TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A 33-year-old man agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for providing key information in the killing of Florida State law professor.
Luis Rivera, who is already serving a 12-year sentence in federal prison on unrelated charges, will spend an additional seven years in prison as part of the deal.
The agreement was the break prosecutors say they needed in the high-profile slaying of law professor Dan Markel, 41, who was gunned down in his Tallahassee garage in July 2014.
Rivera pointed investigators to a long-sought suspect, Katherine Magbanua. He also told prosecutors he supplied the gun, drove the car to the scene of the crime and that his co-defendant Sigfredo Garcia was the shooter in the murder-for-hire plot.
Rivera’s attorney, Chuck Collins, was not available for comment following the plea hearing.
Rivera was facing one count of first-degree murder and the death penalty before Tuesday's plea hearing. His trial was two weeks away.
Rivera was arrested in May at a federal facility where he was serving time.
Chief Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman said getting Rivera's help is a step forward in bringing to justice others she believes are involved in the plot.
“It’s a necessary evil,” Cappleman said. “Otherwise, you’re looking at the possibility of other culpable parties not facing any ramifications for their role in the crime.”
Investigators say Markel’s former in-laws orchestrated Markel’s killing.
Tallahassee Police Department and the State Attorney's Office point to Markel's acrimonious divorce with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, and her family's desire to move their young children to South Florida as potential motives for the murder.
Her brother Charlie Adelson and mother, Donna Adelson, have been implicated in the plot, according to court records; however, prosecutors have not approved arrest affidavits drafted by Tallahassee police.
While Rivera’s testimony helped lead to the arrest of Magbanua on Saturday in Broward County and will help make the case against her during a grand jury hearing, Cappleman stopped short of saying it was the tipping point in charging the Adelsons.
Through their attorneys, family members have denied any involvement, calling investigators' theories, "fanciful fiction."
Charlie Adelson's attorney said the deal with Rivera was an attempt to elicit any information from a desperate man facing life in prison.
"The prosecution admittedly didn't have enough evidence so it went out and bought some by giving away the farm to a murderer. This convicted gangster knows the game and would have said anything not to come out of prison in a box," David Oscar Markus said in a statement. "Seven years is just offensive. The prosecution literally threatened him with the needle to get this testimony. That's not a search for the truth. That's a deal with the devil."
Markel was gunned down just before 11 a.m. at his Betton Hills home July 18, 2014. Police say Rivera and Garcia, who is scheduled to stand trial Nov. 14, traveled to Tallahassee from Miami in a rented Toyota Prius. Multiple security cameras showed them tailing Markel the day he was killed.
A Prius was reported leaving Markel’s home after a neighbor heard sounds of gunfire.
Magbanua, who has two children with Garcia, faces charges of first-degree murder.
For months, prosecutors have called 31-year-old Magbanua a suspect, or at least a witness, in the killing. They say she is the link between both Garcia and Rivera and the Adelsons. Last month prosecutors sought records of a breast enhancement procedure Magbanua underwent, which they say, was partially paid for by Charlie Adelson.
At one point, the two were romantically involved, court records say.
All three suspects began making expensive purchases following the shooting. Around the same time, Magbanua’s bank account began to grow as she received handwritten checks from Donna Adelson.
From July 2014, the month Markel was killed, through Nov. 2015, she deposited more than $56,000 in cash into her bank account. The money trickled in, court documents say, through ATM deposits of $300 to $2,000.
“Investigators believe that Magbanua is supported financially by Charlie Adelson," court records say, "and has received numerous benefits from the Adelsons since Markel’s murder.”
Her attorney, Tara Kawass, has not returned requests for comment.
However, Markus, the attorney for Charlie Adelson, said Sunday that Magbanua's arrest "smacks of utter desperation."
"It's sad that the police have arrested Katie when just last week the prosecution said there was no basis to proceed," he said. "They are trying to pressure a single mom who has no priors by threatening to make her little kids orphans. That's not how our criminal justice system is supposed to work."
SOURCE MSN NEWS
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