Friend Says 'Berated, Barraged' Adelsons Sought Temporary Vietnam Refuge

Описание: A 30-year friend of Donna and Harvey Adelson testified as a defense witness in Donna's murder-for-hire trial in Tallahassee, Florida, today (Tuesday, September 2, day 7).

Richard Schagrin helped Donna Adelson apply for her Visa to Vietnam, which prosecutors have pointed to as evidence that she wanted to flee the country because her son had been convicted and she feared she would be charged next.

Donna's defense is arguing she was just visiting Vietnam and planned to return to the United States for her grandson's bar mitzvah, even though she texted her daughter to bury her in the dress she planned to wear to it.

Donna's attorney Josh Zelman questioned Schagrin in direct-examination.

03:55 "They didn't know how long they were going to be gone."

04:30 "Unfortunately, they were berated, barraged by media. ... They were just afraid to leave the building," Schagrin testified.

05:49 "Donna was the ultimate Jewish mother."

06:58 "They were coming back for the bar mitzvah?"
"Oh, definitely. They wouldn't miss it for the world."

07:10 Cross-examination by Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman

08:40 "Does a typical Jewish grandmother suggest dressing her grandchildren up in Nazi uniforms?" "Not to my knowledge."

Case background:

Donna Adelson, 75, is accused of orchestrating the murder-for-hire of her former son-in-law because she wanted her daughter and grandchildren to move to Miami.

Adelson is accused of conspiring with her son Charlie Adelson more than a decade ago to hire hitmen to kill Dan Markel, who was a Florida State University law professor and the father of her two young grandsons.

Her defense is that she had no knowledge of what hitmen Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia were going to do, and that prosecutors are only focusing on her hatred for Markel to show she had a motive to want him murdered, when there's no evidence she was actually involved.

Rivera, a former gang leader, is serving a 19-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against Garcia, who fired the fatal shots, as well as the woman who linked Garcia to the victim: Katherine "Katie" Magbanua, who was Garcia's on-again, off-again girlfriend and also was in a relationship with Adelson's son Charlie Adelson.

Garcia was convicted in 2019 and Magbanua in 2022.

Rivera also testified in Charlie Adelson's trial in 2023, and Adelson was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. After their son's trial, Donna Adelson and her husband, Harvey, bought one-way tickets to Vietnam. Police arrested her on the jetway at Miami International Airport on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder.

Her trial is expected to go through Sept. 5 in Leon County Circuit Court in Tallahassee, Florida.

Donna Adelson's lawyers are Josh Zelman and Jackie Fulford of Tallahassee. Assistant State Attorneys Georgia Cappleman and Sarah Kathryn Dugan are prosecuting.

The judge is Stephen Everett, who is the chief judge of Florida's 2nd Judicial Circuit.
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