Open statements in the Donna Adelson murder trial began Friday in Tallahassee.

“The reason we are here today is because this defendant, Donna Adelson, was involved in the conspiracy to hire a hitman to murder her former son-in-law, Dan Markel,” stated Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan.

“She was the matriarch — and a domineering one at that.”

As CrimeOnline previously reported, Adelson, 75, is accused of planning Markel’s murder.

She’s facing first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation charges, for the 2014 contract killing.

Donna’s son, Charlie Adelson, along with his ex-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua, and hitmen Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, have been found guilty in relation to the case.

Police discovered Markel, a law professor at Florida State University, shot in the head in his driveway in Tallahassee on July 18, 2014. Dan was the former spouse of Wendi Adelson.

Wendi is Donna Adelson’s daughter. Wendi has denied any involvement and has not been charged in the case, AP News reports.

On Monday, the prosecution stated that Markel took his two young sons to daycare and then went to exercise, all the while unaware that two hitmen were trailing him, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

A neighbor said they saw a light-colored Prus driving away from the scene before finding Markel and contacting police.

Investigators later found out that Wendi and Dan’s divorce settlement in 2013 stipulated a 50/50 custody arrangement, but the Adelson family, dissatisfied with the shared custody decision, continued to seek the majority of custody.

Donna Adelason also pushed for Markel to move with the children from Tallahassee to Miami, where the Adelsons lived.

Dugan mentioned that the defendant offered the victim $1 million to permit Wendi and the children to move, after Markel secured a court order preventing them from relocating, the Temple Daily Telegram notes.

“The defendant said that she would never, never, never give up and never stop fighting for Wendi and the boys to be relocated to Miami. And she never did,” Dugan said.

The defendant then resorted to methods in an attempt to “threaten or bully Markel into submissions.”

Donna Adelson, according to the prosecution, told her son Charlie that Markel was a “crazy person” while enlisting her son’s help.

When investigators questioned Wendi, she allegedly claimed that her brother had joked about hiring hitmen.

“When asked by law enforcement if anyone could have killed Dan Markel on her behalf, she also told police about her brother Charlie Adelson.. [he] had joked that he looked into hiring a hitman to kill Dan Markel as a divorce present, but decided to buy her a TV instead because it was cheaper,” Dugan said.

The defense argued that the state didn’t have enough evidence to link Donna Adelson to a murder plot. They pinned the blame on Charlie Adelson, who paid the hitmen to carry out the murder, and his three other convicted co-conspirators.

“It is truly outrageous,” defense lawyer Jackie Fulford said. “But what’s more outrageous is, without any evidence, only motive and theory, they put her at the top of this pyramid.”

“People who know Donna will tell you that she is not the person that the state is portraying her to be. She’s kind, caring, loving. She cares more about people than she does herself.”

Police arrested Donna Adelson in 2023, as she and her husband, Harvey, prepared to board one-way tickets to Vietnam via Dubai—two countries without extradition treaties with the US.

She previously told the court that she had been traumatized after her son’s arrest and needed “some peace, we need to catch our breath, we’re gonna go away somewhere.’”

Check back for updates.

[Feature Photo: Dan Markel/FSU College of Law faculty biographies; Donna Adelson/AP]