Florida Law Professor Dan Markel’s Murder Blamed on Bitter Fight With Ex-Wife
By Josh Nathan-Kazis June 2, 2016
Police believe that the murder of Florida Jewish law professor Dan Markel was sparked by a bitter divorce battle with his ex-wife.
Authorities arrested a man with a long criminal history, Sigfredo Garcia, 34, in connection with Markel’s 2014 killing. Garcia’s attorney had said that his client is innocent.
The driveway where the murder took place Image by google street view
Now, new details released in court on June 2 show that investigators believe that Markel’s death was connected to his acrimonious divorce with law professor Wendi Adelson — even though police were careful to avoid calling her a suspect.
The new details were first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat.
At a press conference on the afternoon of June 2, Tallahassee police chief Michael DeLeo told reporters that the investigation is ongoing, and that he would have preferred for the probable cause affidavit released that morning to have remained confidential.
Asked by reporters whether police officials know the current whereabouts of Adelson and her family, DeLeo said: “We’re not on speaking terms.”
DeLeo said that neither Adelson nor her brother, Charles Adelson, were considered suspects in the case as of now.
“I don’t think we’re really to that point yet,” he said.
According to the affidavit, police believe that the motive for the murder stemmed from Adelson’s family’s “desperate desire” to move the estranged couple’s children hundreds of miles away to South Florida. In addition, Markel had filed court documents complaining that Adelson’s mother had disparaged him to their children, and asking that she not be allowed to be alone with her grandchildren. A hearing on that motion was pending at the time of Markel’s murder.
The affidavit also said that Charles Adelson was “involved in a personal relationship” with Garcia’s girlfriend.
Markel was trailed the day of his murder by a silver Prius, which authorities claim was rented by Garcia and another man, Luis Rivera, days before the murder.
DeLeo said at the press conference that Rivera is a suspect in the case, and is currently in a federal custody on unrelated charges.
Garcia and the other man did not know Markel before the killing, according to the affidavit. The affidavit claims that they “were enlisted to commit this egregious act against someone they did not know and had never interacted with before the murder.”
No one besides Garcia has been charged with a crime in connection with the murder. “It’s not a race,” DeLeo said of the investigation. “The idea is to make sure we put together the best case possible.”
Asked by a reporter at the press conference whether there is a “history of a network of hitmen” in Florida, DeLeo said that he was not aware of one.
In a statement to the Tallahasee Democrat on May 27, Wendi Adelson welcomed Garcia’s arrest. “These past two years have been an extraordinarily difficult time for our family,” Adelson the paper at the time. “Although my children will always live with the tremendous loss of their father, my hope is that these new developments will finally bring some closure.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
