TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Court TV) — Jeffrey Lacasse, who dated Wendi Adelson after her divorce from murdered Florida State University law professor Dan Markel, delivered explosive testimony Tuesday in the murder trial of Donna Adelson, revealing that Wendi told him her brother had looked into hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband.
Wendi Adelson’s ex boyfriend, Jeffrey Lacasse, testifies in the trial of Donna Adelson on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Pool/Tallahassee Democrat)
Lacasse testified that just days before Markel’s July 18, 2014, murder, Wendi confided that her brother Charlie had explored “all options possible to take care of the Danny Markel problem, including hiring a hitman” that would cost about $15,000.
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“When she said Charlie looked into hiring a hitman, I found it chilling, I found it disturbing. It made my stomach flip,” Lacasse said. “She was dead serious.”
Donna is the fifth person charged in the murder-for-hire plot that killed Markel amid a contentious custody battle. Already convicted are her son, Charlie Adelson; his girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua; and the two gunmen: Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera.
Lacasse said he met Charlie only once, on March 11, 2014, at a dinner that also included Magbanua. He said Charlie made it clear he didn’t like Markel and “was fired up” with an “overprotective brother sort of vibe.”
He testified that Donna was heavily involved in her daughter’s divorce proceedings and frequently visited Tallahassee. Donna wasn’t happy that Lacasse wasn’t Jewish, he said.
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Prosecutors say Markel’s murder stemmed from a bitter custody dispute with Wendi. Markel wanted to keep their children in Tallahassee, where he taught law at FSU, while Wendi sought to move them to South Florida to be near her parents.
Lacasse testified about a conversation on July 13, 2014 — just five days before the murder — when Wendi expressed frustration about being denied permission to relocate with her children to Miami.
“She said the only way I would relocate is if something happened to Danny,” Lacasse said.
The next day at yoga, as their relationship appeared to be ending, Wendi asked detailed questions about his Friday plans, including his travel route to Tennessee, which would have taken him near Markel’s house.
After the yoga meeting, Wendi sent an email asking him not to contact her for a week, saying she would reach out on July 21.
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Donna Adelson whispers with the attorneys Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (Pool/Tallahassee Democrat)
“I was puzzled. I wondered, ‘What in the world is happening on July 21?'” Lacasse said.
When prosecutors asked Lacasse about the television that Wendi said she was having repaired at the time of Markel’s murder, he said the device’s screen appeared shattered, as if someone between five and six feet tall had hit it.
Lacasse has previously accused Wendi’s family of planning to frame him for the crime. He testified that he drove a gray Nissan Sentra at the time, similar in appearance to the gray Nissan Altima the killers rented.
He also revealed that an email from Wendi to her brother, Robert Adelson, referring to him as her “secret boyfriend,” made no sense because “the kids talked about me constantly,” and he had met Donna multiple times.
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