10 things about Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s Charlie Adelson

Charles Jay “Charlie” Adelson is Dr. Harvey J. Adelson and Donna Sue Adelson‘s son. Harvey had a dental practice in Tamarac, Florida, United States for which Donna was the patient-care coordinator.

Harvey and Donna have another son named Robert Todd Adelson. The couple also has a daughter named Wendi Jill Adelson.

BIOGRAPHY

Charlie is a former traveling periodontist from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Here are 10 more things about him:

1. His parents are from Coral Springs.
2. Aside from Fort Lauderdale, he has lived in other parts of Florida including Miramar, Miami Beach and Coral Springs.
3. He previously lived in Washington, D.C., USA.
4. He was known to drive a Ferrari with a license plate that read “MAESTRO.”
5. From 2006 to 2013, his sister Wendi was married to Daniel Eric “Dan” Markel.
6. In 2014, he and Katherine Magbanua, who was in a relationship with him, were involved in the murder of Markel.
7. In 2022, he was arrested.
8. In 2023, he was found guilty of paying to have Markel murdered and sentenced to life in prison.
9. On October 27, 2024, he turned 48.
10. In 2025, his motion for resentencing was denied.

TIMELINE

Charlie is three years older than Wendi. He is three years younger than Robert.

2010s

• On October 31, 2013, he and his family allegedly started planning to pay to have Markel killed amid a custody dispute between Markel and Wendi over their two children. 
• He hired Magbanua’s former boyfriend Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, who shot Markel in Tallahassee on July 18, 2014. Markel died on July 19, 2014.
• In April 2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents secretly recorded a conversation between him and Magbanua at Dulce Vida, an Italian restaurant in Miami Beach. In the conversation, he and Magbanua discussed undercover agents approaching his mother. The audio was not clear enough until Keith McElveen enhanced it in April 2022.

2020s

• On April 20, 2022, a grand jury in Leon County, Florida indicted him in connection with Markel’s killing.
• On April 21, 2022, the U.S. Marshal Service arrested him at his home in Fort Lauderdale in connection with Markel’s killing. Represented by David Oscar Markus and Margot Moss, he was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder.
• On April 26, 2022, he made his first court appearance in Leon County. He was ordered held without bond.
• His murder-for-hire trial was delayed on February 28, 2023 and on March 16, 2023.
• On October 23, 2023, his murder-for-hire trial started.
• On November 2, 2023, he testified in court that he paid Markel’s killers only because he was being threatened.
• On November 6, 2023, he was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder in the death of Markel.
• On December 12, 2023, Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett sentenced him to life in prison for murder plus 30 years each for conspiracy and solicitation and he was moved from the Leon County Detention Center in Tallahassee to the Northwest Florida Reception Center in Chipley, Florida.
• In January 2024, he was moved from the Northwest Florida Reception Center to the Wakulla Correctional Institution Annex in Crawfordville, Florida.
• In February 2024, he was moved from the Wakulla Correctional Institution Annex to the Columbia Correctional Institution Annex in Lake City, Florida.
• On May 16, 2024, he was moved from the Columbia Correctional Institution Annex to an undisclosed prison in South Dakota, USA.
• On January 6, 2025, his appeals lawyer, Michael Ufferman of Tallahassee asked Everett to grant him a resentencing hearing.
• On January 24, 2025, a judge denied his motion for sentencing.
• On September 4, 2025, a jury found his mother guilty of masterminding the murder-for-hire killing of Markel.