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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n Tallahassee, Florida (AP) \u2014 <\/strong>The matriarch of a wealthy South Florida family was convicted Thursday of murder in the killing of her former son-in-law, a prominent law professor who was locked in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife when he was gunned down in 2014.\n <\/p>\n \n Jurors returned guilty verdicts in the weekslong trial of Donna Adelson<\/a> on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation in the killing of Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel in Tallahassee where he taught. The case had riveted attention in Florida for more than a decade amid sordid details of a messy divorce, tensions with wealthy in-laws and custody fights leading to the killing.\n <\/p>\n \n When the judge announced that the jury had convicted Adelson of first-degree murder, the defendant exclaimed, \u201cOh!\u201d and started shaking and crying.\n <\/p>\n \n The jury was then taken out of the courtroom and Florida Second Judicial Circuit Judge Stephen Everett gave Adelson a two-minute break to collect herself.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhile this was not the outcome I\u2019m sure that you desire, there will not be any further outbursts in front of the jury,\u201d he told her.\n <\/p>\n \n In an impact statement after the verdict Ruth Markel, Daniel Markel\u2019s mother, spoke about her profound sadness and grief after her son\u2019s death.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe have lost a treasure. My son Dan\u2019s life was cut tragically short at 41 years old,\u201d she said. \u201cFor 11 years we have been forced to a life filled with unimaginable pain and heartbreak.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Daniel Markel and Wendi Adelson were divorced and shared custody of their two children, but she had wanted to move them more than 370 miles from Tallahassee to South Florida to be closer to the rest of her family. A judge ruled, however, that Wendi Adelson couldn\u2019t move the children, and Markel refused to relocate.\n <\/p>\n \n Prosecutors had argued at trial that Donna Adelson helped orchestrate Markel\u2019s killing after he stood in the way of letting her daughter and two young grandsons make the move south.\n <\/p>\n \n The judge said sentencing would come \u201cat a later date,\u201d but scheduled case management for October 14.\n <\/p>\n \n Adelson was the fifth person put on trial<\/a> for what prosecutors cast as a murder-for-hire plot to kill Markel. Among those already serving a life sentence for the killing is Donna Adelson\u2019s son, Charles Adelson.\n <\/p>\n
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