Tallahassee, Florida is a city that comes alive with the energy of Florida State University,

tens of thousands of students flooding the streets, football Saturdays that are celebrated more like holidays,

and nine months of the year buzzing with the pulse of a college town.

But when the summer comes and the students leave, Tallahassee slows down and the city's beauty comes into focus.

Rolling hills, crystal clear springs,

and massive oak trees draped in Spanish moss.

The kind of small town southern charm that feels comforting, safe, even idyllic. But on July 18th, 2014, horror struck

the city when FSU law professor Dan Markell was ambushed in his own driveway in broad daylight.

This single act of violence would unravel family secrets, ignite conspiracies, and spark

courtroom battles stretching more than a decade, all leading back to one unlikely figure,

a doting grandmother hundreds of miles away.

But is it possible that behind the gentle image of a grandmother lurched the mind of a

killer? The prosecution says she conspired a murder. The defense says she's simply an

overbearing mother, but it's the jurors who have the final say. I'm your host, Brandy Churchwell, and this is 13th Europe podcast.

Today's episode is Florida versus Donna Adelson.

Part 1, the prosecution's case.

Thank you. Dan Markell grew up in Toronto in a close-knit Jewish family, where faith, education, and community were at the center of daily life.

From childhood, Dan was full of energy, always exploring and asking questions.

That boundless curiosity, paired with a sharp mind, quickly set him apart.

Dan excelled in school, and his passion for learning carried him across the globe. He studied

politics and philosophy at Harvard, earned a master's in political theory at the Hebrew University

of Jerusalem in Cambridge, and then he returned to Harvard for law school, where he graduated

...