TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Court TV) — Two jailhouse informants testified Thursday that Donna Adelson not only confessed to orchestrating the 2014 murder-for-hire killing of her former son-in-law but also attempted to buy false testimony from behind bars.
Patricia Byrd and Drina Bernhardt were brought in to testify in Donna Adelson’s trial as jailhouse informants. (Court TV)
Patricia Byrd, who spent six to seven months in custody with Donna, 75, told jurors that Adelson admitted her involvement in the murder during their daily conversations.
Donna is the fifth person charged in the murder-for-hire plot that killed FSU law professor Dan Markel. At the time of his murder, Markel was embroiled in a custody battle with Donna’s daughter, Wendi Adelson. In the years since his murder, four others have been convicted, including Wendi’s brother, Charlie Adelson, and his ex-girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua.
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On Friday, Byrd testified that Adelson wanted her to lie about Magbanua, who acted as a middleman in the murder-for-hire plot. Magbanua and Byrd were briefly housed together in jail. The proposed false testimony was that Magbanua knew that Charlie had money, and Magbanua killed Markel for financial gain.
In exchange, Byrd said, Donna offered her a trailer, land, and promised her husband, Harvey, would fix Byrd’s teeth. Byrd told the jury Magbanua never said any of the things she was told to say.
The second informant, Drina Bernhardt, testified that Donna called her “jail daughter” and nicknamed her “Sunshine” during their three- to four-month stay together. Bernhardt said their relationship included exchanging artwork and personal notes.
Drina Bernhardt said Donna Adelson gave her this script and told her to lie in court. (Court TV)
Prosecutors introduced what they called “the script”: handwritten instructions in Bernhardt’s notebook that she said Donna authored for her to memorize and later testify about falsely. Bernhardt said she was supposed to study the script and later recite it. The script portrayed Mabanua as extorting money from Charlie.
According to Bernhardt, the incentives offered were substantial: $10,000 through Zelle from Harvey, a grand piano, pills to feed her drug addiction, and regular commissary purchases. Communication about the arrangement was supposed to happen through the encrypted Signal app.
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Defense attorney Joshua Zelman attempted to undermine the credibility of both witnesses during cross-examination. He highlighted inconsistencies in Byrd’s testimony, including confusion about the race of an investigator she spoke with and discrepancies in her timeline regarding how long she bunked near Adelson.
Zelman also noted that Byrd had previously told defense investigators that Adelson did not plan the murder — contradicting her testimony about Adelson’s alleged confession.
For Bernhardt, Zelman pointed out her extensive criminal history and questioned whether her February 2025 release from jail was connected to her cooperation with prosecutors.
This story was reported by Tiffany Smith and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
