Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Police Arrest Alleged Hitman for Cold-Blooded Murder of Law Professor

Florida police have arrested a man suspected of the murder of Dan Markel, a Jewish law professor who was shot in his Tallahassee driveway in 2014.

Authorities arrested Sigfredo Garcia, 34, at a Miami-area gas station on May 25, and charged him with first-degree murder.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported May 26 that Markel’s death is being investigated as a murder for hire, and that law enforcement officials expect to make further arrests in the case.

The Tallahassee Police Department said in a statement that they had investigated and vetted hundreds of leads on the case that came in through a telephone hotline.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with other state and federal agencies, assisted in the department’s effort.

“This is still an active criminal investigation,” said the chief of the Tallahassee Police Department, Michael DeLeo, in a statement. “My heart and prayers are with the Markel family as they continue to grieve for their loss. My only hope is that today’s information will offer some solace to the family and, in some small way, help them to heal.”

Markel was a well-known legal scholar at Florida State University. He was prominent in online legal circles as a founder of the website PrawfsBlog, and was an active member of a Conservative Jewish congregation in Tallahassee.

In the wake of the murder, police investigated vitriolic online comments targeting Markel on a number of blogs.

A memorial fund honoring Markel raised $54,000 for the benefit of his two young sons.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.