Charlie Adelson Charlie Adelson cross-examined by Georgia Cappleman on Nov. 3, 2023 (Law&Crime Network)

While Charlie Adelson began his Thursday testimony by acknowledging he was “really nervous” as his “whole life” hangs in the balance at his murder trial in the 2014 shooting death of law professor and former brother-in-law Dan Markel, the defendant was quick to punch back as the prosecution grilled him about his story that he, too, was a victim — a victim of extortion.

The defendant, a 47-year-old dentist charged as the mastermind behind the murder-for-hire of 41-year-old Dan Markel on July 18, 2014, denied yesterday that he ever asked his then-girlfriend and convicted murderer Katherine Magbanua, now 38, while the two were leaving a Halloween party in 2013 if she knew anyone who could do harm to Markel — his sister Wendi Adelson’s ex-husband and the father of Charlie’s two nephews.

The prosecution’s theory of the case is that Charlie Adelson took it upon himself, for the benefit of his sister and parents, to solve the “tight-knit” family’s “big problem” by orchestrating the Florida State University law professor’s Tallahassee murder through Magbanua’s violent Miami-based Latin Kings connections and making a lingering, heated child custody battle go away.

“This murder was set into motion because, back in 2014, the defendant’s family — the Adelson family — had a big problem. And that big problem was Dan Markel. And the solution to that problem was this defendant,” prosecutor Sarah Dugan said during opening statements. “This defendant was the solution to that problem because he had a girlfriend with connections to the type of people who were willing and capable of pointing a gun at at a complete stranger and pulling the trigger.”

Magbanua took the stand earlier in the week and claimed nothing had been promised her in connection with testimony implicating Charlie Adelson in the murder plot and implicating herself in perjury at both of her trials, the second of which led to her conviction and incarceration. She testified that she told the defendant she knew that Sigfredo Garcia, the father of her children and the convicted triggerman, could harm Dan Markel.

Katherine Magbanua, Charlie Adelson pictured on Oct. 30, 2023 at Adelson’s trial in the murder of Dan Markel (Law&Crime Network)

Charlie Adelson attempted to turn that testimony on its head by responding that, though he didn’t realize it or didn’t want to believe it at the time, Magbanua was trying to extort him and his family for hundreds of thousands of dollars to stay silent about Garcia and Latin Kings leader Luis Rivera’s role in the murder.

Adelson testified that he first learned about the shooting while he was at work and “in surgery.” His mother Donna Adelson told him that Wendi called and said “Dan had been shot, and that it was serious,” the defendant testified.