Mysterious murder of Dan Markel appears not to have been very mysterious
By When Dan Markel was murdered almost two years ago, he was locked in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, a fellow Florida State law professor.
Update: A colleague has asked me to clarify the situation. His full message is below:
I’m a big admirer of your work on legal education, and we were in touch a few years back on those issues when I was on the faculty at [ ].
I was also a good friend of Dan Markel, and appreciate your writing about the case. The whole blog theory was ridiculous, though the reality is horrible of course.
I did want to mention that there’s an inaccuracy in there that I’m hoping can be fixed.
You write that there was a custody battle. That’s not true actually, though a few media reports have said that, and I know you’re just relying on them. They split the kids 50-50, joint custody, no dispute about it. The Tallahassee paper had it right initially — they were fighting over the terms of (or enforcement of) the settlement agreement.
Even when she asked to move to South Florida (which was decided a year before his death), the plan was for Dan to move too, and commute to his job at FSU a few days a week, which Dan actually seriously considered for a while. Still would have been joint custody, 50-50.
I do think the distinction matters, given the sensitive context and that their young kids will read this stuff someday. And yes, I realize there’s not much hope of protecting the kids from deep pain at this point.
“Custody battle” as you know, implies that they were arguing over how many days, who was a better parent, etc. I talked to Dan every other day for a few years going through this. Just not true. Bitter divorce? Sure.
Appreciate your considering fixing this, and hope all is well.
That circumstance would seem to have provided a pretty obvious list of suspects for the police to investigate. Nevertheless, someone came up with the theory that maybe some comments on a certain law school blog were the key to solving the mystery, and duly fed this theory to an all too credulous publication, which put it into print:
Police are reportedly investigating whether law professor Dan Markel may have been murdered by one of a handful of blog commenters who blasted him with threatening messages — including one who ranted about ‘shutting people like YOU down.’
Markel, who was gunned down in the driveway of his Florida home, sparred with several commenters on his own blog and other sites that cater to law students, The Tallahasse News reported.
The prominent Jewish professor even complained that he felt physically threatened by one nasty internet commenter on a now-defunct site called insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com, which prompted even more ominous posts.
“You’re worried about your home and private life being a target?” the correspondent wrote. “What about your graduate’s homes and private lives? (Or lack thereof?) YOU’VE RUINED THEIR LIVES YOU FOOL.”
“So yes, ‘all means necessary’ are important to shutting people like YOU down,” said the writer, who went by the profile athiestATLlawyer, possibly indicating that the person is from Atlanta.
The writer ended by calling Markel “Law school scammer.”
Another letter-writer accused Markel of using the supposed threats to stifle discussion on his own Prawsblawg site.
“Seriously you are coming across even more negatively as this saga unfolds (if that is even possible),” the commenter wrote. “To put it charitably folks who have never even met you are inclined to see you as an obsessive, egomaniacal , control freak.” . . .
Police have pleaded for help in the puzzling case and have not discussed any suspect or possible motive.
Florida investigators believe law professor Dan Markel was murdered in 2014 by two convicted felons hired by his ex-wife’s brother.
In a newly unsealed probable-cause affidavit, police said that “a desperate desire” by the family of Markel’s ex-wife to move the couple’s two children from Tallahassee to Miami was the motive of murder suspect Sigfredo Garcia, arrested last week for Markel’s murder.
Markel, 41, was a prominent and well-respected teacher and legal blogger who was shot in the head while exiting his car in the driveway of his Tallahassee home on July 18, 2014. He died the next day at an area hospital.
Police arrested Garcia, 34, on May 25 but offered little information at the time on the possible motive, saying the investigation was ongoing.The unsealed affidavit, first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat, says police used a combination of video surveillance, eyewitness accounts, cellphone records, emails and court records pertaining to Markel and his contentious divorce from Wendi Adelson to place Garcia and alleged accomplice Luis Rivera near the crime scene and establish the Adelson family’s motive to put out the hit.
“There is no previous contact found between Markel and these two defendants,” the affidavit reads. “Therefore, it is the affiant’s belief Garcia and Rivera were enlisted to commit this egregious act against someone they did not know and had never interacted with before the murder.”
Wendi Adelson, who was a clinical professor at Florida State University’s law school, filed for divorce in 2012 after six years of marriage. Investigators described the divorce as “bitter,” with Adelson taking their two sons to her parents’ Miami home without Markel’s consent before she returned. Their divorce was finalized in 2013, although the couple continued to fight in court over finances and access to the children by her mother, whom Markel claimed made “disparaging comments” about him to the children.
“E-mail evidence indicates Wendi’s parents, especially her mother, wanted Wendi to coerce Markel into allowing the relocation to South Florida,” the affidavit says. “Additionally, Wendi’s brother, Charles Adelson (Charlie), reportedly did not like Markel and did not get along with him.”
Police believe Charlie Adelson “was involved in a personal relationship” with Katherine Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s two children.
Cellphone records placed both Rivera and Garcia in Tallahassee the day of the murder, and Garcia had regular phone contact with Magbanua in the three months before the killing. She was Garcia’s first call following the murder, police said.
Various video surveillance showed the two men traveling to and from Miami to Tallahassee on July 16 and July 18 in a silver Toyota Prius rented by Rivera. Police also found video, captured from a city bus, of the men following Markel in that same vehicle from the parking lot of his gym prior to the murder. An eyewitness also reported two men matching the suspects’ descriptions near Markel’s house before and after the murder.
Tallahassee police said Thursday that no other arrests in the case had been made.