August 22, 2025 • 35 mins
We recap the day's witnessess:
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- James Geiger - Dan's neighbor who heard the gunshots, saw the Prius speed off, and found Dan. He called 911.
- Officer David Sims, Tallahassee Police Department - 1st officer at the scene
- Joanne Maltese, Forensic Specialist, Tallahassee PD - Photographed the scene, took evidence, and went to the hospital to photograph Dan.
- Dr Clark - medical examiner who performed Dan's autopsy
- Craig Isom, a former investigator with the Tallahassee Police Department - goes over the investigation in the beginning and touches on major developments throughout. He will be recalled.
- Luis RIvera - co-conspirator - tells part of the story. Names Wendi in his testimony as who wanted Dan dead.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Watching know Alibyers. Welcome to another episode of Pretty Lies
and Alibis. I'm Jiji. It's Friday, August twenty second day
one of the Donna Adelson trial. In the books, I
never thought I would see this day come, but here
we are. Interesting day. Luis rivera last one on the stand.
He's finished for now. He will definitely be recalled at
(00:21):
a later time, and Monday morning, I believe Wendy Adelson
will be first up on the stand. She was in
the courthouse today with her attorney but did not make
it up there, so come watch live with us. Also,
if you're not subscribed on YouTube, don't forget to hit
subscribe and click that bell icon if you want notifications
(00:41):
of when I post new content. Today, I did a
few YouTube shorts to tell you guys some things that
happened in real time, so I wouldn't have to wait
until tonight. So if you want those kind of updates,
ring my bell. If you don't know, I've already put
out the recap of opening statements by the state and
the defense, So if you haven't watched that yet, just
go look on my page. It should be right there.
(01:04):
Let's hop into the first witnesses. First up was James Geiger.
He is Dan's neighbor. He and his wife were looking
towards Truscott and heard a loud, popping bang sound. He
immediately got up and walked to this big picture window
at the front of their house to see where it
came from. They bring in a photo of his residence
that shows the view from that window, and something got
(01:27):
his attention. He saw a car rapidly backing out and
heading towards Beton Road. He said, the car was going
fast and he noticed it appeared to be a light
colored Prius. That was so key in this investigation, y'all.
He gave them their first big clue that ultimately led
to Sigfredo and Rivera. He said, there have been some
(01:50):
break ins in the neighborhood and he thought maybe somebody
was trying to break into Dan's house, so he walked
over to see if he could see any damage to
the house. He got right there at the garage and
the garage door was open and the car was running
and he saw Danny inside. So he turned around and
walked back to his house. He stood at his front
window and looked out, waiting about five minutes and realized
(02:12):
this did not seem right. He said. Danny hadn't backed out,
and he told his wife, I think something's wrong. I'm
gonna walk back over. He goes towards the garage and
gets inside, and he notices the car is still running,
so he walked in all the way to make sure
everything was okay. That's when he noticed the window to
Dan's car was shattered and he was stepping on glass.
(02:34):
Then he sees what he says is a bloody head,
and the head was slowly rolling back and forth. So
he hollered out Danny what happened, and he got no response.
He hollered again, nothing, so he knew he needed to
call EMS. He realized his cell phone wasn't in his pocket,
so he ran to his house and called nine to
(02:56):
one one. He said, from the time he saw the
previous lead to when nine to one one was called
was between five to ten minutes. They bring in photos
of Dan's driveway and also photos of the Prius that
were captured on that city bus camera. Going back, he said,
when Danny and Wendy moved in, they had a housewarming
(03:16):
party and that's when they first met. But after that
they really weren't close. He said they had their kids
close together, and later on they knew that Wendy left
Dan and that they were divorcing. They barely saw Danny
after that and didn't see the kids. He said it
took forever. After calling nine one one, they were asking
questions like is he still breathing? So he would go check,
(03:39):
and he said Dan's head would still be rolling left
to right. They play the nine to one one call
and he really just recounts on the call what he
just testified to. He didn't know if somebody shot him
or if he maybe did it to himself. The nine
to one one call was fourteen minutes long. He said
it took about twelve minutes for the first officer to
(04:01):
arrive on scene, in around nineteen minutes for paramedics to
get to Danny's home. That was it for his testimony,
and there was no cross and bless his heart, y'all.
He just seems like a sweet older man and I'm
sure what he saw that day will haunt him. The
next witness David Simms. He is a retired sergeant from
the Tallahassee Police Department. He heard the call go out
(04:24):
about the shooting and he arrived on scene. First he
made contact with mister Geiger, and they show photos of
the car in the garage. He said it was running
when he got there. He called out to Dan and
saw the window was broken at an angle, and then
he saw that rounded spot which is where the bullet entered.
He said. Dan was slumped over and gasping for air.
(04:46):
He said it was like a sucking sound. He noticed
that half of his glasses were in his lap. Dan
had a cell phone in his left hand and a
business card in his right hand. Remember, he was talking
to that school that when he wanted to enroll the
boys in when he got shot. The sergeant reached in
where the glass was broken to unlock the car, so
(05:07):
he went over to the other side and turned the
ignition off. It was then that he saw the other
half of Dan's glasses on the floorboard. They show pictures
of the shattered glass and then he said at this
point he could hear ems coming. After he heard the sirens,
he pulled out a gym bag so the ems could
make better entry and get to Dan quicker. They show
(05:29):
photos of half of the glasses laying on the floor
of the garage and what happened is when they were
treating him or moving him that and his cell phone
fell out onto the garage floor. He said there was
no indication this was a robbery and no sign of
a struggle. There was no cross by the defense. The
next witness Joe Amne Maltese. She is retired from the
(05:51):
Tallahassee Police Department where she worked as a forensic specialist.
She took photos of the crime scene. Now during her testimony,
Donna was emotional. I didn't see any tears, but also
I wasn't there, but from where I sat here in
my studio, I didn't see any tears. They go through
all of those pictures. They bring in Dan's glasses and
(06:14):
lens into the courtroom. She tried to get prints from
the scene. She dusted the entire exterior of the car,
but there was nothing of value. She did some swabbing
inside the car. She also swabbed the doorknob on the
door that leads into the house. Nothing of value found.
They bring in Dan's wallet and then she also took
(06:36):
photos of Wendy's minivent inside and out, and they bring
in the photo of the bullet bourbon that Wendy bought
that day along with the receipt. The purchase was made
July eighteenth, twenty fourteen, the day of the murder, at
twelve forty nine pm, from an ABC liquor store. She
also went to the hospital to document Dan's injuries and
(06:58):
collect any evidence. They show photos of Dan in the
hospital and Joel from Surviving. The survivor is in the
courtroom and said that Dan's mom, Ruth had to leave.
His sister looked down, but his daddy looked at those photos.
As they're showing all of these photos of him in
the hospital, Donna is doing her emotional thing. The next
(07:20):
witness is doctor Clark. He was the medical examiner who
did the autopsy on Dan the next day, July nineteenth,
twenty fourteen. They show a photo of an X ray
and he points out the two bullets as well as
the fragments. They show an identification photo that they take
after they clean somebody up. He said there was a
(07:41):
lot of damage to the left side of Dan's face
and he had those two bullet wounds. One of the
gunshots was irregular, he said, the way it hit the bone,
it caused damage. He had swelling in his face as
well as those raccoon eyes. He also had superficial abrasions
and they were different sizes. He explains, when a bullet
(08:01):
goes through a window or something like that, it causes
splintering and then that hits the skin and leaves those marks.
He had that on the left side of his face,
his neck, and his ear. On the left side of
Dan's neck and ear, there was extensive pseudo stippling. He
had bleeding into the left side of his face with
(08:23):
distorting of the face, and that drained into his neck.
The other gunshot wound was pretty much between his eyebrows.
It wasn't round because of the bone shelf, and the
finer stippling on the forehead was from gunpowder that would
put the muzzle close to Dan by inches. On his
left forearm, he had a ring of soot and stippling,
(08:46):
and that would be consistent with Dan having his arm up.
He said the arm was likely put up to the
center of the head in a defensive type stance. He
also had stippling from his glasses being hit by the bullet.
He explains that stippling from gunfire is smaller and irregular.
He also had some other gunpowder stippling on his arm,
(09:08):
and that would put the distance between Dan and the
gun at an average of eighteen to twenty four inches away.
The first shot, he believes was to the left cheek
area through that windshield and it fractured his jaw and
his left cheekbone. That was not immediately fatal. The second
shot to the forehead that would be your fatal gun
(09:30):
shot wound. They show photos of the projectiles they recovered
after Dan passed away. He said that Dan lived around
eleven hours after being shot. There was no cross by defense.
Next up was Craig Isisom from the Tallahassee Police Department.
He was the one that interviewed Wendy, but first after
the shooting. He approached her at a restaurant on Market
(09:52):
Street around two fifteen pm. She was with others and
he said he needed to speak to her privately. So
he got her about fifteen teen feet away and said
he needed to talk about something that happened with Dan.
He told her her kids were at daycare and they
were fine. So I stand corrected, I said on the
crash course, Wendy never asked about her kids, and she
(10:13):
didn't because he told her right out of the gate
they were fine. He told her several times in the
interview that she wasn't a suspect. She was given a
victim's advocate, and he said he never accused her of anything.
He did learn they were still battling things, including child custody,
so they bring in the divorce file. He said. They
fought over things as small as a tennis racket. They
(10:36):
explained about Wendy wanting to relocate to Miami, and they
bring in documents that they know Donna saw. It was
about Dan wanting that supervised visitation with Donna that was
pending at the time of his death. And the reason
for that, he says, is because the kids reflected that
Grandma says you're stupid and she hates you. They refer
(10:56):
to the emails between Donna and Wendy where she calls
him a lot of names like Elvis and Ahole. In
an email from Donna to Wendy on March six, twenty thirteen,
she calls him a major effort. May third, twenty thirteen,
Donna email Wendy referencing relocation and said it was extremely
important to Donna. The relocation was denied on June twentieth,
(11:21):
twenty thirteen. On June twenty fifth, there is an email
from Donna to Wendy where Donna proposed another plan to
facilitate relocation in light of the court's ruling. She suggested
the boys start attending a Christian or Catholic church, suggested
that Wendy take photos and send those to Dan as
a way to strong arm him into relocation. She also
(11:45):
suggested the one million dollar bribe the death benefits gained
by Wendy after Dan's murder. There was a life insurance
policy for two million dollars and then another for sixty
thousand dollars through the law school. The survivor benefits for
the boys was forty eight hundred a month, which Wendy
would have gotten and controlled. His employment pension through FSU
(12:08):
was worth approximately three hundred thousand. The total value of
Dan's estate when he was killed was two point seven
million dollars. One thing to note is, at some point,
and I would venture I guess it was after the divorce,
he named his sister as the executor of his estate.
So we're not exactly sure how much Wendy got and
(12:29):
how much was in his sister's control. If you know that,
let me know. In the comments. He goes through a
timeline of the day of the shooting. At eight point
fifty am, Dan dropped the kids off at preschool, then
he went to the gym across town. They show surveillance
of the parking lot of that gym. At nine to eleven,
you see Dan's car into the parking lot, he gets
(12:51):
out and you see him walk in the door at
nine thirteen. At nine sixteen, you see that prius come
into the parking lot and the car parks and nobody
gets out. It stays in the parking lot the entire
time that Dan is inside the gym. By ten thirty three,
Dan leaves, that prius follows him. They looked at the
logical route to Dan's house from the gym and they
(13:15):
tried to get surveillance. That's when they got the city
bus video from before and actually after the shooting. At
ten forty four am, you see Dan's car on some surveillance,
then you see the prius is right behind him. Another
video is an overhead look from the city bus that
pulled in right behind the Prius at a red light.
(13:35):
They could not get the tag number from the video,
and the investigator said that would have saved them a
lot of time if they could have. At ten fifty
one am, you see the Prius in the left turn
lane at an intersection, but Dan went down the road
and turned. But that turn the Prius made would have
also taken you to Dan's house. At ten fifty five,
(13:56):
the Prius has left Dan's house and is on the move.
So the window they figured where Dan was shot was
between ten fifty one and ten to fifty five am.
After the shooting. From the city bus video, you see
two people in the front seat of the Prius. Sigfredo
is in the passenger seat in a white shirt and
he is very animated. The driver is in a solid
(14:18):
black shirt. He also points out on the Prius the
side mirror is solid black, where usually it's the same
color as the car, so they knew that had been replaced.
They also see that sun pass which is what you
go through tolls with, in the top of the windshield,
and also on the lower bumper there is a toehook
(14:39):
that could be threaded in. Normally it has a cap,
but this Prius it's missing. Their research showed this was
a two thousand and six to two thousand and nine
Prius and the color was Silver Pine Micah eleven oh
two am you get that nine to one one call?
And the investigation had two different prongs, the motive and
(14:59):
the prius. They tracked the sub pass by calling the
Florida Dot they're the ones who administer those, he said.
They gave him thousands of results and he was overwhelmed
and it didn't really narrow anything down quickly at that
time though, Some Pass was mainly for Orlando and to
the south, and while mister Isom was following up on
(15:22):
the some Pass leads, Sergeant Corbett was looking for phones
of interest at Premiere Jim and then traveling the route
the suspects took to go to Dan's. Initially, because of
the large number of cars, they started looking to South
Florida for cars going through the interchange where you get
on a turnpike from I seventy five, but that was
(15:43):
a bust. But once the phone analysis was done, they
had a better idea that there was one particular phone
number and tracking that phone to Naples and crossing over
Alligator Alley on seventy five west to east towards Broward County.
It was a different route than what they would expect
from somebody coming from Tallahassee down to Miami. Once they
(16:06):
had that established, he contacted SunPass again and explained the
car they were looking for and they want to see
if it went through this toll plaza in Naples going westbound.
Once he gave them that information and the time frame,
just within a couple of minutes, it showed an activation
of the sun Pass at the Naples toll plaza. It
(16:28):
showed only one Prius went through, and that's when they
determined that Prius was headed back to South Florida. They
backtracked and found that on July sixteenth, that same sun
Pass activated through Brower County to the other end of
the toll plaza and then cut across Alligator Alley up
seventy five, and that was confirmed through phone records as well.
(16:50):
They did get a photo of the license plate from
the toll plaza. Then they were able to identify the
sun Pass and the customer who bought it. That led
them to a rental place in Miami called Save Gas.
When law enforcement went there, the owners found documentation related
to that rental. It was Rivera that rented it, and
(17:11):
he put his real phone number and his real address
on there. As well as Sigfredo's phone number and had
him listed as brother. The car was rented July fifteenth,
twenty fourteen. It was due back on the seventeenth, but
wasn't turned in until the twenty first. They show a
chart with photos of the key players and their cell
phone numbers, and it confirmed that both Rivera and Sigfredo's
(17:35):
numbers were the ones he used on that contract to
rent the car. They still couldn't establish any connection to
the Adelson family. Eventually they learned that Katie was the
mother of Sigfredo's children and considered each other's spouses. And
at the same time they find this out, they also
find out she's been dating Charlie Adelson. That was the
(17:56):
only connection they could find to Dan Markel also that
was later confirmed by the investigation and testimony they investigated
Katie her employment included Her employment at the time of
the murder was at another dental office. Post murder, she
started getting checks from the Adelson Institute. The Adelson Institute
was operated by Charlie and Harvey Aidelson. Charlie is a
(18:19):
periodontist and Harvey a dentist. Donna was in the clerical
department she kept books for the business. They go into
the Adelson Institute. He and special Agent Sanford from the
FBI went there and served a subpoena for her employment records,
and initially they got nothing. He said later on, the
best he could get from an attorney who represented the
(18:41):
dental office was a list of checks paid to Katie
from the Adelson Institute. There were no W two's, no
responsibility form, and nothing showing she was employed there. The
employees they talked to that day initially had no idea
who Katie was, but another person came up to the front.
Her name is Erica Johnson. She knew Katie's name, but
(19:04):
did not know what her responsibilities were. There. There was
nothing at all regarding any proof of employment other than
the checks which started two months after the murders, and
that actually was September eighteenth, twenty fourteen, and they ended
in March of twenty sixteen. He thinks it could have
went into May of twenty sixteen, but those checks stopped
(19:26):
shortly after the bump. The documentation provided by the Adelson
Institute showed the checks were in consecutive order and Donna
signed every single one. Katie was arrested October first, twenty sixteen,
during the day and Isom was present for that. She
contacted her attorney from that scene, and the witness talked
(19:48):
to her attorney and said he was interested in getting
information from Katie about the other parties, maybe providing testimony
about the other players, and if she wanted to cooperate
with the investigator, to call him back and he would
go meet with her at the jail. Less than twenty
minutes later, he got a call from a man named
David Marcus who said he was representing Charlie and said
(20:11):
if Charlie was going to be arrested, to contact him now.
There was an objection by the defense that was sustained,
so on cross exam they point out he was the
lead investigator on this case until his retirement. The defense
asked if he learned that Donna and Harvey lived in Miami,
and the witness said, actually they were in Coral Springs.
The defense asked if Donna and Harvey had a condo
(20:33):
on Miami Beach, and the witness said they ended up there,
but he doesn't know at the time of the homicide
if they lived on Miami Beach. As they made that
connection between Sigfredo and Rivera to Katie, then that connection
to Charlie. You see Katie's unemployment status and she's still
paying her bills in South Florida. The defense asks, did
(20:54):
Donna and Harvey share emails and Wendy told you that
in her interview. The witness doesn't remember or if Wendy
mentioned they shared emails or not. The defense says, you
identified emails, and these are emails between Donna and Wendy. Yes, defense,
and some of these my client called Danny bad names,
but she never said she hated him. And the witness
(21:14):
said that came through the grandchildren. The defense points out
they were around three and four. The witness said, they
were young. You testified about a bribe. You're not a
family law attorney, and you have no idea if it's
okay to offer a financial incentive when it comes to relocation.
The witness is like, this is not m realm. You
testified about the life insurance, the pension, and some of
(21:37):
those funds went to his kids with Wendy as the custodian.
The witness says some, but some of that money also
went to Dan's sister. The defense asked, did Donna receive
benefit from Dan's pension or anything. No. When my client
suggested dressing the kids up or putting them in the
Catholic church, Wendy didn't do that, did she? And the
witness says no. The Adelson Institute had a couple of
(21:59):
employe he's there at the time, and the defense asked
did they have a written job description or job review?
And he doesn't know, but he says, you would think
with them working on people's mouths, there'd be some scrutiny. Defense,
you said you got a call from Charlie's attorney after
Katie's arrest, not Donna's. No, is it unusual for an
attorney to inquire if there's a warrant for their client's arrest.
(22:22):
And the witness said, it was shocking to be within
that short timeframe for that call, and the only way
that person had knowledge would be through Katie's attorney and
the man identifying himself as Charlie's attorney. That's where it
had to come from because at that point the media
was not unseen and nothing was made public about her arrest.
At that point, they ask about the grandmother motion and say,
(22:45):
you're educated absent some legal knowledge, can you interpret what's
being requested in the motion, and the witness said, I
think it's pretty plain. So back to the emails between
Wendy and Donna. There is an evite from June third,
twenty fourteen, for Harvey's big birthday. It's to Wendy, Ben
and Lincoln. Do you know how these are generated? And
the witness says, well, somebody has to go in and
(23:06):
set it up and send them out. So they go
through emails from twenty fourteen, which is Donna Harvey at
gmail dot com with Harvey's name next to it, not Donna's.
In one email from September twelfth, twenty fourteen, it says
Lincoln Williton Todd Shabbat with his grandfather Harvey. In another
email from Donna Harvey at Gmail on Friday July eighteenth,
(23:29):
Harvey's name is who it's from, and it says Wendy,
this is the information on work order for repair for
TV July eighteenth, twenty fourteen, between eight and twelve, and
its signed Dad. Defence says my client isn't Dad, is she?
The witness says no. They show a geek squad schedule
with a Q and A that asks if an earlier
(23:50):
appointment is available, would you accept it? And it says yes.
On redirect, the defense pointed out that Harvey and Donna
share an email and some are signed Dad and some
signed mom. The witness says yes, so they point out
an email from May third, twenty thirteen. She reads a
little bit. It says the most important part of your
divorce's relocation and going to the end. It says love you,
(24:12):
and she asks who signed that, and the witness says mom.
There was another email June twenty seventh, twenty thirteen, signed
mom and Dad. Yes. And the state points out, so
they got some emails from mom, some from mom and
dad Yes, And that was it for him for now.
He will be back up at some point. And the
last witness of the day Luis Rivera. He explains he's
(24:35):
from Puerto Rico and he lived in Miami. He is
incarcerated for this case currently as well as a federal sentence.
He pleaded guilty two second degree murder and got nineteen
years to run. Concurrent with that federal sentence, he said
he and Sigfredo were childhood friends and he had to
turn on one of his best friends to get the deal.
He's asked if Katie enlisted Sigfredo to be part of
(24:57):
the murder. When he's asked who enlisted Katie, he he
says he's not really sure, but he knew this was
a murder for hire. Katie brought them the money, and
the purpose of the murder was that Wendy wanted the kids,
and he knew they were there to kill the father
of the kids so that she could have them. He
named Wendy a couple of times during this testimony. By
(25:18):
the way, they ask about the dentist, he said it
was Charlie, who was Katie's boyfriend or side piece or
whatever you want to call him. He never had contact
with Charlie or the Adelson's and he knows nothing about them.
He was to be paid thirty five thousand, and he
doesn't know how much the job paid, but he knows
Sigfredo got forty thousand and Katie got forty thousand, and
(25:40):
ultimately in the end it was for a total of
around one hundred thousand dollars. Garcia got that one time payment,
and then he's asked if he knew anything about Dan No.
Katie gave Sigfredo a paper showing Dan's photo and his
home address. He had never been to Tallahassee before, but
he came twice, once in June and then in July.
They show a photo of Sigfredo, Katie Rivera, and his
(26:04):
significant other who is named Jessica. At the time of
the murder, Katie was with both Sigfredo and Charlie. Rivera
was living with his significant other, Jessica, where he was living.
That was put on the rental application for the Prius.
The first trip, the car was rented by Sigfredo. Sigfredo
was the one that had the paper with Dan's photo
(26:26):
on both trips. The first trip they followed him to
see where he lived, and he can't remember if they
were actually going to kill him on that first trip,
so he's asked if they had a gun, and he
said yes. They brought two along, one of those he
purchased himself, and then Sigfredo brought his thirty eight along
as well. On that first trip, they did go to
(26:47):
Dan's residence and the reason was to scope it out,
and they followed him to the daycare. On that first
trip they were in Tallahassee a couple of days. He
said the reason Dan wasn't killed on that first trip
is Rivera said he wasn't gonna do it in front
of the kids, and Dan had the kids. And then
they also lost sight of Dan at the preschool. He
(27:08):
was told they needed to go back and do the
job if they wanted to get the money. That information
came from Sigfredo. So Rivera rented the Prius. They both
brought their phones, and they both turned them off before
the shooting. On that second trip, they rented a hotel room,
but they only brought one gun. It was a thirty
eight Revolver. Then they asked about when there was a
(27:28):
hole shot in the floor of the Prius, and Rivera
kind of chuckles, and he says Sigfredo got the gun
and shot it through the floorboard of the passenger side,
which hit the gas line. He said, the car started
slowing down little by little. They saw a local drug
dealer that they happened to meet the first trip, who
took Sigfredo to AutoZone to get a piece of hose
(27:49):
to put that back together. He said Sigfredo was good
with cars, so he fixed that gas line. They followed
Dan to the pre school and they saw him drop
the kids off, then they followed him to the gym.
He's asked by the state if there was a reason
the murder had to happen that day, and he said
because Dan was going out of town the next day.
That information was given to him by Sigfredo, who got
(28:12):
it from Katie, who got it from Wendy. He's asked
if he thinks Wendy talked to Katie about Dan's travel plans.
He said yes, but he also wasn't there for that call.
He did not personally know Wendy, but knew she wanted
her kids. He does admit to driving the Prius scene
on video to Dan's house. He said they pulled into
(28:33):
the driveway, Sigfredo jumped out Dan's in the car. He
shot him twice through the window, and he said it
was only seconds they were in that driveway. Rivera said
he was not going to be the shooter because he
didn't want to do it. On the bus video they
show you see Sigfredo kind of jumping around in the
passenger seat. Rivera said he was trying to hide the gun. Eventually,
(28:56):
Sigfredo tossed that gun into the ocean. Somewhere on the
way back to Miami from an overpass. He said. At
one point they stopped to eat and then they went
to the ATM in Miami, and they show him the
photos from that. The first phone call after the shooting
was to Katie buy Sigfredo. He could hear Katie on
the other end and Sigfredo let her know what was
(29:17):
done and to get the money. He said, he got
the money. The next day, he got a call from
Katie who was looking for him to give him his money.
He said, she never calls him, but she couldn't get
Sigfredo on the phone. At that point, Sigfredo was living
with another woman whose nickname is Shrimp. He was not
living with Katie, and again they were just on again,
off again. He was in the barber shop and Katie
(29:40):
and Sigfredo went to his house and his significant other
called him. He got thirty five thousand dollars, and he
said it was weird because the money was stapled into
bundles of one thousand dollars in each bundle and he
had never seen that before. Sigfredo bought a motorcycle in
a car and Rivera bought a motorcycle. He said he
thinks they bought those about a month after the murder.
(30:01):
Rivera said he did not know Charlie had a safe
full of money, and he didn't know Charlie was the
one paying for it. And he kind of grins as
he says this, And he said, if I did, I
would have just robbed Charlie himself. And he said, in fact,
he suggested on the way to Tallahassee just that, but
Sigfredo said it wouldn't work. If I recall correctly from
(30:22):
another trial where he testified, he suggested robbing the lady,
meaning Wendy. Rivera identified voices on a phone call for
law enforcement, but they don't bring those in and he
will definitely be back up on the stand at some point.
But the defense did get up and cross. She says,
I want to make sure I understand the first trip
you scoped Dan's house, you saw him take the kids
(30:44):
to school, and then he lost you. On the second trip,
you knew he would take them to school, and you
followed him again, and you knew he would go to
the gym. Rivera said he did not know Dan was
going to the gym. Defense, you said the woman who
wanted him to be killed. Pass you, sigfreto, and she
says Katie, But Katie wasn't there. This is when Rivera
(31:05):
says he saw Wendy walking with the boys near Dan's house.
But the defense asked, was that Wendy Adelson and he said, yes, defense,
she wanted her children, and he said absolutely. You see here,
this is very different than Charlie's trial, y'all. She is
not going the extortion route for her defense. She's just
(31:27):
going to say that the state hasn't proven their case.
Now in openings, Charlie was thrown under the bus, and
just here they wanted that jury to hear Wendy wanted
her children. It's going to be really awkward in that
courtroom Monday when Wendy takes the stand. Now at this point,
she's going to take him a document and she calls
him mister Garcia and he says, Rivera, that's twice I
(31:49):
put that little clip on YouTube, by the way, and
she apologized. She hands him a paper that has a
photo of everyone's face. Now on March eleventh, twenty twenty five,
he made marks on that paper and signed it, and
he was asked to circle everyone involved in the conspiracy.
The defense asked to put a number one in a circle,
(32:09):
who was the person who was in charge of this
whole deal. He circled Katie. Then they asked who did
this killing, so he circled Stigfredo and put a number
two there. They asked him to put a number three
next to himself and he did, and then put number
four next to the man was killed, and he did
with a photo of Dan. And we asked you to
put a number five next to the person that wanted
(32:31):
the man killed, and that was Wendy Rivera says yes.
Then they asked about the two people at the top
of the page, Donna and Harvey, and then we asked
if you knew if they had any involvement in this,
and you said no. So I asked you to put
xes by them and you did. He says, yes, there's
(32:52):
no redirect here. It took me a minute, you guys,
but I wanted to read this handwritten page that they
brought up an openings where Donna had allegedly asked these
jail house informants to memorize this to eventually testify at
this trial. So the way this is written as if
this inmate has approached Donna in jail to give her information.
(33:17):
But this all came from Donna's head. According to the inmate,
here is what was on that paper as far as
I could read. The question why did you speak to her?
The answer, I knew I had information about Katie from
the many times I've been with her in jail. Question
what did you tell her? Answer? I approached her. I
told her I had some information about Katie and did
(33:38):
she want to hear it? She said yes, I told
her Katie said. She told Charlie on the night of
the murder that some friends of hers went to Tallahassee
and killed him. She asked Charlie to give her the
one third of a million dollars that he was going
to pay so his sister could relocate with her children
to Miami. He went crazy on her. Now, that probably
(34:00):
isn't all of it. That's just what they showed on screen.
So that is it for day one. It was very
interesting and we finally got a peek of what happened
with this extra investigation that started later last year with
these Jeilhouse informants. You got Donna writing scripts, tell them
memorize it and like I said in the recap for opening,
(34:21):
she was offering them money, a place to live, veneers, prescriptions,
things like that. Allegedly, this is gonna be one to watch.
Nine thirty am on Monday is the start time. They
do have to address some things about a witness. I
assume it's Wendy, but the state still has some preparation
over the weekend to get through before they're ready to
(34:43):
do whatever it is they're gonna do. So the judge
told both sides to be there at eight thirty. The
jury reports at nine point fifteen with a start time
of nine thirty am on Monday, and again, fully expect
Wendy Adelson to take the Stand's gonna be a huge day,
so come watch live with the alibiers. I'll be live streaming.
I'll be doing YouTube shorts throughout the day, and again
(35:06):
at night I will do a recap of the day's
best testimony in an hour or less. Appreciate all y'all
that hung out today. We had some good conversations and
it's always fun watching with a group of people that
have followed this case for many years. All Right, that's it,
you guys, have a good weekend. I'm taking it off.
We will see you Monday.
Watching know Alibyers. Welcome to another episode of Pretty Lies
and Alibis. I'm Jiji. It's Friday, August twenty second day
one of the Donna Adelson trial. In the books, I
never thought I would see this day come, but here
we are. Interesting day. Luis rivera last one on the stand.
He's finished for now. He will definitely be recalled at
(00:21):
a later time, and Monday morning, I believe Wendy Adelson
will be first up on the stand. She was in
the courthouse today with her attorney but did not make
it up there, so come watch live with us. Also,
if you're not subscribed on YouTube, don't forget to hit
subscribe and click that bell icon if you want notifications
(00:41):
of when I post new content. Today, I did a
few YouTube shorts to tell you guys some things that
happened in real time, so I wouldn't have to wait
until tonight. So if you want those kind of updates,
ring my bell. If you don't know, I've already put
out the recap of opening statements by the state and
the defense, So if you haven't watched that yet, just
go look on my page. It should be right there.
(01:04):
Let's hop into the first witnesses. First up was James Geiger.
He is Dan's neighbor. He and his wife were looking
towards Truscott and heard a loud, popping bang sound. He
immediately got up and walked to this big picture window
at the front of their house to see where it
came from. They bring in a photo of his residence
that shows the view from that window, and something got
(01:27):
his attention. He saw a car rapidly backing out and
heading towards Beton Road. He said, the car was going
fast and he noticed it appeared to be a light
colored Prius. That was so key in this investigation, y'all.
He gave them their first big clue that ultimately led
to Sigfredo and Rivera. He said, there have been some
(01:50):
break ins in the neighborhood and he thought maybe somebody
was trying to break into Dan's house, so he walked
over to see if he could see any damage to
the house. He got right there at the garage and
the garage door was open and the car was running
and he saw Danny inside. So he turned around and
walked back to his house. He stood at his front
window and looked out, waiting about five minutes and realized
(02:12):
this did not seem right. He said. Danny hadn't backed out,
and he told his wife, I think something's wrong. I'm
gonna walk back over. He goes towards the garage and
gets inside, and he notices the car is still running,
so he walked in all the way to make sure
everything was okay. That's when he noticed the window to
Dan's car was shattered and he was stepping on glass.
(02:34):
Then he sees what he says is a bloody head,
and the head was slowly rolling back and forth. So
he hollered out Danny what happened, and he got no response.
He hollered again, nothing, so he knew he needed to
call EMS. He realized his cell phone wasn't in his pocket,
so he ran to his house and called nine to
(02:56):
one one. He said, from the time he saw the
previous lead to when nine to one one was called
was between five to ten minutes. They bring in photos
of Dan's driveway and also photos of the Prius that
were captured on that city bus camera. Going back, he said,
when Danny and Wendy moved in, they had a housewarming
(03:16):
party and that's when they first met. But after that
they really weren't close. He said they had their kids
close together, and later on they knew that Wendy left
Dan and that they were divorcing. They barely saw Danny
after that and didn't see the kids. He said it
took forever. After calling nine one one, they were asking
questions like is he still breathing? So he would go check,
(03:39):
and he said Dan's head would still be rolling left
to right. They play the nine to one one call
and he really just recounts on the call what he
just testified to. He didn't know if somebody shot him
or if he maybe did it to himself. The nine
to one one call was fourteen minutes long. He said
it took about twelve minutes for the first officer to
(04:01):
arrive on scene, in around nineteen minutes for paramedics to
get to Danny's home. That was it for his testimony,
and there was no cross and bless his heart, y'all.
He just seems like a sweet older man and I'm
sure what he saw that day will haunt him. The
next witness David Simms. He is a retired sergeant from
the Tallahassee Police Department. He heard the call go out
(04:24):
about the shooting and he arrived on scene. First he
made contact with mister Geiger, and they show photos of
the car in the garage. He said it was running
when he got there. He called out to Dan and
saw the window was broken at an angle, and then
he saw that rounded spot which is where the bullet entered.
He said. Dan was slumped over and gasping for air.
(04:46):
He said it was like a sucking sound. He noticed
that half of his glasses were in his lap. Dan
had a cell phone in his left hand and a
business card in his right hand. Remember, he was talking
to that school that when he wanted to enroll the
boys in when he got shot. The sergeant reached in
where the glass was broken to unlock the car, so
(05:07):
he went over to the other side and turned the
ignition off. It was then that he saw the other
half of Dan's glasses on the floorboard. They show pictures
of the shattered glass and then he said at this
point he could hear ems coming. After he heard the sirens,
he pulled out a gym bag so the ems could
make better entry and get to Dan quicker. They show
(05:29):
photos of half of the glasses laying on the floor
of the garage and what happened is when they were
treating him or moving him that and his cell phone
fell out onto the garage floor. He said there was
no indication this was a robbery and no sign of
a struggle. There was no cross by the defense. The
next witness Joe Amne Maltese. She is retired from the
(05:51):
Tallahassee Police Department where she worked as a forensic specialist.
She took photos of the crime scene. Now during her testimony,
Donna was emotional. I didn't see any tears, but also
I wasn't there, but from where I sat here in
my studio, I didn't see any tears. They go through
all of those pictures. They bring in Dan's glasses and
(06:14):
lens into the courtroom. She tried to get prints from
the scene. She dusted the entire exterior of the car,
but there was nothing of value. She did some swabbing
inside the car. She also swabbed the doorknob on the
door that leads into the house. Nothing of value found.
They bring in Dan's wallet and then she also took
(06:36):
photos of Wendy's minivent inside and out, and they bring
in the photo of the bullet bourbon that Wendy bought
that day along with the receipt. The purchase was made
July eighteenth, twenty fourteen, the day of the murder, at
twelve forty nine pm, from an ABC liquor store. She
also went to the hospital to document Dan's injuries and
(06:58):
collect any evidence. They show photos of Dan in the
hospital and Joel from Surviving. The survivor is in the
courtroom and said that Dan's mom, Ruth had to leave.
His sister looked down, but his daddy looked at those photos.
As they're showing all of these photos of him in
the hospital, Donna is doing her emotional thing. The next
(07:20):
witness is doctor Clark. He was the medical examiner who
did the autopsy on Dan the next day, July nineteenth,
twenty fourteen. They show a photo of an X ray
and he points out the two bullets as well as
the fragments. They show an identification photo that they take
after they clean somebody up. He said there was a
(07:41):
lot of damage to the left side of Dan's face
and he had those two bullet wounds. One of the
gunshots was irregular, he said, the way it hit the bone,
it caused damage. He had swelling in his face as
well as those raccoon eyes. He also had superficial abrasions
and they were different sizes. He explains, when a bullet
(08:01):
goes through a window or something like that, it causes
splintering and then that hits the skin and leaves those marks.
He had that on the left side of his face,
his neck, and his ear. On the left side of
Dan's neck and ear, there was extensive pseudo stippling. He
had bleeding into the left side of his face with
(08:23):
distorting of the face, and that drained into his neck.
The other gunshot wound was pretty much between his eyebrows.
It wasn't round because of the bone shelf, and the
finer stippling on the forehead was from gunpowder that would
put the muzzle close to Dan by inches. On his
left forearm, he had a ring of soot and stippling,
(08:46):
and that would be consistent with Dan having his arm up.
He said the arm was likely put up to the
center of the head in a defensive type stance. He
also had stippling from his glasses being hit by the bullet.
He explains that stippling from gunfire is smaller and irregular.
He also had some other gunpowder stippling on his arm,
(09:08):
and that would put the distance between Dan and the
gun at an average of eighteen to twenty four inches away.
The first shot, he believes was to the left cheek
area through that windshield and it fractured his jaw and
his left cheekbone. That was not immediately fatal. The second
shot to the forehead that would be your fatal gun
(09:30):
shot wound. They show photos of the projectiles they recovered
after Dan passed away. He said that Dan lived around
eleven hours after being shot. There was no cross by defense.
Next up was Craig Isisom from the Tallahassee Police Department.
He was the one that interviewed Wendy, but first after
the shooting. He approached her at a restaurant on Market
(09:52):
Street around two fifteen pm. She was with others and
he said he needed to speak to her privately. So
he got her about fifteen teen feet away and said
he needed to talk about something that happened with Dan.
He told her her kids were at daycare and they
were fine. So I stand corrected, I said on the
crash course, Wendy never asked about her kids, and she
(10:13):
didn't because he told her right out of the gate
they were fine. He told her several times in the
interview that she wasn't a suspect. She was given a
victim's advocate, and he said he never accused her of anything.
He did learn they were still battling things, including child custody,
so they bring in the divorce file. He said. They
fought over things as small as a tennis racket. They
(10:36):
explained about Wendy wanting to relocate to Miami, and they
bring in documents that they know Donna saw. It was
about Dan wanting that supervised visitation with Donna that was
pending at the time of his death. And the reason
for that, he says, is because the kids reflected that
Grandma says you're stupid and she hates you. They refer
(10:56):
to the emails between Donna and Wendy where she calls
him a lot of names like Elvis and Ahole. In
an email from Donna to Wendy on March six, twenty thirteen,
she calls him a major effort. May third, twenty thirteen,
Donna email Wendy referencing relocation and said it was extremely
important to Donna. The relocation was denied on June twentieth,
(11:21):
twenty thirteen. On June twenty fifth, there is an email
from Donna to Wendy where Donna proposed another plan to
facilitate relocation in light of the court's ruling. She suggested
the boys start attending a Christian or Catholic church, suggested
that Wendy take photos and send those to Dan as
a way to strong arm him into relocation. She also
(11:45):
suggested the one million dollar bribe the death benefits gained
by Wendy after Dan's murder. There was a life insurance
policy for two million dollars and then another for sixty
thousand dollars through the law school. The survivor benefits for
the boys was forty eight hundred a month, which Wendy
would have gotten and controlled. His employment pension through FSU
(12:08):
was worth approximately three hundred thousand. The total value of
Dan's estate when he was killed was two point seven
million dollars. One thing to note is, at some point,
and I would venture I guess it was after the divorce,
he named his sister as the executor of his estate.
So we're not exactly sure how much Wendy got and
(12:29):
how much was in his sister's control. If you know that,
let me know. In the comments. He goes through a
timeline of the day of the shooting. At eight point
fifty am, Dan dropped the kids off at preschool, then
he went to the gym across town. They show surveillance
of the parking lot of that gym. At nine to eleven,
you see Dan's car into the parking lot, he gets
(12:51):
out and you see him walk in the door at
nine thirteen. At nine sixteen, you see that prius come
into the parking lot and the car parks and nobody
gets out. It stays in the parking lot the entire
time that Dan is inside the gym. By ten thirty three,
Dan leaves, that prius follows him. They looked at the
logical route to Dan's house from the gym and they
(13:15):
tried to get surveillance. That's when they got the city
bus video from before and actually after the shooting. At
ten forty four am, you see Dan's car on some surveillance,
then you see the prius is right behind him. Another
video is an overhead look from the city bus that
pulled in right behind the Prius at a red light.
(13:35):
They could not get the tag number from the video,
and the investigator said that would have saved them a
lot of time if they could have. At ten fifty
one am, you see the Prius in the left turn
lane at an intersection, but Dan went down the road
and turned. But that turn the Prius made would have
also taken you to Dan's house. At ten fifty five,
(13:56):
the Prius has left Dan's house and is on the move.
So the window they figured where Dan was shot was
between ten fifty one and ten to fifty five am.
After the shooting. From the city bus video, you see
two people in the front seat of the Prius. Sigfredo
is in the passenger seat in a white shirt and
he is very animated. The driver is in a solid
(14:18):
black shirt. He also points out on the Prius the
side mirror is solid black, where usually it's the same
color as the car, so they knew that had been replaced.
They also see that sun pass which is what you
go through tolls with, in the top of the windshield,
and also on the lower bumper there is a toehook
(14:39):
that could be threaded in. Normally it has a cap,
but this Prius it's missing. Their research showed this was
a two thousand and six to two thousand and nine
Prius and the color was Silver Pine Micah eleven oh
two am you get that nine to one one call?
And the investigation had two different prongs, the motive and
(14:59):
the prius. They tracked the sub pass by calling the
Florida Dot they're the ones who administer those, he said.
They gave him thousands of results and he was overwhelmed
and it didn't really narrow anything down quickly at that
time though, Some Pass was mainly for Orlando and to
the south, and while mister Isom was following up on
(15:22):
the some Pass leads, Sergeant Corbett was looking for phones
of interest at Premiere Jim and then traveling the route
the suspects took to go to Dan's. Initially, because of
the large number of cars, they started looking to South
Florida for cars going through the interchange where you get
on a turnpike from I seventy five, but that was
(15:43):
a bust. But once the phone analysis was done, they
had a better idea that there was one particular phone
number and tracking that phone to Naples and crossing over
Alligator Alley on seventy five west to east towards Broward County.
It was a different route than what they would expect
from somebody coming from Tallahassee down to Miami. Once they
(16:06):
had that established, he contacted SunPass again and explained the
car they were looking for and they want to see
if it went through this toll plaza in Naples going westbound.
Once he gave them that information and the time frame,
just within a couple of minutes, it showed an activation
of the sun Pass at the Naples toll plaza. It
(16:28):
showed only one Prius went through, and that's when they
determined that Prius was headed back to South Florida. They
backtracked and found that on July sixteenth, that same sun
Pass activated through Brower County to the other end of
the toll plaza and then cut across Alligator Alley up
seventy five, and that was confirmed through phone records as well.
(16:50):
They did get a photo of the license plate from
the toll plaza. Then they were able to identify the
sun Pass and the customer who bought it. That led
them to a rental place in Miami called Save Gas.
When law enforcement went there, the owners found documentation related
to that rental. It was Rivera that rented it, and
(17:11):
he put his real phone number and his real address
on there. As well as Sigfredo's phone number and had
him listed as brother. The car was rented July fifteenth,
twenty fourteen. It was due back on the seventeenth, but
wasn't turned in until the twenty first. They show a
chart with photos of the key players and their cell
phone numbers, and it confirmed that both Rivera and Sigfredo's
(17:35):
numbers were the ones he used on that contract to
rent the car. They still couldn't establish any connection to
the Adelson family. Eventually they learned that Katie was the
mother of Sigfredo's children and considered each other's spouses. And
at the same time they find this out, they also
find out she's been dating Charlie Adelson. That was the
(17:56):
only connection they could find to Dan Markel also that
was later confirmed by the investigation and testimony they investigated
Katie her employment included Her employment at the time of
the murder was at another dental office. Post murder, she
started getting checks from the Adelson Institute. The Adelson Institute
was operated by Charlie and Harvey Aidelson. Charlie is a
(18:19):
periodontist and Harvey a dentist. Donna was in the clerical
department she kept books for the business. They go into
the Adelson Institute. He and special Agent Sanford from the
FBI went there and served a subpoena for her employment records,
and initially they got nothing. He said later on, the
best he could get from an attorney who represented the
(18:41):
dental office was a list of checks paid to Katie
from the Adelson Institute. There were no W two's, no
responsibility form, and nothing showing she was employed there. The
employees they talked to that day initially had no idea
who Katie was, but another person came up to the front.
Her name is Erica Johnson. She knew Katie's name, but
(19:04):
did not know what her responsibilities were. There. There was
nothing at all regarding any proof of employment other than
the checks which started two months after the murders, and
that actually was September eighteenth, twenty fourteen, and they ended
in March of twenty sixteen. He thinks it could have
went into May of twenty sixteen, but those checks stopped
(19:26):
shortly after the bump. The documentation provided by the Adelson
Institute showed the checks were in consecutive order and Donna
signed every single one. Katie was arrested October first, twenty sixteen,
during the day and Isom was present for that. She
contacted her attorney from that scene, and the witness talked
(19:48):
to her attorney and said he was interested in getting
information from Katie about the other parties, maybe providing testimony
about the other players, and if she wanted to cooperate
with the investigator, to call him back and he would
go meet with her at the jail. Less than twenty
minutes later, he got a call from a man named
David Marcus who said he was representing Charlie and said
(20:11):
if Charlie was going to be arrested, to contact him now.
There was an objection by the defense that was sustained,
so on cross exam they point out he was the
lead investigator on this case until his retirement. The defense
asked if he learned that Donna and Harvey lived in Miami,
and the witness said, actually they were in Coral Springs.
The defense asked if Donna and Harvey had a condo
(20:33):
on Miami Beach, and the witness said they ended up there,
but he doesn't know at the time of the homicide
if they lived on Miami Beach. As they made that
connection between Sigfredo and Rivera to Katie, then that connection
to Charlie. You see Katie's unemployment status and she's still
paying her bills in South Florida. The defense asks, did
(20:54):
Donna and Harvey share emails and Wendy told you that
in her interview. The witness doesn't remember or if Wendy
mentioned they shared emails or not. The defense says, you
identified emails, and these are emails between Donna and Wendy. Yes, defense,
and some of these my client called Danny bad names,
but she never said she hated him. And the witness
(21:14):
said that came through the grandchildren. The defense points out
they were around three and four. The witness said, they
were young. You testified about a bribe. You're not a
family law attorney, and you have no idea if it's
okay to offer a financial incentive when it comes to relocation.
The witness is like, this is not m realm. You
testified about the life insurance, the pension, and some of
(21:37):
those funds went to his kids with Wendy as the custodian.
The witness says some, but some of that money also
went to Dan's sister. The defense asked, did Donna receive
benefit from Dan's pension or anything. No. When my client
suggested dressing the kids up or putting them in the
Catholic church, Wendy didn't do that, did she? And the
witness says no. The Adelson Institute had a couple of
(21:59):
employe he's there at the time, and the defense asked
did they have a written job description or job review?
And he doesn't know, but he says, you would think
with them working on people's mouths, there'd be some scrutiny. Defense,
you said you got a call from Charlie's attorney after
Katie's arrest, not Donna's. No, is it unusual for an
attorney to inquire if there's a warrant for their client's arrest.
(22:22):
And the witness said, it was shocking to be within
that short timeframe for that call, and the only way
that person had knowledge would be through Katie's attorney and
the man identifying himself as Charlie's attorney. That's where it
had to come from because at that point the media
was not unseen and nothing was made public about her arrest.
At that point, they ask about the grandmother motion and say,
(22:45):
you're educated absent some legal knowledge, can you interpret what's
being requested in the motion, and the witness said, I
think it's pretty plain. So back to the emails between
Wendy and Donna. There is an evite from June third,
twenty fourteen, for Harvey's big birthday. It's to Wendy, Ben
and Lincoln. Do you know how these are generated? And
the witness says, well, somebody has to go in and
(23:06):
set it up and send them out. So they go
through emails from twenty fourteen, which is Donna Harvey at
gmail dot com with Harvey's name next to it, not Donna's.
In one email from September twelfth, twenty fourteen, it says
Lincoln Williton Todd Shabbat with his grandfather Harvey. In another
email from Donna Harvey at Gmail on Friday July eighteenth,
(23:29):
Harvey's name is who it's from, and it says Wendy,
this is the information on work order for repair for
TV July eighteenth, twenty fourteen, between eight and twelve, and
its signed Dad. Defence says my client isn't Dad, is she?
The witness says no. They show a geek squad schedule
with a Q and A that asks if an earlier
(23:50):
appointment is available, would you accept it? And it says yes.
On redirect, the defense pointed out that Harvey and Donna
share an email and some are signed Dad and some
signed mom. The witness says yes, so they point out
an email from May third, twenty thirteen. She reads a
little bit. It says the most important part of your
divorce's relocation and going to the end. It says love you,
(24:12):
and she asks who signed that, and the witness says mom.
There was another email June twenty seventh, twenty thirteen, signed
mom and Dad. Yes. And the state points out, so
they got some emails from mom, some from mom and
dad Yes, And that was it for him for now.
He will be back up at some point. And the
last witness of the day Luis Rivera. He explains he's
(24:35):
from Puerto Rico and he lived in Miami. He is
incarcerated for this case currently as well as a federal sentence.
He pleaded guilty two second degree murder and got nineteen
years to run. Concurrent with that federal sentence, he said
he and Sigfredo were childhood friends and he had to
turn on one of his best friends to get the deal.
He's asked if Katie enlisted Sigfredo to be part of
(24:57):
the murder. When he's asked who enlisted Katie, he he
says he's not really sure, but he knew this was
a murder for hire. Katie brought them the money, and
the purpose of the murder was that Wendy wanted the kids,
and he knew they were there to kill the father
of the kids so that she could have them. He
named Wendy a couple of times during this testimony. By
(25:18):
the way, they ask about the dentist, he said it
was Charlie, who was Katie's boyfriend or side piece or
whatever you want to call him. He never had contact
with Charlie or the Adelson's and he knows nothing about them.
He was to be paid thirty five thousand, and he
doesn't know how much the job paid, but he knows
Sigfredo got forty thousand and Katie got forty thousand, and
(25:40):
ultimately in the end it was for a total of
around one hundred thousand dollars. Garcia got that one time payment,
and then he's asked if he knew anything about Dan No.
Katie gave Sigfredo a paper showing Dan's photo and his
home address. He had never been to Tallahassee before, but
he came twice, once in June and then in July.
They show a photo of Sigfredo, Katie Rivera, and his
(26:04):
significant other who is named Jessica. At the time of
the murder, Katie was with both Sigfredo and Charlie. Rivera
was living with his significant other, Jessica, where he was living.
That was put on the rental application for the Prius.
The first trip, the car was rented by Sigfredo. Sigfredo
was the one that had the paper with Dan's photo
(26:26):
on both trips. The first trip they followed him to
see where he lived, and he can't remember if they
were actually going to kill him on that first trip,
so he's asked if they had a gun, and he
said yes. They brought two along, one of those he
purchased himself, and then Sigfredo brought his thirty eight along
as well. On that first trip, they did go to
(26:47):
Dan's residence and the reason was to scope it out,
and they followed him to the daycare. On that first
trip they were in Tallahassee a couple of days. He
said the reason Dan wasn't killed on that first trip
is Rivera said he wasn't gonna do it in front
of the kids, and Dan had the kids. And then
they also lost sight of Dan at the preschool. He
(27:08):
was told they needed to go back and do the
job if they wanted to get the money. That information
came from Sigfredo. So Rivera rented the Prius. They both
brought their phones, and they both turned them off before
the shooting. On that second trip, they rented a hotel room,
but they only brought one gun. It was a thirty
eight Revolver. Then they asked about when there was a
(27:28):
hole shot in the floor of the Prius, and Rivera
kind of chuckles, and he says Sigfredo got the gun
and shot it through the floorboard of the passenger side,
which hit the gas line. He said, the car started
slowing down little by little. They saw a local drug
dealer that they happened to meet the first trip, who
took Sigfredo to AutoZone to get a piece of hose
(27:49):
to put that back together. He said Sigfredo was good
with cars, so he fixed that gas line. They followed
Dan to the pre school and they saw him drop
the kids off, then they followed him to the gym.
He's asked by the state if there was a reason
the murder had to happen that day, and he said
because Dan was going out of town the next day.
That information was given to him by Sigfredo, who got
(28:12):
it from Katie, who got it from Wendy. He's asked
if he thinks Wendy talked to Katie about Dan's travel plans.
He said yes, but he also wasn't there for that call.
He did not personally know Wendy, but knew she wanted
her kids. He does admit to driving the Prius scene
on video to Dan's house. He said they pulled into
(28:33):
the driveway, Sigfredo jumped out Dan's in the car. He
shot him twice through the window, and he said it
was only seconds they were in that driveway. Rivera said
he was not going to be the shooter because he
didn't want to do it. On the bus video they
show you see Sigfredo kind of jumping around in the
passenger seat. Rivera said he was trying to hide the gun. Eventually,
(28:56):
Sigfredo tossed that gun into the ocean. Somewhere on the
way back to Miami from an overpass. He said. At
one point they stopped to eat and then they went
to the ATM in Miami, and they show him the
photos from that. The first phone call after the shooting
was to Katie buy Sigfredo. He could hear Katie on
the other end and Sigfredo let her know what was
(29:17):
done and to get the money. He said, he got
the money. The next day, he got a call from
Katie who was looking for him to give him his money.
He said, she never calls him, but she couldn't get
Sigfredo on the phone. At that point, Sigfredo was living
with another woman whose nickname is Shrimp. He was not
living with Katie, and again they were just on again,
off again. He was in the barber shop and Katie
(29:40):
and Sigfredo went to his house and his significant other
called him. He got thirty five thousand dollars, and he
said it was weird because the money was stapled into
bundles of one thousand dollars in each bundle and he
had never seen that before. Sigfredo bought a motorcycle in
a car and Rivera bought a motorcycle. He said he
thinks they bought those about a month after the murder.
(30:01):
Rivera said he did not know Charlie had a safe
full of money, and he didn't know Charlie was the
one paying for it. And he kind of grins as
he says this, And he said, if I did, I
would have just robbed Charlie himself. And he said, in fact,
he suggested on the way to Tallahassee just that, but
Sigfredo said it wouldn't work. If I recall correctly from
(30:22):
another trial where he testified, he suggested robbing the lady,
meaning Wendy. Rivera identified voices on a phone call for
law enforcement, but they don't bring those in and he
will definitely be back up on the stand at some point.
But the defense did get up and cross. She says,
I want to make sure I understand the first trip
you scoped Dan's house, you saw him take the kids
(30:44):
to school, and then he lost you. On the second trip,
you knew he would take them to school, and you
followed him again, and you knew he would go to
the gym. Rivera said he did not know Dan was
going to the gym. Defense, you said the woman who
wanted him to be killed. Pass you, sigfreto, and she
says Katie, But Katie wasn't there. This is when Rivera
(31:05):
says he saw Wendy walking with the boys near Dan's house.
But the defense asked, was that Wendy Adelson and he said, yes, defense,
she wanted her children, and he said absolutely. You see here,
this is very different than Charlie's trial, y'all. She is
not going the extortion route for her defense. She's just
(31:27):
going to say that the state hasn't proven their case.
Now in openings, Charlie was thrown under the bus, and
just here they wanted that jury to hear Wendy wanted
her children. It's going to be really awkward in that
courtroom Monday when Wendy takes the stand. Now at this point,
she's going to take him a document and she calls
him mister Garcia and he says, Rivera, that's twice I
(31:49):
put that little clip on YouTube, by the way, and
she apologized. She hands him a paper that has a
photo of everyone's face. Now on March eleventh, twenty twenty five,
he made marks on that paper and signed it, and
he was asked to circle everyone involved in the conspiracy.
The defense asked to put a number one in a circle,
(32:09):
who was the person who was in charge of this
whole deal. He circled Katie. Then they asked who did
this killing, so he circled Stigfredo and put a number
two there. They asked him to put a number three
next to himself and he did, and then put number
four next to the man was killed, and he did
with a photo of Dan. And we asked you to
put a number five next to the person that wanted
(32:31):
the man killed, and that was Wendy Rivera says yes.
Then they asked about the two people at the top
of the page, Donna and Harvey, and then we asked
if you knew if they had any involvement in this,
and you said no. So I asked you to put
xes by them and you did. He says, yes, there's
(32:52):
no redirect here. It took me a minute, you guys,
but I wanted to read this handwritten page that they
brought up an openings where Donna had allegedly asked these
jail house informants to memorize this to eventually testify at
this trial. So the way this is written as if
this inmate has approached Donna in jail to give her information.
(33:17):
But this all came from Donna's head. According to the inmate,
here is what was on that paper as far as
I could read. The question why did you speak to her?
The answer, I knew I had information about Katie from
the many times I've been with her in jail. Question
what did you tell her? Answer? I approached her. I
told her I had some information about Katie and did
(33:38):
she want to hear it? She said yes, I told
her Katie said. She told Charlie on the night of
the murder that some friends of hers went to Tallahassee
and killed him. She asked Charlie to give her the
one third of a million dollars that he was going
to pay so his sister could relocate with her children
to Miami. He went crazy on her. Now, that probably
(34:00):
isn't all of it. That's just what they showed on screen.
So that is it for day one. It was very
interesting and we finally got a peek of what happened
with this extra investigation that started later last year with
these Jeilhouse informants. You got Donna writing scripts, tell them
memorize it and like I said in the recap for opening,
(34:21):
she was offering them money, a place to live, veneers, prescriptions,
things like that. Allegedly, this is gonna be one to watch.
Nine thirty am on Monday is the start time. They
do have to address some things about a witness. I
assume it's Wendy, but the state still has some preparation
over the weekend to get through before they're ready to
(34:43):
do whatever it is they're gonna do. So the judge
told both sides to be there at eight thirty. The
jury reports at nine point fifteen with a start time
of nine thirty am on Monday, and again, fully expect
Wendy Adelson to take the Stand's gonna be a huge day,
so come watch live with the alibiers. I'll be live streaming.
I'll be doing YouTube shorts throughout the day, and again
(35:06):
at night I will do a recap of the day's
best testimony in an hour or less. Appreciate all y'all
that hung out today. We had some good conversations and
it's always fun watching with a group of people that
have followed this case for many years. All Right, that's it,
you guys, have a good weekend. I'm taking it off.
We will see you Monday.
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