UPDATE: Judge says Magbanua’s retrial will go on as scheduled

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - A judge decided Monday afternoon the upcoming retrial of Katherine Magbanua will begin as scheduled on May 16.

Both defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed that the trial should go on as planned.

In the five-minute hearing, there was no mention of Charlie Adelson or his indictment and arrest last week. Adelson became the fourth person charged in the murder of Dan Markel nearly eight years after the FSU Law School professor’s death. Adelson is Markel’s former brother-in-law.

Magbanua has maintained her innocence in what prosecutors claim is a murder-for-hire plot. Her first trial back in 2019 ended in a mistrial.

Attorneys for Charlie Adelson last week stressed his innocence and said the move to indict and arrest him so close to Magbanua’s retrial “has the smell of desperation.”

Two other defendants, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, are already serving prison sentences in connection with Markel’s July 2014 murder.