TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Court TV) — A court order has set Donna Adelson‘s upcoming murder trial for June 2025, in line with what her attorneys proposed at a December hearing.
Donna Adelson is led out of court after a hearing on Dec. 10, 2024. (Court TV via Scripps News Tallahassee)
Adelson is the fifth person facing charges for the murder of her former son-in-law, FSU law professor Dan Markel, who was gunned down in his garage on July 18, 2014. Her son, Charlie Adelson, was convicted of the murder along with his ex-girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, and hitmen Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.
READ MORE | Guilt. Graves. Ghosts: Adelson saga a modern-day Shakesperan tragedy
In an order dated Dec. 19, Judge Stephen Everett scheduled jury selection to begin on June 3, 2025, with opening statements beginning on or before Monday, June 9.
The parties will next return to court in February for a case management hearing.
Donna’s new attorneys, Jackie Fulford and Josh Zellman, have replaced her former legal team, which was abruptly forced to resign in September. Donna was previously represented by Daniel Rashbaum, who had also represented Charlie at his murder trial. On the eve of trial, Rashbaum withdrew from the case, citing conflict of interest, and his co-counsel was dismissed for the same reasons.
At December’s hearing, Fulford suggested a June 16 start date for Donna’s trial, with an expected end date of July 2.
Zellman told Judge Stephen Everett that the team is still working to get all the discovery and transcripts, and noted that the prosecutor’s office will be working with them to get what they need since Donna’s previous legal team has not given them everything.
