TALLAHASSEE – Stacks of cash in a safe and paychecks for a job a woman accused of coordinating the murder of an FSU professor didn’t have were topics of important testimony Thursday.
Prosecutors are pushing for evidence against the former in-laws of the slain professor.
Convicted murderer turned informant Luis Rivera testified he, Sigfredfo Garcia and Katie Magbanua were paid a $100,000 in cash for killing law professor Dan Markel.
Realtor June Umchinda dated Charlie Adelson, the brother of Markel’s ex-wife, for over a year. She testified there were large amounts of cash in his bedroom.
“I mentioned he had staples on the hundreds before,” Umchinada said.
The scorned woman was still together with Charlie Adelson when she noticed a change at the time the first arrests were made in 2016.
“He was nervous and worried and just not himself,” Umchinada said.
Prosecutors spent a lot of time trying to prove that the alledged go between in the murder for hire got a lot of checks from the Adelson dental office without ever working there.
Dental office employees were visited by the FBI in 2015 seeking payroll records on Katherine Magbanua’s employment.
Assistant Erika Johnson spoke with Adelson in a call no one knew was being recorded.
“I wouldn’t give them anything,” said Johnson.
Then Magbanua's friend since childhood, Yindra Velazquez-Mascara, took the stand. She testified she was never aware of Magbanua being employed at the Adelson’s office.
Velazquez-Mascara also testified she was asked to keep Magbanua’s kids the night before Dan Markel was murdered, but never told their father, Sigfredo Garcia.
No member of the Adelson Family has been charged with a crime and the family denies any involvement in the murder of Dan Markel.