Inside the Donna & Charlie Adelson’s Appeals : Do They Have A Chance?
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On November 4, 2025, Donna Adelson filed her notice of appeal with Florida’s First District Court of Appeal — one day before her son Charlie filed his reply brief in his own appeal. It marks the moment both mother and son officially stepped into the long, lonely process that almost never changes anything.
Tony breaks down what really happens next: how the appellate process works, what judges actually review (hint — not new evidence), and why the odds of success hover around five percent. You’ll hear how appellate courts look only for procedural errors, not moral redemption — and why, for both Donna and Charlie, even a “win” might only shave paperwork, not years, off their sentences.
From the mechanics of record transmission to the rare chance of oral argument, Tony lays out the cold reality behind the legal language: this isn’t a new trial — it’s a postscript. The show explores the psychology of defendants who cling to appeals as emotional lifelines, the contrast between hope and finality, and the irony of two people who once manipulated the system now trapped inside it.
It’s not flashy. It’s not fast. But it’s justice — moving one slow, relentless step at a time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:03.0 | Here now, Tony Brucey. |
| 0:06.0 | So here we are. |
| 0:08.0 | After months of courtroom fireworks, after wiretaps, tears in verdicts it landed like thunder. |
| 0:15.0 | Guess what? |
| 0:17.0 | The Aedelson family story moves into the quietest chapter of all. |
| 0:22.2 | The appellate phase. |
| 0:24.7 | No cameras, no juries, no spontaneous gasps from the gallery or Donna herself. |
| 0:31.8 | It's paper, cold, dry, legal paper, the kind that can take years to move. |
| 0:36.8 | And almost nothing changes the ending. |
| 0:41.4 | On November 4th of 2025, Donna Adelson, matriarch, mastermind, and now affectionately known as |
| 0:48.1 | inmate number L2381 at the Florida Department of Corrections filed her notice of appeal. |
| 0:56.8 | One day later, her son, Charlie Adelson, like mother, like son, submitted his reply brief, |
| 1:02.3 | closing out the final word in his own appellate process. |
| 1:05.9 | For the first time since the murder of Dan Markell in 2014, |
| 1:09.8 | both mother and son are in the exact same |
| 1:12.3 | legal posture. Convicted killers trying to convince a state that the system got it wrong. |
| 1:20.6 | Sounds dramatic, right? Notice of appeal. Reply brief. First District Court of Appeal. |
| 1:27.9 | But in reality, it's paperwork. |
| 1:30.9 | It is procedural. |
| 1:32.2 | It's the sound of a train rolling down tracks. |
| 1:35.3 | It almost always ends in the same place. |
... |
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