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Donna Adelson Feuded With Murder Victim Dan Markel Over Kosher Meals For Her Grandchildren

Paul Caron
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New York Sun, Wealthy Grandmother Charged in Law Professor’s Murder Was ‘Conductor’ of Dentist Family, Feuded With Murder Victim Over Kosher Meals for Grandkids:

Adelson (Donna Mug Shot 2)Donna Adelson, now in jail awaiting trial for the contract murder of Dan Markel, would feed Markel’s children McDonald’s cheeseburgers, in defiance of Jewish dietary laws, according to Markel’s mother.

Donna Adelson is not one to sit idly by. That’s according to the grieving mother of the late Dan Markel. And it’s likely prosecutors will try to convince a jury of that same narrative when 73-year-old Donna, now sitting in a Florida county jail, heads to trial in September for Dan’s contract killing. …

Donna is in the hot seat after being charged, almost ten years later, of conspiring with Charlie and others to kill Dan. … When it’s her time to stand trial on September 30, prosecutors will aim to convince a jury that Donna was motivated to seek Dan’s demise because of her desire for control over her family and animosity towards Dan.

During the divorce proceedings, Dan was deploying his considerable legal skills to assiduously block Wendi from moving with their two young sons to her family stomping ground of Miami, an at least eight hour drive from Dan’s job in far less glamorous Tallahassee. As tensions increased with Donna, and Danny came to believe she was poisoning his relationship with his sons, he requested that a judge issue a protective order that would require Donna to be supervised when visiting her grandchildren. Contemporaneous messages between Donna and Wendi reveal that Donna was enraged by Dan’s maneuvers.

“Donna was the major interference,” Ruth said of her son’s growing rift with Wendi prior to their divorce and nasty custody battle. “This is not a normal relationship now. It’s like Princess Diana said, ‘There were 3 in the marriage.’”

In detailing some of the events that led to the couple’s split, Ruth talked about how Wendi and Donna began to go behind Dan’s back to give the couple’s two children foods “that are not a part of the Jewish dietary law.” And Donna allegedly proved to be particularly menacing when it came to feeding the children a non-kosher diet.

“When Wendi and Danny had agreements to take kosher food to the daycare, Donna was the one who came in and said, ‘Don’t bother giving them tofu hot dogs, don’t do that,’ and then she takes them to McDonald’s and gives them cheeseburgers.”

Eating a McDonald’s cheeseburger would violate multiple Jewish dietary laws: eating in an religiously unclean establishment, eating meat that was not butchered according to kosher laws, and mixing milk (cheese) and meat, which is proscribed. …

Another podcast guest who spoke about Donna’s potential motivations for Dan’s killing was Carl Steinbeck – a former prosecutor and defense attorney who shares criminal case commentary on his YouTube Channel Jury Trial Mentor. He commented on emails sent from Donna to Wendi after Wendi’s petition to relocate her and Dan’s children was denied. …

Even though he believes Donna played a “key role” in how everything went down, Mr. Steinbeck did say he thought Wendi was at the root of the bitterness that led to the ensuing disaster.

“I think Donna had more the uncontrolled rage towards Dan, but Wendi was the one that was feeding her all the details to get her to that point of rage and to the point of wanting to get Dan murdered and executed in his own garage,” Mr. Steinbeck explained. “So, if you really think about who is starting the whole chain of events it was really Wendi more than anybody.”

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About the Author

Paul Caron Avatar
Paul Caron
Paul Caron was named Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of Pepperdine University School of Law on June 1, 2017. Dean Caron joined the Pepperdine faculty in 2013 after serving as the Dorothy and Leonard Straus Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law in the spring semesters of 2010 through 2013. He served as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development at Pepperdine in 2015-2017. Before coming to Pepperdine, he was Associate Dean of Faculty and Charles Hartsock Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
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