GUILTY FL - Dan Markel, 41, FSU Law Professor, Tallahassee, 18 July 2014 *arrests* #11

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Regarding Wendi, I think they mainly want to establish motive and the inclination of her family to go overboard in getting involved in her life (as they apparently did with her older brother). I don't think the judge would have allowed questions about her older brother's opinion about the murder. They are not trying to prove Wendi guilty here and they probably don't want to confuse the jury with the question of Wendi's possible guilt. Their goal is to prove Katherine guilty and, by necessity, show that Charlie had Katie set up the murder.

Regarding Garcia, I'm not a criminal law expert but I don't think Garcia's testimony would be admissible in Charlie's trial. Charlie has the right to confront/cross-examine witnesses who testify against him. JMO.
 
Rest of the tweets (not much) for Friday, May 20th - Day 3

Karl Etters
@KarlEtters
Corbett has been detailing the suspects' movements in Tallahassee and Miami as well as the flurry of communications between them in the days surrounding Dan Markel's murder.

That's it for the first week of trial. Be back at 8:30 Monday morning

link: https://twitter.com/KarlEtters
 
...

Regarding Garcia, I'm not a criminal law expert but I don't think Garcia's testimony would be admissible in Charlie's trial. Charlie has the right to confront/cross-examine witnesses who testify against him. JMO.
You are correct. Before U.S. vs Crawford it would have come in under the testimonial exception to hearsay. However, the Supreme Court ruled in Crawford that the accused right of confrontation trumps the exception to the rule and it won't be allowed. However, assuming Garcia DOES testify that he conspired with Charlie, it will give the Adelsons sleepless nights. If Katie gets convicted, there remains a chance that both Katie and Garcia will finally cooperate. Also, assuming Garcia despises Charlie as much as we've heard, he very well may willingly testify against Charlie once Katie's trial is over anyway.
 
what are the theories? the prosecution tried to have the investigator speak to that call in his testimony yesterday, but the defense objection was sustained.
The call was made on July 1st and was found in the dump of data from the cell phone tower. It was, in fact, the first link between the murder and the Adelson family. In the last trial Ms. Cappleman described it like this:

Meanwhile, law enforcement is still putting together more information about the Prius and the killers. They have gotten a search warrant for all the phone numbers that interacted with the cell tower consistent with people being 1n the area of Premier gym at the time that we know they were there. so, literally, every cell phone that interacted with those towers during that hour period of time. And they cross-referenced all of that data with Mr. Markel and his in-laws. so, basically, have any of the phone numbers that appear on that tower around the time that we know the suspects were at the gym been in contact recently with Dan Markel or with his in-laws or with his ex-wife? The purpose of that was to try to see if there was any link there. And combing through all this data and putting it all together was a very tedious task. But they did find one number with a south Florida exchange which was present both in the area at Pre -- of Premier gym at the time that the killers were there and was linked to a single phone call on July 1st, 2014. so about 17 days before the murder, this number that was at Premier gym, from south Florida, contacted Harvey Adelson. So, the father-in-law of the deceased, husband of Donna Adelson, father of Wendi Adelson. And that number that contacted Harvey Adelson and that was also present at the gym on our date 1n question belonged to Sigfredo Garcia, the defendant 1n this case, AKA Tuto, T-U-T-0. It's a lot. And an examination of Garcia's call logs showed a frequent contact with another number, which also was present on our -- what we're calling tower dump. So, all those numbers that interacted with that cell phone tower at Premier at that time. Another number, no connection with the Adelsons that we found but a frequent caller of Sigfredo Garcia is Luis Rivera. That phone number was also present at Premier at the time that our suspect vehicle was there.

To this day, nobody is sure what this phone call represents. It appears to be either a hang-up or possibly a voice-mail trigger, but we don't know, and we certainly don't know why Garcia would call Harvey Adelson's phone. We may hear an explanation when he takes the stand during the defense case. In the last trial the defense tried to argue that the call was proof there was some connection between Garcia and the Adelsons, thereby disproving the prosecution's claim that Katie Magbanua was the sole link between the dental family and the murderers.
 
The call was made on July 1st and was found in the dump of data from the cell phone tower. It was, in fact, the first link between the murder and the Adelson family. In the last trial Ms. Cappleman described it like this:

Meanwhile, law enforcement is still putting together more information about the Prius and the killers. They have gotten a search warrant for all the phone numbers that interacted with the cell tower consistent with people being 1n the area of Premier gym at the time that we know they were there. so, literally, every cell phone that interacted with those towers during that hour period of time. And they cross-referenced all of that data with Mr. Markel and his in-laws. so, basically, have any of the phone numbers that appear on that tower around the time that we know the suspects were at the gym been in contact recently with Dan Markel or with his in-laws or with his ex-wife? The purpose of that was to try to see if there was any link there. And combing through all this data and putting it all together was a very tedious task. But they did find one number with a south Florida exchange which was present both in the area at Pre -- of Premier gym at the time that the killers were there and was linked to a single phone call on July 1st, 2014. so about 17 days before the murder, this number that was at Premier gym, from south Florida, contacted Harvey Adelson. So, the father-in-law of the deceased, husband of Donna Adelson, father of Wendi Adelson. And that number that contacted Harvey Adelson and that was also present at the gym on our date 1n question belonged to Sigfredo Garcia, the defendant 1n this case, AKA Tuto, T-U-T-0. It's a lot. And an examination of Garcia's call logs showed a frequent contact with another number, which also was present on our -- what we're calling tower dump. So, all those numbers that interacted with that cell phone tower at Premier at that time. Another number, no connection with the Adelsons that we found but a frequent caller of Sigfredo Garcia is Luis Rivera. That phone number was also present at Premier at the time that our suspect vehicle was there.

To this day, nobody is sure what this phone call represents. It appears to be either a hang-up or possibly a voice-mail trigger, but we don't know, and we certainly don't know why Garcia would call Harvey Adelson's phone. We may hear an explanation when he takes the stand during the defense case. In the last trial the defense tried to argue that the call was proof there was some connection between Garcia and the Adelsons, thereby disproving the prosecution's claim that Katie Magbanua was the sole link between the dental family and the murderers.
Thank you! The State seemed eager to have Corbitt provided an explanation for the call, but the defense objected. Seems curious but there is so much evidence of Katie's concurrent contact with Garcia and Charlie, it will be difficult for the defense to credibly put forth any argument that she was clueless about the murder plot.
 
The defense can’t have it both ways:

1. Garcia is so jealous he would confront anyone who got with Katie. He would try to hurt them (run them over) etc

2. Garcia will take money from Katie’s bf/lover to take care of his problem. He can just sit down with him and hash out a murder plan. He would do this so he can get money from Katie’s rich bf so he can get Katie back.

This is just not how machismo works!
 
The defense can’t have it both ways:

1. Garcia is so jealous he would confront anyone who got with Katie. He would try to hurt them (run them over) etc

2. Garcia will take money from Katie’s bf/lover to take care of his problem. He can just sit down with him and hash out a murder plan. He would do this so he can get money from Katie’s rich bf so he can get Katie back.

This is just not how machismo works!
Agree! And this theory casts Katie as a chattel who could be ‘given back’ to SG by CA. That’s not even how it played out as to the extent the on/off relationship with SG was on again, it wasn’t on again for quite a while after the murder. Remember last trial the references to SGs girlfriend at the time of the murder, a stripper named Shrimp? He was hardly pining lonely for Katie. He couldn’t even get it together to pay his child support.
Statement from Katie’s friend who testified in first trial:
 
the Rivera testimony got confusing when the defense introduced the third trip to Thassee -- hadn't heard of this before, but a tiny mention of Garcia going there with another Latin King is curious -- previously i noted that a guy who was in a car accident with Katie and Sigfredo about a year later had the same name as a guy who was swept up in the Latin King arrests in 2015 -- if he was a King, and the the same King who went back to Thassee with Garcia, if that even happened, seems he would have all kinds of things to talk about - And just to be clear on the two trips we know about so far -- the June rental agreement was signed by Garcia, 6/3/14, a silver Nissan Altima. It came back 6/5/14 around 9 p.m. The green Prius -- diff agency -- was rented by Rivera 7/15/14. It went out around 6 p.m. and was to be returned the 17th, but was extended to the 20th.
 
Thank you! The State seemed eager to have Corbitt provided an explanation for the call, but the defense objected. Seems curious but there is so much evidence of Katie's concurrent contact with Garcia and Charlie, it will be difficult for the defense to credibly put forth any argument that she was clueless about the murder plot.
My best guess is that Charlie and SG arranged to meet up in the parking lot of Premier so there would be people around (for CJA's protection ) and Charlie took his father's (Harvey's) handset after telling Garcia the number for the worst case when they could not find one another. That means the handset was available unlocked. sounds strange but that's plausible. Defense is going to object to anything Corbitt says if it's speculative. We know that CJA was paranoid about wiretaps and so on later and given his cash transactions in general he's likely to try to avoid using his own handset in cases like this. Meeting in a carpark or similar would be his style. compare Dolce Vita
 
correction -- Garcia rented the Altima on 6/2, returned it 6/3 for a blue Hyundai Sonata, the car Rivera received the citation in on I-75 near Gainesville


It came back 6/5/14 around 9 p.m. The green Prius -- diff agency -- was rented by Rivera 7/15/14.
People say "green " but it was officially silver mica Green I believe .
THe first car could have been mistaken for laCasses' car in colour and size.
The last car was also similar.
The change out car was likely something that was forced on them because of some issue with the Altima. I don't think that these car colours for cars one and three are coincidental. Or it could simply be that they wanted a common colour, something that was hard to describe to police.
 
Did anyone else notice that Wendi wore the exact same outfit she wore during the first trial? It’s irrelevant I guess, but interesting. I wonder if that was on purpose?

When I realized what she'd done by wearing the same dress on the first day of both testimonies, WA's shooting someone a message. How many people will realize it is the same dress? Family ties. Most all trial watchers. Mind Games.

Did she also wear the owl necklace? Her ability to skirt arrest and conviction has been to plea innocence about the plan, payments, premeditation, and that KM was the go-between connection. As the Defense informed WA, "You are the reason we are here."
.
 
My best guess is that Charlie and SG arranged to meet up in the parking lot of Premier so there would be people around (for CJA's protection ) and Charlie took his father's (Harvey's) handset after telling Garcia the number for the worst case when they could not find one another. That means the handset was available unlocked. sounds strange but that's plausible. Defense is going to object to anything Corbitt says if it's speculative. We know that CJA was paranoid about wiretaps and so on later and given his cash transactions in general he's likely to try to avoid using his own handset in cases like this. Meeting in a carpark or similar would be his style. compare Dolce Vita
I may be missing something here, but I don't believe Charlie ever planned to go to Tallie in this time period. I'd bet he never wanted to meet with or ever associate with him, ever. No need to risk this. Unless you believe the defense narrative.
 
Regarding Katie being "chattle" it'll be interesting to see whether she takes the stand. From her appearance in the last trial, it's clear she's no pushover - she's a highly insistent person <modsnip> that demands SG do the things she says. She's also a flagrant opportunist. Imagine how great she feels that she could actually land a dentist and the financial support that would result.

If I'm anything like a non-legally trained juror - I cannot get that statement from Rivera out of my mind: With a smirk on his face incredulously addressing DeCoste about the lawyer's circuitous arguing about deposition dates, transcript pages, federal laws, the nuances of interstate commerce, number of trips, number of guns, etc. - LR cuts right through it: "She's the mastermind, bro..."
 
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I have a few questions: first, what is the significance of asking wendi about her estranged brother and the family not liking the fact he wanted to marry outside of his faith. wendi said she wasn't speaking with him but not because of that, and I didn't understand why GC didn't follow up with - so why then don't you speak? because the reason is that the brother said on a public podcast that he believes his family murdered dan. Why not push on that? why not push on the fact that she broke up with her boyfriend after a year the week before the murder? maybe because she isn't on trial so saving the bigger questions?
second, can garcia's testimony be used against charlie in his trial? if he says he conspired directly with him - isn't that an immediate conviction for charlie?
It would be irrelevant and highly prejudicial to introduce the eldest Adelson brother’s beliefs about culpability. Who cares what he thinks, in relation to Magbanua? Magbanua AGREES Charlie set it up, anyway.
 
I may be missing something here, but I don't believe Charlie ever planned to go to Tallie in this time period. I'd bet he never wanted to meet with or ever associate with him, ever. No need to risk this. Unless you believe the defense narrative.
<modsnip> Note the date 1st July not 1st June. Please look at the original post of Vislaw. SG was nowhere near NTH FL at this time of early JULY as far as we know (apart from the King Anthony trip which has clouds of mist around it but I think that's likely to be within 2-3 weeks of the aborted SG LR trip in early JUne). I hope jurors were awake.
 
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Thank you! The State seemed eager to have Corbitt provided an explanation for the call, but the defense objected. Seems curious but there is so much evidence of Katie's concurrent contact with Garcia and Charlie, it will be difficult for the defense to credibly put forth any argument that she was clueless about the murder plot.
Sgt. Corbett was able to testify that Yindra Mascaro provided an explanation for the July 1, 2014 voice mail from SG to HA. I don't know what Corbett would have said if he was allowed to give more testimony about Moscaro, but there is an affidavit by Moscara in which she says that Magbanua told her that SG "was jealous of [CA] and actually attempted to call him after getting a number out of [KM's] phone, which he supposedly left a threatening message." https://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Statement-of-Yindra-Mascaro.pdf I'm thinking the state is going to say that SG got HA's number from KM's phone and called that number leaving a threatening message regarding the CA/KM relationship. (When Moscaro testified in the first trial she said that KM got dental work done by HA so it seems possible that HA's number was in her cell phone). The defense would not want that type of testimony in because they will probably claim that the SG/HA phone contact was a direct communication about the murder. Needless to say this is all my speculation .... JMO.
 
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