The judge presiding over the upcoming murder trial of Donna Adelson denied a request by her defense to prevent prosecutors from arguing that her attempted flight to Vietnam showed she had “consciousness of guilt” in the murder of Dan Markel.
Adelson appeared in person Friday at the Leon County Courthouse for arguments before Circuit Judge Stephen Everett on a flurry of pre-trial motions from the defense and the state. Jury selection begins Sept. 16 in the trial, with testimony starting on or before Sept. 23.
The 74-year-old matriarch of the Adelson family is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the 2014 murder-for-hire killing of Markel, her former son-in-law, in the garage of his Betton Hills home. The fifth person to be charged in the murder plot, Adelson was arrested one week after her son, Charlie Adelson , was convicted on the same three charges she now faces.
She was taken into custody by the FBI as she and her husband tried to board a flight out of Miami with one-way tickets to Vietnam, a non-extradition country. Prosecutors signaled then that they intended to use it against her at trial.