Grand jury indict Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera on first-degree murder in the execution of FSU law professor Dan Markel
41-year-old law professor Dan Markel was shot in the head, execution style, in his garage in the middle of the day, July 2014
Allegations that bitter divorce and contentious fight for child custody connected to renowned professor being gunned down in daylight
Sigfredo Garcia, 33, and Luis Rivera, 34, arrested and charged in the case
Investigators believe Markel death was a hit put out by family of ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, her attempt to move closer to family with sons after divorce was blocked by court order, prompting Adelson family to recruit Garcia
Leon County grand jurors indicted both Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera on first-degree murder charges in the death of Dan Markel, Friday
Sigfredo Garcia and Luis River both connected to the North Miami head of the Latin Kings gang. Garcia knew Markel’s ex, Wendi Adelson, through her brother, Charles, who was in a “serious relationship” with the mother of his children
State Attorney Willie Meggs said he would move to keep the grand jury as more arrests in the case are expected.
Dan Markel. Executed gangland style on his garage
Wendi Adelson, merkel’s ex-wife. The couple were involved in bitter divorce and custody battle before the law professor was slain
Leon County grand jurors have heard from Tallahassee Police investigators and a handful of civilians during the second day of proceedings in which prosecutors are seeking indictments for two suspects in the killing of Dan Markel.
Sigfredo Garcia, 34, and Luis Rivera, 33, face charges of first-degree murder if indicted by jurors. Police say the two men were hired to kill the Florida State University law professor at his home in July 2014.
Leon County grand jurors spent Thursday afternoon hearing evidence against two men accused in the killing of Dan Markel.
Proceedings are expected to extend into Friday to determine whether first-degree murder charges should be brought against Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.
The two men are suspects in Markel’s July 2014, murder for hire shooting at his Betton Hills home.
Jurors heard from Tallahassee Police investigators Thursday. Garcia, 34, was arrested May 25 near his Miami home after a lengthy investigation. He is in the Leon County Jail.
Rivera, 33, has a warrant for his arrest that is expected to be served in the coming weeks. He is a federal inmate at Coleman Federal Correctional Institution near Orlando.
Garcia’s arrest opened a flood of details in the 22-month-old case into Markel’s killing.
Arrest papers for the Miami man say he and Rivera were “enlisted” to kill Markel, a prominent legal scholar and Florida State University law professor. Police say the two men drove from Miami in a rented Toyota Prius, killed Markel then returned to South Florida.
Documents implicate family members of Markel’s ex-wife in his slaying. Tallahassee Police the killing is linked to the fallout from his acrimonious divorce from Wendi Adelson.A bitter divorce, a contentious fight for child custody, a renowned professor gunned down in his garage in daylight. Could they be connected? Investigators think so.
The first unsealed document in the 2014 slaying of Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel lays out what investigators believe was a hit called for by the family of Markel’s ex-wife, South Florida native Wendi Adelson.
The Adelson family’s “desperate desire” to move Adelson and her sons to South Florida sparked the killing, prosecutors allege.
The two killers are believed to be the North Miami head of the Latin Kings gang and a Miami Beach felon, whose children’s mother is now in a “serious relationship” with the ex-wife’s brother.
The crime scene: Dan Markel was ‘executed’ in his driveway in broad daylight, July 2014
Markel was shot in the head in his garage in the middle of the day in July 2014, shocking his upscale Tallahassee neighborhood.
Wendi Adelson and Daniel Markel married in 2006, while she was a third-year law student at the University of Miami and he was a criminal law professor at FSU. Six years and two children later, it ended.
“Markel reportedly returned home from a business trip to find his family gone, a majority of the contents of the house missing and the paperwork for dissolution of marriage displayed on his bed,” according to the warrant.
Investigators said Adelson took her sons to her parents in Coral Springs, but at Markel’s protest returned to Leon County to wait out the legal proceedings. The fight over custody turned nasty, investigators contend, with emails from Adelson’s mother, Donna, encouraging Wendi to “coerce Markel into allowing the relocation to South Florida.”
Markel fired back, asking a judge to stop his ex-mother-in-law from unsupervised contact with the children.
“Markel claimed Donna made disparaging remarks about him to his sons,” read the warrant.
The couple was due for a potentially nasty court battle over the motion when Markel was murdered.
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