Donna Adelson's latest attempt to remove judge from murder trial rejected by 1st DCA
Donna Adelson struck out again in her attempt to have Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett booted from her trial.
On Friday, May 9, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal rejected Adelson's latest attempt to remove Everett, denying her request for a writ of prohibition.
Her attorneys, Jackie Fulford and Josh Zelman of Tallahassee, filed motions under seal last month with the trial court asking that Everett be disqualified and replaced with a different judge. After Everett denied the motions, Adelson appealed to the 1st DCA.
Adelson, 75, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the 2014 contract killing of her former son-in-law, Dan Markel. The Florida State law professor was fatally shot at his Betton Hills home in the midst of a bitter court battle with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, the defendant's daughter.
Her attempts to remove Everett stem from a more recent and still shadowy criminal investigation into allegations involving her and her attorneys. The details of that probe remain under seal — but a few of them surfaced in the appellate court's three-page opinion.
Adelson claimed Everett engaged in improper ex parte communications with the state by reviewing search and seizure warrant applications involving her husband Harvey Adelson's cell phone records and a wiretap of his cell phone. She asserted that as a result, she had a 'reasonable fear' that she wouldn't receive a fair and impartial trial.
But the appellate judges rejected that. The opinion was written by Judge Robert E. Long Jr., with Judges Lori S. Rowe and Ross L. Bilbrey concurring.
'These claims are meritless and facially insufficient,' their opinion says.
The more recent Adelson investigation came to light during an April 30 hearing. Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan said prosecutors got a 'lead' last fall that led to new evidence in the form of phone conversations that were secretly recorded in February.
She said that while the investigation ended — apparently without any new charges filed — the state intended to use one or two of the conversations at trial.
Zelman said the state intercepted and monitored privileged attorney-client communications. He also said that the allegations that sparked the probe, which came from an informant of some kind, proved 'false.'
Outside the courtroom, Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman declined to reveal any other details about the most recent investigation. However, she disagreed with the defense's characterization of the information used to justify wiretaps.
'My position is that it's not false,' Cappleman said.
The latest investigation came up again Friday, May 9, during another short hearing before Everett, with Adelson appearing by Zoom.
The hearing involved a defense motion to conduct depositions of three key state witnesses, Sgt. Chris Corbitt of Tallahassee Police Department, FBI agent Pat Sanford and Robert Adelson, the defendant's estranged oldest son.
Fulford said the defense was 'stuck' with depositions taken by previous counsel and that the defense wants to depose all three about the murder investigation. The defense also wants to question Corbitt and Sanford about the latest probe.
'In light of the new investigation, specifically as to Mr. Corbitt, the action that he took and the representations that he made in the new investigation certainly call into question what he did in the old investigation in a very material way,' Fulford said. 'Because those representations that were made to your honor and another judge in this case are false, and warrants were issued based on false information.'
Cappleman objected to re-deposing witnesses about the chief murder investigation but indicated she was fine for 'something new.'
Everett ruled that witnesses who were previously deposed may be deposed again. He also said if there are topics that cover new information, the defense is free to depose and instructed the parties to coordinate the depositions.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Donna Adelson's latest attempt to remove judge from murder trial rejected
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CBS News
13 minutes ago
- CBS News
BCA investigating "death and a use-of-force incident" in Albert Lea
State officials say they are investigating "a death and a use-of-force incident" in southern Minnesota Wednesday morning. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension announced the investigation in rural Albert Lea just after 3 a.m., but gave no information about what agency used force, what type of force was used or who died. The agency said it would release more information, but gave no timeframe. Albert Lea is about 95 miles south of Minneapolis. This story will be updated.

Associated Press
26 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Lawyers for a South Carolina inmate ask a court to stop his execution
Lawyers for a South Carolina death row inmate will be in federal court Wednesday trying to convince a judge that the state is not properly carrying out lethal injections or firing squad executions, an argument meant to spare the prisoner just two days before he's scheduled to die. Stephen Stanko's attorneys said the two doses of lethal injection drugs used in the past three executions by that method show those subjected to the procedure have died a lingering death, still conscious as they felt like they were drowning when fluid rushed into their lungs. Stanko changed his mind and decided to die by lethal injection because of accounts about the last firing squad death. In that April execution, the volunteer shooters nearly missed Mikal Mahdi's heart, meaning the man convicted of killing an off-duty police officer took three to four times as long to die as he was supposed to, Stanko's lawyers said in court papers. One expert hired by Stanko's attorneys said the evidence suggests the firing squad may have aimed slightly below the target or the target was not placed on Mahdi's heart to 'cause great pain before his death,' according to court papers filed last week. South Carolina says there's no reason to stop the execution Lawyers for the state vigorously denied the claims. They point out that the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected a similar last-ditch appeal on May 28. They said every execution is different and that lawyers representing incarcerated people have not proven any condemned prisoner suffered gratuitous pain. 'So (perhaps) it's not the method that's the issue — instead, these inmates just don't want to have their sentences carried out and are willing to make any argument that they can,' wrote Grayson Lambert, a lawyer for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. Lawyers for the state will ask federal Judge Richard Gergel on Wednesday to dismiss the claims. Stanko's crime was killing his friend Henry Turner Stanko would be the sixth inmate executed in South Carolina in nine months. There were originally four executions scheduled around the country this week, one in South Carolina and one each in Florida and Alabama. On Monday, an Oklahoma judge granted a temporary stay to a man scheduled to be put to death Thursday. Stanko, 57, is slated to die at 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia prison for killing his 74-year-old friend, Henry Turner. Stanko went to Turner's Horry County home in April 2006 after lying about his father dying. Hours before killing Turner, Stanko beat and strangled his girlfriend in her Georgetown County home and raped her daughter before slashing the teen's throat. The daughter survived and testified against him at one of his trials. Stanko was also sentenced to death in that case. Lawyers say executions aren't done properly Stanko's lawyers, in their 49-page brief, include a number of ways their experts think South Carolina is improperly carrying out executions. They include using bullets in the firing squad that aren't powerful enough to guarantee the heart will be destroyed, failing to properly oversee how an IV line is placed for lethal injections and improper storage of the powerful sedative pentobarbital, which is used to kill inmates. The lawyers said the state is using two doses of pentobarbital in executions because — while inmates might be paralyzed by the drug — they remain conscious enough to feel like they are drowning and take longer than 10 minutes to die. Attorneys for the state said witnesses to the executions have not reported any signs of distress and said the inmates appeared to stop breathing within a minute or two. The most serious accusations in Stanko's lawsuit come from Dr. Jonathan Groner, an expert in lethal injection and other capital punishments and a surgeon who teaches at Ohio State University. 'I am concerned that some element of those responsible for carrying out Mr. Mahdi's execution intended not to hit his target and to cause great pain before his death,' Groner wrote. South Carolina says nothing went wrong State Correction Department officials deny anything went wrong in Mahdi's execution. Agency leaders have signed sworn statements saying that all three guns fired and no bullets or fragments were found in the death chamber after Mahdi's lawyers suggested one shot missed entirely. 'How bullets react once they strike the body is something that neither SCDC nor the members of the firing squad can control. That one condemned inmate dies more quickly than another does not necessarily mean that something went awry in one execution,' the state said. Complicating any investigation into Madhi's death is an inadequate autopsy. It did not include X-rays to allow the results to be independently verified. Only one photo was taken of Mahdi's body and there were no close-ups of the wounds. The inmate's clothing was not examined to determine where the target was placed or how it aligned with the damage the bullets caused, according to forensic pathologist Terri Haddix of California, one of the defense experts. Stanko's lawyers want to pause his execution to take a closer look at Mahdi's death and require the three firing squad members to take a sworn oath they will 'shoot at the target in good faith.'


CBS News
33 minutes ago
- CBS News
Body found in Long Island swimming pool identified as murder suspect, police say
A man found dead in a Long Island swimming pool has been identified, and police say he was wanted for murder. The body of 23-year-old Matthew Zoll was discovered on May 25 inside the backyard pool in East Shoreham. Suffolk County Police said they had been searching for Zoll since Nov. 9, 2024. Police said he was wanted for the murder of his father, 61-year-old Joseph Zoll, who was stabbed to death inside a home in Rocky Point. Investigators search the area for weeks in November, but the son was never found. "We are currently waiting for a DNA analysis to confirm that, but, you know, based again on all of the ancillary evidence that we were able to uncover, we are investigating that strong possibility," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said when the body was found last month. A homeowner discovered the body when he opened his backyard pool for the season. Police said it appeared the body had been in the water for a while. "It's just so disturbing. You take your pool cover off and... I mean, what if there was young children around or the poor family?" neighbor Sharon Healey said at the time.