge to prohibit the mother from having unsupervised time with the couple's children.
The arrest affidavit says investigators believe a motive for the killing stemmed from "the desperate desire of the Adelson family to relocate Wendi and their children to South Florida, along with the pending court hearing that might have impacted their access to the grandchildren."
The documents also say that Adelson's brother didn't like Markel and didn't get along with him. They allege Adelson's brother was connected to Garcia because he was in a "personal relationship" with a woman they say is the mother of Garcia's children.
According to court documents, investigators contend that Garcia and another man followed Markel in a Prius - which police have long described as the suspect vehicle--throughout the morning, including from a nearby gym before he was shot. The police document does not say if someone in the Adelson family arranged the killing. Wendi Adelson now lives in Miami Beach and works for a federal judge.
Markel's shooting in the middle of the day stunned colleagues as well as residents in the affluent Tallahassee neighborhood where he lived. He died at a hospital where he was taken after being shot.
The 41-year-old Markel, who was born in Toronto, was well known in national and international legal circles. The father of two boys and a 2001 graduate of Harvard Law School, he practiced white-collar criminal defense and civil litigation before joining the Florida State law school faculty in 2005. He was tenured in 2010.