The prosecution presents closing arguments in the Dan Merkel murder trial

[00:00:00] to their arguments they're intended to aid you in understanding the case each side has been given [00:00:05] sufficient time but the state is entitled to a rebuttal argument after the defense has presented [00:00:12] its closing argument to you okay so we start with the closing arguments at this time and the state [00:00:18] proceeds first and ms kappelman you may proceed thank you your honor may it please the court [00:00:48] this is dan markel dan markel is the only victim in this case this is what he looked like before this [00:01:00] defendant sent her friends up to see him and this is what he looked like afterwards [00:01:08] the evidence has shown that on july 18 2014 this community suffered a tragic blow [00:01:16] when this revered law professor colleague son father brother and friend was gunned down in broad [00:01:26] daylight in his own home and what enemies had dan markel made that set his brutal fate into motion [00:01:37] his own family and what offense had mr markel committed against these people [00:01:44] refusing to let his children be taken away from him objecting to them disparaging him to his kids [00:01:53] what was the motive for this heinous murder the motive is clear it's undisputed that the divorce [00:02:01] between wendy adelson and dan markel was a particularly nasty one look at states exhibit 59 this is their divorce file [00:02:12] over 700 pages thick they fought over everything from the education the religious training [00:02:23] of their children down to a tennis racket [00:02:30] in january of 2013 wendy adelson filed a motion to allow her to relocate to south florida [00:02:37] with her two children ages two and three at the time as one basis for this request wendy adelson cites [00:02:44] that the wife's parents reside in coral springs and the wife's brother resides 20 minutes away the [00:02:50] children are very close to the wife's parents the husband has also created a hostile work environment [00:02:56] for the wife at the fsu school of law wendy adelson viewed herself as stuck in tallahassee a word used to [00:03:07] her as well as the wife at the house on the witness stand the other day and also mentioned in her pleadings on page 152 of that exhibit [00:03:15] in markel's answer he seeks continued equal time sharing in tallahassee he seeks sole parental responsibility on issues related to the education [00:03:25] religion and medical upbringing of these children markel's dedication to these kids especially in these areas is undisputed [00:03:33] he was devout in his beliefs and felt strongly that his boys should be raised in an environment that observed the jewish [00:03:40] traditions and he was committed to the jewish faith a fact that was exploited by donna adelson [00:03:47] who suggested that wendy could threaten to convert her boys to catholicism in an effort to try to [00:03:52] bully markel into agreeing to the relocation [00:03:55] she also suggested that she and harvey adelson and charlie adelson would chip in on a million dollar [00:04:03] bribe to buy markel's agreement to this move what a bargain they ended up getting to solve this problem [00:04:10] for only a hundred thousand dollars consider the venom in the emails that donna adelson wrote to wendy [00:04:18] referring to dan markel as an asshole a bastard a religious zealot and much more a sentiment that [00:04:26] continued to fester and grow within that family when on june 20th 2013 a judge entered an order denying [00:04:34] wendy adelson's motion for relocation this is the summer of 2013 the time frame in which charlie adelson began [00:04:43] looking into all options to resolve his sister's relocation problem including hiring a hitman to [00:04:50] kill dan markel the divorce was final on july 31st 2013 but the anger and bitterness continued [00:05:00] even increasing litigation continued as both parties filed motions alleging that the other was in [00:05:06] violation of the marital settlement agreement then on march 26 2014 less than four months prior to his murder [00:05:15] dan markel files his counter motion for enforcement of msa on parenting issues and motion for contempt and [00:05:23] sanctions again alleging that wendy adelson was failing to facilitate communication between him and the kids [00:05:31] and that donna adelson was disparaging him he alleges on that motion that in three separate occasions on [00:05:40] november of 20 in november of 2013 the kids informed him that their grandmother donna adelson was saying [00:05:47] things like grandma says you're stupid she says you're trying to take her sun shines away from her and grandma hates you [00:05:57] dan markel requests the court to enjoin the former wife from allowing the maternal grandmother to have [00:06:03] unsupervised time with the children and to impose appropriate limitations to safeguard the children [00:06:08] from being subjected to disparaging comments about their father and as we know this was an issue this is a hot [00:06:16] button grandma can't have access to the kids unsupervised if this thing gets granted but we know it never got [00:06:23] decided it never got litigated because dan markel was murdered before the hearing so back in the summer [00:06:31] of 2013 when wendy adelson's motion for relocation was initially denied charlie adelson looked into [00:06:37] having dan markel killed but as the defense correctly points out charlie adelson didn't even know kathleen [00:06:44] magbanua back in 2013 and hence the murder did not happen back in 2013 the murder did not happen until [00:06:53] katherine magbanua came into the picture the murder did not happen until katherine magbanua made it happen [00:07:00] and what about the timing of when wendy adelson stood in the kitchen and told jeffrey lacoste [00:07:06] can i tell you something in confidence my brother did seriously look into having dan markel killed [00:07:13] that statement was made in 2014 just five days before dan markel was murdered by a hitman [00:07:22] so the seed for this conspiracy was planted when charlie adelson began looking into committing the murder [00:07:28] in the summer of 2013 after the judge ruled against wendy's relocation and it continued to grow when all [00:07:35] efforts to coerce and bully dan markel into permitting this relocation failed [00:07:44] then it further festered with this motion to have no contact with grandma unsupervised [00:07:51] and as wendy relayed to jeffrey lacoste just five days before the murder she was never going to be [00:07:57] able to resolve this problem unless something happened to danny but this conspiracy took root when charlie [00:08:07] adelson met somebody that could get it done someone who was in the position a position of trust in his life [00:08:14] a person that was his girlfriend this defendant and katherine may vanua had ties to the kind of people [00:08:22] who were willing and able to walk up to a complete stranger and point a gun at his head and pull the trigger twice [00:08:33] and guess what wasn't a problem once dan markel was gone [00:08:37] relocation a couple days after the murder wendy adelson and her boys are living within walking distance [00:08:45] from the adelson residence at the icon their names were changed from markel to adelson [00:08:53] and just like that their father was erased from their lives two and three years old [00:09:00] no more fights over kosher diets no more squabbles over marital assets and no more dan markel [00:09:09] and they might have gotten away with it if it wasn't for mr geiger [00:09:13] who bothered to be a good neighbor on july 18 2014 and investigate a situation that was really none of [00:09:19] his business because something just didn't seem right his description of that prius was critical to [00:09:26] this investigation that identification of that suspect vehicle a prius that would later be detected following [00:09:33] dan markel earlier that day at the gym they might have gotten away with it if not for the tireless efforts of [00:09:40] law enforcement to cull through the mountains of records and data that were collected in this case [00:09:46] really just looking for needles in a haystack and they found a few for example they found sigfredo [00:09:54] garcia's phone number amongst the hundreds of numbers present at or near the gym that day [00:10:01] they cross-referenced that number with all the call detail records collected from all the adelson's which [00:10:07] bore a single hit call from sigfredo garcia to harvey adelson on july 1st 2014. an ill-fated attempt to [00:10:18] confront who garcia thought was his wife's new boyfriend but who turned out to be the dad of the boyfriend [00:10:26] he got the wrong dr adelson and left a nasty message on the dad's cell phone causing much [00:10:33] embarrassment to this defendant that was on july 1st 2014. another needle in the haystack example is the [00:10:41] tracking of garcia and rivera's cell phones to particular tollbooths at particular times to locate [00:10:48] one particular sun pass attached to one particular prius which led to a rental contract bearing [00:10:55] information implicating both luis rivera and sigfredo garcia [00:11:01] a third example is tracking down the rental car contract for the first trip [00:11:05] and being able to track this defendant's phone to the rental car place at the same time that that [00:11:11] car is being rented out by the airport we discussed in jury selection that although you will not be asked [00:11:18] to decide the guilt of anyone other than this defendant it's going to be necessary for you to understand the [00:11:25] roles of each person that's involved in each player that's involved in this case in order to understand [00:11:31] how it is that this defendant fits into this conspiracy and we get to her through these people in two ways [00:11:38] or by down by two different paths path one the prius the prius led garcia to garcia and rivera and those two [00:11:48] led to mcbanewa notice how we get it right in reference to garcia we get it right in reference [00:11:54] to rivera we get it right in reference to charlie adelson and you've heard quite a lot about the [00:12:00] government's theory they call us the government because nobody likes the government and per the defense [00:12:05] our theory is completely correct in all regards except for one we got it all right except for her [00:12:13] got it wrong on her everything is not as it appears when it comes to her the defense has characterized [00:12:21] this investigation as biased lewis rivera and jessica rodriguez are liars the cops and prosecutors [00:12:27] are all crooked but please remember that what the lawyers say is not evidence you must look to the [00:12:34] evidence alone in deciding your verdict and what the evidence has shown is that we had a law enforcement [00:12:41] team that had a lot of work to do with a lot of details and a lot of pieces that we had to sort of [00:12:48] try to distill for you into one cognizable presentation and that's what we've attempted to do [00:12:58] the law enforcement team managed to pull a single prius out of a haystack of priuses and tie it to two men [00:13:04] one of whom is the defendant's children's father and the other of whom took the witness stand and told [00:13:10] you that she's the mastermind behind this whole thing the second path this investigation took was the motive [00:13:16] who wanted to kill dan markel the ex-wife and the in-laws hated his guts and are also connected to this [00:13:23] defendant the woman who knew people who could get a thing like this done this is the defendant's day in [00:13:30] court and we talked at jury selection about the importance of focusing on her and her role i know that's been [00:13:36] hard to do because the proceedings sometimes felt like we were talking about other people the whole time [00:13:42] and i encourage you to consider the fact that it's easy to point at an empty chair it's easy [00:13:49] to pile on to bad actors when those folks are not represented in court and i think one of the lawyers [00:13:56] pointed out oh their lawyers are out there in the audience watching and you know it suits the defendant's [00:14:04] purposes in this trial to pile on to everybody else everybody else is guilty guilty guilty guilty [00:14:11] that one did it that one did it but not me i don't know anything [00:14:17] you better believe that when it is time for one of those other actors to be tried in court [00:14:23] it'll be a dog fight just like it was here except it'll be she's guilty i'm not i didn't do anything [00:14:30] she acted on her own all i did was make a joke and she went hauled off and hired a hitman [00:14:38] so let's review what we can agree on in this case we got it right that the motive for killing [00:14:42] dan markel was for the benefit of wendy adelson we got it right that the in-laws were desperate to [00:14:47] move her to south florida and had the money and the audacity to actually do this kind of thing [00:14:54] we got it right that charlie paid with his staple money and we got it right that lewis rivera and [00:14:59] sufredo garcia were paid to kill dan markel it's natural for you to find yourself wondering you know [00:15:06] what's going on with all these other people you know it's okay it's natural it's human for you to [00:15:11] have feelings and emotions about the case the people involved lawyers involved you can think [00:15:18] lewis rivera should not have gotten a deal or lewis rivera's deal was too great you can think other [00:15:25] people should be arrested other people should be prosecuted that's fine you just have to separate [00:15:30] those emotions out and weigh your verdict base your verdict solely on the evidence in this case against [00:15:37] this defendant as we talked about in jury selection you're asked to make a wise and legal decision [00:15:47] solely about her role in this was this crime committed and was she one of the people that committed this [00:15:54] crime anyone else is for another day and another jury but you just can't talk about the case without [00:16:02] talking about all of them it's the adelson's that had a motive to get this murder done so that wendy [00:16:08] could move you will not be asked to decide about them but the evidence is clear that the thing was [00:16:15] ultimately done for wendy sigfredo garcia and lewis rivera were told that it was for wendy they believed [00:16:22] they were doing it for wendy possibly because that's true i mean ultimately was for wendy but also possibly [00:16:31] because the person that hired them this defendant was walling charlie off from them [00:16:39] walling sigfredo off from knowing that the money was coming from charlie the boyfriend the dentist [00:16:49] the tv is the first piece of code that we hear in this case charlie adelson got wendy a tv as a divorce [00:16:56] present as a cheaper alternative to hiring a hitman then the same tv is her alibi for the murder [00:17:03] a service appointment that her mother set up for her from south florida or at least there's some indication [00:17:08] of that and then on the wire when donna adelson is speaking in code in that first call weird thing to do [00:17:15] after being approached by us an alleged gangster she says this tv is going to cost about five [00:17:24] referring to the five thousand dollars on the note that the undercover handed her [00:17:28] it's obvious they're referring to their conspiracy and hearkening back to this tv as code for the murder [00:17:34] of dan markel the players in this case are very smart the crime in this case was given a lot of thought [00:17:43] and preparation we know that the seed was planted for this thing almost a year or more before it came to [00:17:49] fruition they thought of everything a clever tv related alibi for wendy a frame job for lacoste bullet bourbon [00:18:01] and they insulated themselves by hiring this defendant as a middleman between them the ones that wanted it [00:18:08] done and the shooters everyone on the board in this case had some limits to their knowledge and that [00:18:20] was really smart that made this case much harder to break but don't let the way that they thought they [00:18:28] would get away with this case be the way they get away with this case let's talk about lewis rivera [00:18:36] the defense seeks to discredit his testimony as an extremely bad dude he's you know got the status as [00:18:44] a felon and a gang member and those are things you should definitely consider when you're weighing the [00:18:48] credibility of a witness but please consider that his resume as a bad guy is precisely why he was selected [00:18:56] by the other parties to do this thing i did not hire him to be a part of this case i didn't hire him to [00:19:04] be a witness and wouldn't have if i had a choice that was done by this defendant this defendant and her [00:19:12] husband selected lewis rivera to be a part of this gruesome job rivera is not my friend from childhood [00:19:21] he's not the guy that my husband spends all his time with he's not the person that i hired to do a [00:19:25] murder i did not choose him but rivera is here because he was willing to cooperate willing to cut a sweet deal [00:19:36] to tell the truth he had one job tell the truth that's all he has to do [00:19:44] you know he was chosen not only because he's got the right credentials with his gang status and his [00:19:50] felon status and you know he's also trusted he is a lifelong friend of sigfredo garcia and they [00:19:57] didn't think he would roll they didn't think he would talk they thought he could be trusted [00:20:03] his gang status comes with a code of silence that made him more attractive as a candidate to do this murder [00:20:08] with sigfredo garcia and according to the defense he got this amazing deal of the century to give [00:20:15] testimony that i or someone else spoon fed to him first there is no evidence of this to the contrary [00:20:22] rivera denies it all the law enforcement involved has denied it and with his limited ability to read [00:20:29] you must ask yourself if you even think it's reasonable that he could study the materials i mean [00:20:34] y'all have seen what this case is like and provide some kind of fake regurgitated frame job on katherine [00:20:44] magdanoa and also have the wherewithal to pepper in details that could later be verified second if it's [00:20:55] true that i or the law enforcement on the case are so unethical so desperate to try this case a couple more [00:21:01] times that we were willing to risk our careers and suborn perjury why on earth didn't we just spoon [00:21:08] feed him all the names on this this poster so that we could just you know get on with it [00:21:17] the actual only condition of his cooperation deal the sole thing he had to do was tell the truth [00:21:22] cooperate nobody put a name in his mouth nobody told him what to say [00:21:31] in jury selection we talked about all the different types of evidence and you each agreed to keep an [00:21:37] open mind to all kinds of evidence so how do you judge the credibility of a bad dude like lewis rivero [00:21:45] this particular bad dude has now given 10 statements in this case over a six-year period about events that [00:21:51] happened eight years ago so there's gonna be inconsistencies you have to evaluate the inconsistencies and say [00:21:59] is this an important one or not does this create a reasonable doubt or not and only you can do that [00:22:06] ask yourself if he was honest and straightforward in answering the attorney's questions [00:22:12] compare that to katherine mcbanewa's testimony ask yourself if he seemed to have an accurate memory [00:22:18] about things he was testifying to and compare that to katherine mcbanewa's testimony in this case [00:22:25] how could he have known about the shot fired through the passenger floorboard of the prius [00:22:31] because he was there and he saw it the fact is that wasn't in any police report that wasn't in any [00:22:38] 2020 and how could he have known that dan markell was scheduled to leave town the next day [00:22:44] the day after the murder a fact that wendy adelson confirmed because the defendant told him that [00:22:51] that wasn't in any police report that wasn't on 2020 [00:22:56] they were told they had to get it done for that reason you all got to get it done today because [00:23:01] he's going out of town tomorrow rivera testified that the defendant hired sigfredo garcia to kill [00:23:07] dan markell and that sigfredo garcia hired him to assist in the murder and defendant was responsible for [00:23:15] what getting the money and paying them when the job was done and jessica rodriguez further confirmed that [00:23:21] defendant was involved in the money drop she said to sigfredo garcia did you give him the package [00:23:28] according to jessica rodriguez this defendant acknowledged that package said to garcia did you [00:23:33] give it to him jessica was nosy and wanted to know what was in there defendant says i don't know [00:23:40] but the defense not interested jessica assumed it was drugs why wasn't the defendant defendant [00:23:47] interested in knowing what was in there she's so anti-drug and they're dropping off the suspicious [00:23:53] package for lewis rivera that you know she's not interested in knowing what are talking about was in [00:23:59] there so these are examples of direct evidence the testimony of jessica rodriguez the testimony of [00:24:05] lewis rivera but you must also consider lewis rivera's testimony in light of all the other evidence in [00:24:11] the case the phone evidence is consistent with rivera's testimony the phone evidence ties both [00:24:17] garcia and rivera to the murder trip and further evidences katherine magdanua as the middleman between [00:24:23] the killers and the adelsons all right so let's go to june of 2014 we've got a rental car that that month [00:24:32] there's phone evidence consistent with the defendant taking segredo garcia to comfort rental on june 2 [00:24:38] 2014 at 8 53 she's there from about 8 53 to eight uh i don't know 8 58 i think maybe a little longer [00:24:48] where he rented a silver sedan that was due back on june 5 2014 at 8 50 pm because it was rented at [00:24:58] approximately 8 50 pm could this be a coincidence could she have just been out near the airport [00:25:04] visiting a friend while unbeknownst to her sigfredo garcia was renting a car at comfort rental car [00:25:10] to take to tallahassee to do a murder of her boyfriend's brother-in-law could be a coincidence [00:25:20] it's possible but if so she drove all the way out there only to hang out with kenya for a few minutes [00:25:27] all the while talking to charlie adelson on the phone in fact she talks to charlie adelson [00:25:32] for 25 minutes all the way home from the rental car place only an hour after running the car segredo [00:25:38] garcia gets a ticket in the vehicle and ends up swapping it out for a different car the next day now [00:25:43] why would he swap it out if he got a ticket after the first trip to tallahassee the rental car's last [00:25:49] known location before its return was this defendant's home so that rental car was at her consistently at [00:25:56] her residence and then at 4 30 pm the next day she travels all the way back over to the airport i guess [00:26:03] to see kenya again for 20 more minutes consistent with the rental car return all right so that that's the [00:26:13] june rental car let's talk about this first trip lewis rivera's phone shows the first trip to tallahassee [00:26:21] on june 4th 2014. now remember that the cell phone provider had no location information at all for [00:26:27] sigfredo garcia for the early for any early june events in 2014 so we can't put him anywhere we can't [00:26:35] say he's there can't say he wasn't there but we do know that he rented a car for the trip received a [00:26:43] citation while driving that first car like we just talked about and that that rental car pinged in [00:26:49] tallahassee at winthrop park next to dan markell's house where rivera says they waited while scoping out [00:26:56] dan markell when they returned to miami arriving in the early morning hours of june 6 2014 [00:27:06] the gps data on the vehicle is consistent with traveling back to miami along the same route as [00:27:12] in time as rivera's phone so we only have one gps location on the way back and it's consistent and as [00:27:21] i said before upon returning to miami the rental car goes to the defendant's residence and then [00:27:26] the gps ping puts the car at her home at 8 48 a.m that next morning during the first trip to [00:27:35] tallahassee the defendant and sigfredo garcia have 16 total communications or attempted communications [00:27:42] over the course of approximately 48 hours which is how long approximately that first trip was [00:27:49] the defendant also calls lewis rivera during that june trip which is unusual on june 5th 2014 she dials [00:27:56] sigfredo garcia at 10 57 and 10 58 pm when she can't reach him she then dials this number ending in [00:28:04] 6615 a number that she had saved in her phone as tato and that was at 10 59 pm it's unusual because this is the [00:28:14] first time in the records that we have where this defendant is attempting to communicate with rivera [00:28:20] at all it's important because it suggests that she knew sigfredo and lewis rivera were together [00:28:27] sigfredo garcia then returns her call at 1101 at that time the two men are in the rental car headed back [00:28:34] from tallahassee where they had been for the purpose of surveilling and possibly murdering dan markel [00:28:40] her boyfriend's problem relative all right let's talk about the july trip preparations [00:28:47] charlie and the defendant have dinner together on july 14th so remember he's killed on the 18th [00:28:54] a couple days before on july 14 2014 charlie adelson and the defendant have dinner we know from the [00:29:01] cell records and icloud cloud messages that they made these plans to eat near the defendant's residence [00:29:08] and then there are multiple communications between the defendant and garcia that night between midnight [00:29:13] and 2 a.m the next morning july 15th sigfredo garcia calls comfort rental car that's the same [00:29:21] rental place from the first trip at 9 0 9 a.m and then calls the hybrid save gas rental car place at 4 30 [00:29:29] p.m sigfredo garcia and lewis rivera then communicate several times and then lewis rivera and sigfredo garcia [00:29:36] rent the prius at 6 15 pm then sigfredo garcia leaves shrimp's house that's stephanie carmona out [00:29:45] near the beach and moves toward defendant's house so several communications over the course of that [00:29:51] evening between 6 15 and 9 30 between sigfredo garcia and the defendant but the communications [00:29:58] between the two stop at 9 30 pm consistent with them being together we don't usually text and call each [00:30:05] other when we're in the same room and their phones are consistent with being at katherine meg vanila's [00:30:11] that night the prius also pings at her residence at 10 25 pm on july 15th all right so let's go to our [00:30:21] july trip sigfredo garcia and lewis rivera traveled to tallahassee on july 16th at around 2 p.m getting in [00:30:29] around 1 a.m on july 17 2014. rivera testified that garcia was talking to and getting instructions from [00:30:40] katherine magbana magbana quite a bit during this trip she says things like don't do anything stupid [00:30:47] make sure you do everything right although this trip was only about 36 hours from the time they left [00:30:54] miami to the time they returned to miami there were 22 phone events between garcia and the defendant in [00:31:02] that time frame and on july 17th the defendant also says you have to get it done tomorrow you have to get [00:31:10] it done because he's going to be leaving town as we know dan markell was scheduled to fly to new york [00:31:15] city on july 19th to visit his girlfriend it's hard to imagine how rivera could have been in possession of [00:31:22] this piece of information if the info had not flowed as we see repeatedly in our communication records [00:31:30] from charlie to katie to garcia to rivera and rivera says he posted a picture on instagram and [00:31:37] the defendant called and said take it down you idiots you know you put you make a post on social media [00:31:44] they there can be data associated with that that can tie you to where you are and we don't want [00:31:48] anybody to know you're in tallahassee he obliged and removed the post which is why we were not able [00:31:54] to retrieve it from instagram if you look at the slides for the july trip communication [00:32:00] there is a call from this defendant to lewis rivera at 11 40 p.m again this is unusual because this is [00:32:07] only the second time of anywhere in the records where we see her attempting to call lewis rivera with the [00:32:14] first time being the june trip she doesn't get an answer and she calls garcia a few seconds later when [00:32:20] she can't get in touch with garcia she calls rivera again at 11 41. why was she calling rivera and then [00:32:28] calling garcia when she couldn't get in touch with them because she knew they were together [00:32:33] she was calling to say take the stupid thing down they were doing something stupid just as she predicted [00:32:41] when she can't get one of them she starts calling the other one all right so friday july 18 2014 this is [00:32:48] the murder day the prius arrives at premier at 9 16 a.m the last phone communication communications at all [00:32:57] between either one of the men that came to do the killing was at 9 58 a.m when their phones get turned [00:33:04] off and remain off until after the murder the prius pulls out of the gym parking lot following markel [00:33:10] toward his residence at 10 38 a.m the bus video shows the prius turning on tibetan road really close [00:33:17] to the markel residence at 10 44 a.m whereby they pulled right up behind markel in the driveway [00:33:24] executed him in cold blood hop back in the car and they're off again they're on the bus video [00:33:32] leaving town at 10 55 the 9-1-1 call from mr geiger comes in at 11 or 1101 the first phone call [00:33:42] either sigfredo garcia or lewis rivera make after completing this murder for hire is katherine may banel [00:33:52] sanfredo garcia calls the defendant and says it's done defendant says i know we don't know how she knew [00:34:00] maybe they had their phones off and then all of a sudden they called and when she saw it ring she knew [00:34:06] oh it's got to be them telling me it's done maybe somebody gave her information before they called [00:34:11] that it was done we do not have that piece of information in the evidence the defendant assures [00:34:19] the killers that they will get their money they are going to get their money the next day when we look [00:34:25] at the phone activity from all the parties from midnight before the murder through the first call [00:34:31] after the murder and you can see the murder designated by a red line in this slide we see a flurry of calls [00:34:39] between our people of interest and it's in that pattern donna to charlie to katie to garcia and back the same [00:34:48] way then we see the killers on an atm camera in pembroke pines florida the atm photos show both garcia [00:34:57] and rivera and rivera and the prius taking some money out of the bank at four no sorry 6 46 pm [00:35:09] the location after this atm image is consistent with both men being at the rivera residence at about [00:35:16] 7 pm so where is katherine magbanua once garcia and rivera arrived back in miami after the murder [00:35:25] friday evening she's speaking to charlie adelson she's speaking to sufredo garcia she's also speaking to [00:35:32] yindra after 8 46 pm she leaves her home and travels towards rivera's residence getting there at about 9 46 pm [00:35:43] and on the way there she drops her kids off at yindra mascara's residence this was unusual she didn't [00:35:49] usually leave her kids anywhere or anywhere overnight and it was documented the date of this particular event [00:35:56] on miss mascara's social media remember she had to go refresh her memory as to when that photo was taken [00:36:03] of the kids at her house and came back to tell you that the night that those kids stayed at her house was [00:36:09] july 18 2014 the night after dan markell was killed the night she needed to go to charlie's to get the money [00:36:17] to pay them the next morning there's a text earlier in the day where she's making plans to stay at charlie's [00:36:24] house that night she turns her phone off on the way and it stays off for almost 11 hours 11 hours of time [00:36:32] when her kids are in the care of yindra while she's with charlie this is about 14 hours later after the [00:36:41] shooting and this is about the time that dan markell is pronounced deceased at the hospital here in [00:36:46] tallahassee succumbing to the terrible injuries that he sustained when he was shot [00:36:52] when the defendant's phone pops back up after spending the night at charlie's the night of the [00:36:57] murder it's saturday morning and she's headed back south from charlie's house toward the money drop [00:37:04] location all right so let's talk about this july 19th the money drop we've got a 45 minute call flurry [00:37:12] that's observed and again it's that same sort of pattern of communication that we're seeing over and [00:37:16] over again the defendant's phone is powered on and she starts calling garcia at 9 44 a.m she calls him [00:37:24] five times and texts him as she's driving south from charlie's home when she can't reach garcia [00:37:30] she calls a number that she had programmed into her phone as jessica flaka that was at 9 47 a.m then that [00:37:39] number that jessica flaka um number starts trying to reach rivera as well and simultaneously rivera [00:37:48] starts trying to reach garcia and the defendant continues to try to reach the guard try to reach [00:37:53] out to garcia as well remember he's out at shrimp's house then rivera calls [00:38:00] the defendant so that's the call where everyone's like oh [00:38:05] he he called her she didn't call him but a lot of things happened before he called her so he did talk [00:38:12] to her that seems to be undisputed and defendant now has a working number for rivera because she's actually [00:38:19] talked to him on this new phone this phone number that he had that he brought to tallahassee [00:38:25] she then calls him back twice after their last call and he his phone remember goes out to shrimps [00:38:32] and then comes back where they're all consistent with being at rivera and jessica's residence and [00:38:38] that's when the money drop occurs phones put them all there for the money drop that wasn't in any police [00:38:45] report that's something we got from lewis rivera and we're able to verify with evidence we learned [00:38:51] about the money drop from rivera and then called jessica and said hey did this happen and she said oh [00:38:55] yeah that did happen sergeant corbett testified about lewis rivera's locations the morning of the money [00:39:01] drop when the call flurry began so rivera's phone starts out there seems to be some dispute about this [00:39:08] it's consistent with his residence or the barber shop which are close together [00:39:13] when this call for it begins then it travels out to shrimp's house [00:39:19] where garcia was and then they all converge back together at rivera's place at 10 34 a.m [00:39:29] okay so the defendant does not have any activity on her phone during this money drop time 10 31 to [00:39:37] 11 23 a.m that morning consistent with her going inside rivera's for a few minutes seeing the baby [00:39:45] the package getting delivered and then going on their way 11 23 is her next communication and by then [00:39:51] she's just south of rivera's consistent with heading to yendra mascara's residence and we know [00:39:57] why she's there she's got to pick up her kids where she had dropped them off the night before [00:40:03] and when she picks the kids up what does she say to yendra charlie adelson's brother-in-law was in a car accident [00:40:11] all right so let's talk about the financial evidence [00:40:16] katherine magbanawa began getting checks from the adelson institute two months after markell's murder [00:40:22] is it reasonable that charlie adelson would put her on the payroll two months after this murder if they [00:40:29] were in a status where they had broken up and he was ghosting her if she had nothing to do with killing [00:40:36] she received over 17 000 from the adelson institute over the course of a year and a half [00:40:43] for doing something that is yet to be determined despite my co-counsel's best efforts she didn't [00:40:50] work in the office she wasn't she doesn't seem to be to have been making phone calls on the adelson [00:40:56] institute's behalf or charlie adelson's behalf never went to the office on weekends didn't clean up we've [00:41:03] established that the cleaner uppers was a husband and wife team as far as we can tell she made an appointment to [00:41:10] get a website a month before her first paycheck was received many of her checks that she received from [00:41:17] the adelson institute were sequential meaning written in numerical order so a bunch of checks at once [00:41:23] she got six sequential checks two times in just a few months other adelson uh employees said that they [00:41:31] had gotten a couple i think they said either two or three sequential checks before [00:41:36] but never six and that was only if the adelson's were going to be going on vacation and miss the pay [00:41:41] period it should be noted that adelson institute is you know they stopped issuing her checks after [00:41:48] garcia was arrested you heard about the breast augmentation so a month after the defendant was [00:41:55] added to the adelson institute payroll for the supposed purpose of getting medicaid insurance for her kids [00:42:02] she paid forty four hundred dollars in cash for a breast augmentation surgery this expenditure was [00:42:10] just three months after the murder there is no corresponding cash withdrawal from her account for [00:42:15] the purchase and note that june said charlie was had admitted to paying for one of them [00:42:23] yendra told said i guess she said that the defendant told her that garcia had paid for them and the defendant [00:42:32] told you on the stand that that she paid for him and had saved up for them [00:42:42] defendant's highest source of income in 2014 and 2015 is cash cash was only 23 percent of her total [00:42:49] income in 2013 but jumped up to 64 percent of her total income as shown here in 2014. in 2015 cash checks [00:42:59] from the adelson institute made up 71 percent of her total income that year in 2014 she deposits 46 [00:43:09] thousand dollars three times as much money as the year before the murder and twice as much as the year [00:43:16] after the murder she deposits thirteen thousand two hundred dollars in cash in the month following [00:43:22] the murder that's her big spike that's more than she deposited in the entire previous year [00:43:32] whatever she was doing or not doing at the clubs she is very unlucky if she's not guilty because [00:43:40] she happened to have the most incredible month of her life financially immediately following the murder of dan markell [00:43:50] all right i want to talk about the wiretap when the undercover hands donna adelson an article [00:43:56] about her murdered son-in-law and insinuates that she was involved and then tries to extort five [00:44:02] thousand dollars out of her does she go straight to the police does she give law enforcement this valuable [00:44:10] information that could be used to solve the myrtle the murder of her son uh former son-in-law [00:44:20] i mean this guy that approached her supposedly was involved in the murder so first of all he's a gangster [00:44:25] he's dangerous he's murdered one of her family members or knows someone who has or has information [00:44:30] about this murder that's unsolved in her family and she does not call the police [00:44:38] she calls charlie adelson she puts that paper without even looking at looking at an indoor purse [00:44:45] goes gets the kids goes back into the icon calls charlie adelson and says [00:44:52] this tv is going to be about five it has to do with the two of us they mentioned an ex-girlfriend [00:44:59] does charlie adelson say an ex-girlfriend who's ex-girlfriend my ex-girlfriend which ex-girlfriend [00:45:08] he doesn't have to ask that the undercover does put katie's name in this he does say katie [00:45:13] but donna doesn't say katie and he doesn't have to ask which ex-girlfriend they don't even say your [00:45:21] son they just they mention an ex-girlfriend they just they mention an ex-girlfriend and he goes straight to her [00:45:40] once he charlie adelson meets with his mother and gets the details and the paper with the undercover's phone number [00:45:50] he goes straight to kathy mcbanua they do this meeting at dolce vita and the defendant [00:45:56] in dolce she she took the stand and she claims she does not know there was a murder [00:46:01] she never even knew there was a murder in this case not just she didn't have anything to do with it [00:46:07] so y'all have to like listen to those wiretaps and consider that as her defense [00:46:14] she's supposedly doing and saying all these things with no information whatsoever but there was even a [00:46:20] murder and this is a college educated woman charlie adelson says this is either someone trying to [00:46:29] blackmail his family or it's the cops working undercover i mean that's that much you can definitely [00:46:34] i can hear it i hope y'all can hear it i don't know why she can't hear it why doesn't she say [00:46:42] why are the cops approaching your mother is there a reason i mean what's this about [00:46:51] did your mother do something that the police would be investigating [00:46:58] does he even have to explain to her like my brother-in-law was killed in tallahassee there's [00:47:04] suspicion on us and i suspect this could be law enforcement undercover operation trying to [00:47:10] investigate the murder it could be somebody that has information about the murder that's [00:47:14] affiliated with these killers he doesn't have to explain any of that to her [00:47:20] and they say oh well maybe he did it in the car before they went in there but she says she never [00:47:24] knew about a murder at all until garcia's arrest in may [00:47:30] charlie adelson says if they had any evidence we'd already be at the airport by now [00:47:37] if they bug your phone you're still not talking about any of this what else would she have not [00:47:44] been talking about other than the murder of dan markell and how could she be talking about it [00:47:51] or not talking about it if she didn't know a darn thing about it [00:47:57] charlie begins explaining how you have to be able to put the person at the scene at the time in order to be [00:48:03] able to prove the crime you can't just say my brother shot jfk you have to have evidence [00:48:10] so he's reassuring her we're good we're not in this even if you sat in the prius it doesn't matter [00:48:21] you know a car just because a car went to do a crime and you sat in it previously [00:48:25] is not going to make a difference they're not going to be able to prove you did the crime you're not [00:48:29] going to be able to prove you robbed the burger king [00:48:35] charlie says it's one of two scenarios so number one being the cops number two being [00:48:42] a legitimate blackmail effort and at some point a third possibility is discussed which is [00:48:48] maybe this is just somebody who read something in the papers and saw an opportunity to try to go [00:48:53] you know up to my mother and see if they could make some money and that is why it was important to give [00:49:00] details and information in the bump because otherwise they would have discounted it as [00:49:05] not being legitimate so what really does worry them and think that this might be coming from the inside [00:49:14] is the fact that this person has information and they talk about that charlie says whoever it is [00:49:21] knows information this person knows information so katie they'll be back [00:49:28] and she says there's not a lot of people that know much about [00:49:34] can't hear what she says what is she what could she be referring to not a lot of people that know much [00:49:39] about what [00:49:50] a lot of people that know much about what [00:49:54] she doesn't know she can't tell you no memory of it [00:49:57] no information [00:50:00] about what happened in that restaurant no memory of a man coming to you and trying to get you [00:50:09] to have contact with some thugs that approached his mother to blackmail her about a murder [00:50:18] charlie says if they're a bad guy there's two ways of dealing with it go ahead and contact the police [00:50:24] they'll contact him and arrange a setup take him down and he'll proffer 10 years and tell everything [00:50:30] tell us everything you know or else you're going to serve 10 years in prison the next thing you know [00:50:35] this person is singing he starts calling your name out and my parents are going to have to say [00:50:42] going to have to tell tell the story of what happened why would a bad guy be calling her name out if she [00:50:49] knows nothing why are the cops knocking at her door an issue of concern for her if she knows nothing [00:50:57] they talk about going to the cops going to the fbi but nobody ever does that that obvious thing [00:51:05] including this defendant [00:51:07] if you're innocent and a bad guy is out there trying to put your name in something you go straight to the cops [00:51:15] all right so charlie says this is my idea i give you the money you talk to him on the phone and he [00:51:21] gives very precise instructions say my friends have no idea what you're talking about and frankly [00:51:27] i don't know what you're talking about but the name sounds familiar of who's incarcerated [00:51:33] so i'm going to give you something as charity to help the less fortunate but do not contact these [00:51:38] people again or they're going to the police he's instructing her to call this thug [00:51:47] and say something particular okay and the whole time just say i don't know what's going on and only [00:51:55] use the words help and charity then he talks or mentions who [00:52:05] we think and are arguing is secreto garcia he says now he's fucking with his wife and he's [00:52:12] fucking with him and you fuck with the king himself you'd better kill him because he's going to be a big [00:52:19] problem katherine magbanua seated at this table in dolce vita having no information whatsoever about this [00:52:26] case no knowledge whatsoever about a murder has now been it's been suggested to her that she might need [00:52:34] to kill or arrange to kill or have sigfredo garcia kill this undercover operative who they think is a thug [00:52:43] and what is her reaction to that my god she continues to engage in the conversation she gets up and goes to [00:52:50] the bathroom and comes back and then goes out to the car and goes about her business and then she [00:52:57] engages in following up on the instructions he gave her she doesn't call the number she tries to get [00:53:03] garcia to call it she doesn't say kill not killing anybody what are you talking about kill kill might be a [00:53:11] word you might remember okay katherine magbanua what did you think when he said you might have to kill [00:53:18] the guy i don't know i have no reflection of that no knowledge of that no information whatsoever to give [00:53:24] you all right well after he said he was going to kill the guy why did you go out and do what he asked [00:53:30] you to do why didn't you just say oh okay i'll take care of that police [00:53:39] because she's involved i mean there's no other explanation i'm not taking it out of context there [00:53:46] is only one context the alternate context is i don't know anything can't offer any context can't [00:53:54] tell you what i was thinking can't tell you why i did what i did because i have no memory of doing it [00:53:58] no memory of saying it no memory of being there can offer you nothing [00:54:08] then charlie says and so help me god and please i know i'm dropping all these f-bones on you but it's [00:54:14] not my words and so help me god if they fuck with my family it's gonna be [00:54:19] fucking nazi shit because this will be done i mean katie i don't care what i spend okay he doesn't [00:54:29] care what it costs him she needs to take care of this problem then they talk about garcia he doesn't [00:54:36] have any bad feelings toward me does he our paths never crossed he's making sure everything is kosher [00:54:42] with garcia to get this thing resolved there's more evidence here that charlie doesn't have an [00:54:49] independent relationship with garcia because he's going through her is he gonna in if someone's on to [00:54:56] him and it's somebody that this information has leaked to or it's worse law enforcement he is not going to [00:55:04] invite someone new into his conspiracy [00:55:10] he's checking with her to see if garcia has any bad feelings toward him after he talks about having [00:55:18] someone killed and not caring what he has to spend he checks in on garcia and then assures [00:55:24] her that she will be taken care of quote i don't have to sit here and tell you what i would do i [00:55:30] show you what i could do you know what i'm saying you know how i am i look for things to do you don't [00:55:37] ask me for shit i'm the one that's like hey someone's birthday's coming up i got you i'm the one who's [00:55:43] like i'll sell you the lexus for a very good price i know you're having car problems and then he says [00:55:50] listen you giving somebody money is not an admission of any kind of guilt guilt of what folks what would [00:56:00] she be guilty of she doesn't even know there's a murder [00:56:11] charlie let me ask you a question when everybody was there the next day [00:56:16] and there's something about money and then he says this it's not like you're driving around in a bentley [00:56:24] cruising around in a mega yacht [00:56:28] at the end of the conversation he says you know who this is coming from the inside [00:56:36] katherine may be animal what did you understand that to mean it's coming from the inside she doesn't know [00:56:44] and wasn't curious to find out and wasn't curious to call the cops [00:56:50] to end it to get herself out of it [00:56:54] in these initial recordings that we've got the dolce and the first few calls it's like they're dancing [00:57:00] around each other you know the code and the [00:57:06] i don't know it's like neither one is sure if the other is working with law enforcement [00:57:11] neither one is sure if the other is affiliated with the blackmail attempt i mean she sure he's not he's not [00:57:17] she's not affiliated with the guy that approached his mother he's not sure she's not wearing a wire [00:57:25] and she can't be sure that this guy that approached donna adelson [00:57:30] isn't in fact one of rivera's brothers and you'll hear her on the wire clarifying that a couple [00:57:35] times did he say brother or did he say family member because brother potentially could be gang member right [00:57:41] and she isn't honest with charlie about those concerns because she's walled him off from tudot [00:57:47] and tato and neither defendant nor charlie can be sure you know what this thing really is what the risks [00:57:54] are here so they're both just sort of feeling each other out after the meeting with donna that we saw [00:58:00] charlie and donna there at the marina um there's several calls where he's assuring her like this is [00:58:09] being handled don't worry about it you know mom you're freaking out it's nothing i got this it's [00:58:15] all handled we hear call h h is the first call where we hear garcia and he is not happy he doesn't [00:58:24] sound like a guy who's done something stupid and gotten her involved in a murder that he's to blame [00:58:30] for and sounds more like he's someone who she's gotten involved in something and now he's going [00:58:36] to have to clean up the mess maybe because you know she came clean about i don't know he's angry he's [00:58:49] angry ultimately garcia says he will take care of the problem the less she knows the better stop [00:58:57] talking about it on the phone and he hangs up all right so then the defendant calls garcia with a [00:59:05] number she repeatedly is talking in code about a phone number why on earth would she be talking in [00:59:11] code about a phone number just say 65 70 the number is 65 70 but instead she says the kid's clothes cost [00:59:20] 65 65 and 70 cents he doesn't get it it goes back and forth several times and finally he does get what [00:59:28] she's saying the defendants asked about talking in code and why it would be necessary if she had nothing to [00:59:36] conceal and she says a couple things one she says she had to disguise the phone number while speaking on the [00:59:43] phone because her co-workers were around which makes no sense two she says oh i just started talking [00:59:50] in code because i picked it up from charlie doesn't make sense that she would then carry it over to her [00:59:55] conversations with other people including sigfredo garcia the only reason to talk in code is for fear [01:00:00] that the call might be being recorded this is the time frame um you hear that bad argument between [01:00:08] the defendant and sigfredo garcia they split at some point and call m um he she's wanting to talk to [01:00:16] him and he's not interested she sends a text saying she needs to talk to him about something that's text n [01:00:24] and also in text o um he replies and says whatever is going on with you and your homie is your business [01:00:32] you guys work that out don't text me call p where the code really good client is born defendant says [01:00:40] she has forgotten the number for that client and charlie says he'll get it to her then he calls his mom [01:00:46] and says hey what's the number on the paper she says i don't know i gave it to you so then he's got to go [01:00:52] home and get it there's a volley of calls a lot of number confusion where everybody's talking about the [01:00:57] number but when i say everybody what i mean is donna to charlie to katie to garcia and back that same way [01:01:09] never jumping over one car so if you think about it like car train cars on a track got to go through [01:01:16] one to get to the other in call r charlie tells the defendant that it's going to be a while before [01:01:23] he can get the number again she initiates code saying it's always so hard to get that particular agent [01:01:31] then we get call s where mcbana was giving garcia the undercovers number again and she does it in code [01:01:39] remember one of the listings i had to tell you one of the properties i believe it's 305-7-12-65-70 [01:01:48] then call you is from donna to charlie about the undercover calling the office so that's the [01:01:53] tickling the wire and we went through that during the testimony and that's when we get to call w and [01:02:00] this is the call w where i say we've got an illustration of the fact that there's two katies in this case [01:02:07] we've got katie that was on the stand and we've got the katie that was in call w when charlie calls and [01:02:13] informs her about the call to the office he's getting a little fussy with her pressuring her find out [01:02:21] this is and she pushes back it's really important because when she pushes back she kind of drops [01:02:28] the code and comes really close to revealing the truth more so than any other statement she's made [01:02:35] charlie's trying to get defendant to call the number the defendant is trying to get garcia to call the [01:02:40] number garcia is lying to the defendant saying he called the number when he didn't [01:02:46] she's lying to charlie saying she called the number when she didn't and charlie's lying to his mother [01:02:52] telling her everything's fine handled eventually charlie ends up calling the undercover and y'all heard that [01:03:00] call so what does he say when the undercover says you know your family's problem up north has been taken care [01:03:07] of um you've been taking care of katie and tuto but haven't done anything for tato what does he say about [01:03:14] this family problem up north does he say i have no idea what you're talking about why did you give [01:03:19] my mom a picture of my murdered brother-in-law what do you know about that what information do you have [01:03:23] who are you you know he just says all right let me look into things then in call y charlie adelson is [01:03:32] reporting back to katherine magbanua what the undercover told him in that call and charlie says [01:03:38] the undercover says tudo and tato although he's struggles with those names because he doesn't seem [01:03:44] to know them magbanua doesn't enlighten him as to who those people are i mean she knows who tudo and tato [01:03:50] are she's supposedly trying to help him she doesn't know anything about this murder she's only trying [01:03:57] to help him because his family's being harassed yet in her help she doesn't suggest well tuto and tato [01:04:05] are these two guys that's because she's insulating garcia and charlie from each other she's walling them off [01:04:13] she was the glue in this conspiracy it does not work without her call z katherine magbanua reporting the [01:04:22] latest bump to garcia and she says quote this is call z it's getting too detailed it's somebody that [01:04:32] knows for sure this call ends with more discussion about what the number is [01:04:38] garcia wants her to text it to him and she says no i don't want to why why don't you want to why are [01:04:45] we talking in code you're just trying to help out a friend figure this thing out you have nothing to [01:04:52] do with it called dd charlie is further relating his discussion with the undercover he said he was [01:05:00] brothers with someone in broward and she clarifies again and that's the call where she's saying brother [01:05:05] or family member a couple times um and that's the call where she says they really mess with the wrong [01:05:12] person i buck bitches up for no reason you know she's talking really tough um call ff [01:05:21] katie is bragging about the really nasty voicemail that she left on the undercover's voicemail when the [01:05:26] truth is nobody has called and left any such voicemail on the undercover's recorder [01:05:34] um so she's playing both of these guys she's lying she's manipulating both of both sides of this [01:05:41] conspiracy and then we've got call gg which you got a couple more calls after this on the exhibit but [01:05:47] this was the last one that i played because i felt you guys were starting to yawn um but understandably [01:05:55] um but she says in that call it can only be one of two apparently they're talking about different [01:06:02] scenarios if somebody it's somebody's that desperate not from the inside i mean i'm not saying this makes [01:06:10] sense but not from the inside because there's too much from the inside that the other person knows from [01:06:16] the outside so they won't risk it that's why i know for a fact it's not from the inside it's somebody [01:06:22] trying to be greedy probably you know hey everybody knew everybody knew who who i've dated in the past and [01:06:29] stuff i've had a couple boyfriends you know so she's saying like i i have investigated the matter and i do not [01:06:35] think this is legitimate threat from the inside of our conspiracy to murder dan markell [01:06:43] charlie replies it's somebody not from the first layer but probably the second layer yeah and they [01:06:49] just made a big mistake so that's sort of the finale of the evidence in the case is her saying [01:06:57] she's resolved it so it's not somebody from the inside [01:07:04] i want to turn my attention a little bit to the jury instructions the defendant in this case is charged [01:07:10] with conspiracy to commit murder solicitation to commit murder and first degree murder as a principle [01:07:17] why all three charges the defendant didn't just ask sigfredo garcia to do this and pay for it that would be [01:07:27] solicitation she didn't just take charlie adelson's family problem and turn it into action that would [01:07:33] be conspiracy she got the thing done dan markell is dead this is the work of this conspiracy and this is why [01:07:45] there is a murder charge not just conspiracy and solicitation [01:07:52] to prove the crime of first degree murder i must prove to you that this was premeditated i don't [01:07:57] even want to talk to you about the lesser included offenses because there's so much evidence of [01:08:01] premeditation like whoever did it was definitely premeditated right premeditation is defined as [01:08:08] killing after consciously deciding to do so so i think that's abundantly clear this murder was in the works [01:08:14] for over a year it began with the failed relocation efforts when charlie first looked into hiring a hitman [01:08:20] and it took root when katherine magbanawa enlisted garcia who then enlisted rivera to do this killing [01:08:28] the planning that went into the killing was extensive spanning a six-week period including [01:08:33] two thousand mile trips to tallahassee made in rented vehicles scouting and stalking professor markell [01:08:42] all the planning all the meetings and all the calls came to fruition when sigfredo garcia fired those two [01:08:49] shots into mr markell's vehicle which devastated so many lives [01:08:56] years ago when you think about how this case was proven we started at a single point the crime scene [01:09:03] and we went in two totally different directions we chased a prius [01:09:07] and we chased the bad blood with the in-laws [01:09:11] all these little breadcrumbs led to the same place the prius led to garcia and rivera [01:09:16] the bad blood led to the adelson's and both trails lead to this defendant i want to spend a little time [01:09:23] talking about the principal instruction and we talked about this in jury selection [01:09:28] katherine magbanawa didn't pull the trigger that day she didn't come to tallahassee but that doesn't [01:09:34] mean that she isn't just as responsible as the folks that did [01:09:47] think of it like this if you have a gun each player can be a part in how the shot is fired [01:09:53] garcia was the bullet [01:09:56] charlie adelson was the finger wrapped around the trigger [01:10:00] the defendant was the gun without every piece without every [01:10:05] function without every part of it you don't have [01:10:10] the end result and dan markell would still be alive may still be alive [01:10:16] so in your jury instructions it says there's two ways to prove katherine magbanawa's guilt under the [01:10:21] law of principles one if she intended that the murder be done and she did some act or said some [01:10:27] word that caused or helped another to commit the crime then she's guilty of first degree murder [01:10:33] or two if she intended the murder be done and she promised payment in exchange for the murder [01:10:40] and the crime was committed by another person then she's guilty of first degree murder so there's [01:10:44] two ways it can be either or both in this case i would suggest it's both but if y'all are unanimous on [01:10:50] either then your verdict should be guilty lewis rivera called the defendant the mastermind he said she hired [01:10:59] sigfredo garcia to do this murder she told him when the murder needed to happen because [01:11:05] markell was leaving town the next day she gave garcia spending money for the both trips to tallahassee [01:11:12] she drove garcia to get a rental car she got angry with rivera when he posted something on social media [01:11:19] from tallahassee she got the money from charlie she delivered the stapled money to the killers [01:11:26] and finally she got paid too the burden today on the state is to prove to you this case beyond a [01:11:32] reasonable doubt the jury instructions tell you that a reasonable doubt is not a mere possible [01:11:38] speculative or imaginary doubt it's not forced so when you're back there delivering deliberating [01:11:44] ask yourself you have to assess these things is this a reasonable doubt is this a reasonable doubt [01:11:50] what is reasonable if you find yourself speculating then it's not a reasonable doubt well what if it's [01:11:56] possible that if you don't have evidence to support it actual evidence not what the lawyers say [01:12:03] evidence testimony or items introduced than that speculation [01:12:10] i want to touch on the defendant statements just a little bit more she took the stand [01:12:14] and there's some things that we heard from her she was confronted with the fact that charlie did a [01:12:19] lot of favors for her right after the murder even though they weren't together he paid for a trip to [01:12:25] the dominican republic offered to pay for a cruise paid for car repairs gave her money [01:12:31] and loans when she asked for it you saw a text where she was asking for money and then the next day [01:12:39] deposits fourteen hundred dollars worth of cash into her account and he put her on the payroll [01:12:45] the defendant told us when her when her attorney was asking her questions that the defendant [01:12:51] had ghosted her ghosted her prior to putting her on the payroll if he ghosted her after the murder in [01:12:57] august of twenty fourteen why would he want her to become his personal assistant she could not answer [01:13:03] that question when asked what what is what do you do as his personal assistant she could not answer that [01:13:10] question these are easy questions folks what was your job [01:13:18] she couldn't answer she said she didn't schedule patients she said she set up an appointment you know [01:13:25] you heard about the one appointment she said she collected rent but couldn't tell you winner from whom [01:13:33] she was paid over seventeen thousand dollars over the course of a year and a half to help charlie [01:13:38] set up an appointment to go get a website and that was done two months before she started collecting the money [01:13:44] why would donna adelson agree to write all these checks to her son's ex-girlfriend who wasn't doing [01:13:51] anything for the money [01:13:56] what about that text about what she had done for the family what about her [01:14:05] is so special and he's got a million ex-girlfriends he's not paying for all the stuff for them [01:14:12] she couldn't answer that question you heard she was previously questioned in 2019 [01:14:17] you heard about this jail interview where the defense invited my team to come [01:14:22] ask her anything we wanted and you saw ms dugan do her damnedest to ask questions [01:14:29] and it's like trying to nail jello to a wall you're not gonna get answers [01:14:37] where were you working in the summer of 2014 to know [01:14:45] you heard from yendra about the work you heard from the club owners that she wasn't making the [01:14:51] kind of money that she says she was making there [01:14:58] she said she was making fifteen hundred dollars a night but the evidence is to the contrary [01:15:04] and if she was doing it she only did it the month after the murder [01:15:11] the wiretap calls defendant says charlie called her because she was his last ex-girlfriend [01:15:17] but we know that's not true [01:15:21] when charlie was acting like he didn't know who tuto was on the wiretap she doesn't enlighten him [01:15:25] the only reason they're walling each other off the only reason they're speaking in code is because [01:15:35] they are guilty because they are concerned law enforcement is listening [01:15:42] she testified that she knows nothing about this crime at all even after the bump and all of her [01:15:48] involvement in these wire calls and calling the number not calling the number getting someone [01:15:52] else to call the number she says she did not even know there was a murder [01:16:01] in opening statement the defense told us that they would offer definitive proof [01:16:10] that there was a link between garcia and catherine nigh banua that did not involve this defendant [01:16:16] and now you have seen all of the evidence in this case and heard the testimony of the witnesses [01:16:22] including this defendant and we are no closer to proving the defense's theory than we were [01:16:28] in opening statement what is the smoking gun the fact that they both had the same auto mechanic [01:16:38] that would be speculation a reasonable doubt is not a speculative doubt has the evidence shown [01:16:45] communication through the auto mechanic no to the contrary the evidence has repeatedly shown [01:16:54] communication through this defendant communication around all the critical times in this case [01:17:00] communication that was overheard or relayed to overheard by or relayed to lewis rivera [01:17:08] communication related to the murder even on the wiretaps you get to hear [01:17:14] them talking about issues related to this case and you get to see how the communication does in fact [01:17:20] flow through here you don't have to guess you don't have to just look at the communication pattern [01:17:24] and listen to the testimony of lewis rivera you can hear it for yourself what happens when we plant [01:17:30] information in the hands of donna adelson because boom boom boom right down the line she is right in the [01:17:39] middle of it as she acknowledged i know how it looks i know i'm right in the middle of it but she's not [01:17:44] there because she was manipulated by others she's there because of the choices that she made [01:17:52] i've been straining my pea brain trying to figure out why the defense who agrees wholeheartedly that [01:17:58] sugrado garcia did this murder has worked so hard to suggest that he wasn't on that june trip with [01:18:03] lewis rivera and you remember the traffic ticket where there's that little box that you check for [01:18:10] if there's if it's a 16 passenger vehicle or not it wasn't checked and they're interpreting that to mean [01:18:18] rivera was the only one in the car it finally came to me this morning that it's because [01:18:24] their confrontation at dinner theory so [01:18:29] there's no evidence of a confrontation at all but there was a dinner that occurred in march of 2014 [01:18:34] lacoste was there wendy was there um charlie was there and this defendant were there [01:18:42] lewis rivera told you that garcia was furious he couldn't stand charlie's guts [01:18:48] and he and rivera were both in the car [01:18:52] watching her eating with the dentist and garcia wanted to you know run through the patio and kill [01:18:59] everybody on the patio and rivera told him talked him down and they decided not to do that and went on [01:19:05] their way there was no confrontation lacoste hung out with charlie later in the hot tub that night [01:19:12] and there was no mention of it the defendant even told you herself that there was no confrontation [01:19:17] other than the jet ski incident that occurred on july 1st so i thought well july 1st that's when [01:19:24] segredo garcia tries to confront the defendant and charlie adelson as they're backing out to [01:19:30] go jet skiing and he's making a scene in the street and charlie adelson refuses to engage and edges [01:19:37] around them and they are able to drive away that is the same day july 1st 14 2014 is when garcia attempts [01:19:48] to call charlie adelson and gets harvey adelson and leaves that voicemail so that's when the [01:19:54] confrontation occurs although they don't really get face to face because charlie's in a car the whole [01:19:59] time the problem for the defense is if garcia and charlie struck up this deal that they told you about [01:20:07] an opening statement whereby charlie you know it goes from i'm going to fight you because you're sleeping [01:20:13] with my wife to i'll do a murder for you for a hundred thousand dollars if you'll leave my wife alone [01:20:21] if that happens on or about march 11th at the dinner meeting then it doesn't make sense that he would [01:20:29] make this deal with charlie go to tallahassee in june to stalk and or kill [01:20:36] and then july 1st not know how to get in touch with charlie adelson so that's the problem like [01:20:42] doesn't make sense he's looking for charlie adelson he doesn't know how to get in touch with him [01:20:47] if he had this confrontation that resulted in a pact to do a murder in march then he would already have [01:20:55] charlie adelson's information be able to call charlie adelson and confront him after the jet ski [01:21:00] incident wouldn't need to accidentally leave a voice message for harvey so that theory is completely [01:21:07] speculative it does not fit with the evidence in this case all the evidence is consistent with garcia [01:21:12] traveling to tallahassee remember he's the one that rented the car that car pinged in tallahassee [01:21:19] and i would even take this analysis a step further and suggest that the fact that garcia is trying to [01:21:25] confront charlie on july 1st which is after that june trip is evidence that he is walled off from charlie [01:21:32] in reference to this conspiracy i don't think he's going to be trying to fight the guy that he's in the [01:21:37] process of trying to do a murder for a guy that's about to pay him a hundred thousand dollars or his [01:21:43] portion of a hundred thousand dollars to do a murder two weeks later this theory is further evidenced by [01:21:50] what he told rivera he told rivera they were coming to tallahassee to do a murder so that the lady wendy [01:21:57] could get her kids back does that say 10 minutes oh okay [01:22:06] i believe he did think he was doing this murder for a lady in tallahassee [01:22:10] not charlie adelson and possibly not even with the knowledge that the lady in tallahassee [01:22:15] was related to charlie adelson the dentist regardless of how completely clueless she acted [01:22:21] on the stand yesterday the evidence shows that this defendant was not the pawn in someone else's scheme [01:22:27] she was not the pawn of two master manipulators she herself was the stage manager in this thing [01:22:33] she was directing these guys the defendant is guilty of everything she's charged with [01:22:39] you have all been so very patient throughout this entire process and when you get back there to the [01:22:45] deliberation room i encourage you to bring your common sense with you and you're going to need it to [01:22:50] pull through all this stuff the defense may ask you to speculate about things that are not in evidence [01:22:56] don't do that remember that what the lawyers say including me is not evidence remember that you [01:23:02] alone must decide what the evidence is what what evidence to accept and how reliable the evidence is [01:23:10] they may tell you that just because all the evidence fits it's not what it appears to be it's [01:23:16] really the opposite of what it appears or that the state is blindly or willfully misleading you in some [01:23:22] way please remember that your feelings about the lawyers should not influence your verdict at all [01:23:27] you should use your common sense in deciding based on the evidence and the law that the judge gives you [01:23:33] you decide what to accept and what to disregard we are all trusting you to render a wise and legal [01:23:41] verdict in this case and i trust that that verdict will be guilty as charged thank you all right thank [01:23:47] you miss councilman okay we're going to take our uh morning break now uh you can leave your instructions [01:23:54] right on your chair along with everything else and please remember no discussing the case at this point