The Dan Markel Murder-For-Hire Case

     Raised in Toronto Canada by well-to-do parents, Dan Markel graduated from Harvard University in 1995 with a degree in philosophy. Upon earning his undergraduate degree he studied political philosophy at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and continued his studies at the University of Cambridge in England. In 2001 he graduated from Harvard University Law School.

      Dan Markel, after practicing law in Washington D.C., joined the teaching staff at Florida Statue University Law School in Tallahassee in 2005. A year later he married Wendi Adelson, a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of Miami Law School. After acquiring her law degree in 2005 Florida State University hired her to run their public outreach program. Markel and Adelson were married in 2006.

     In 2010 Markel, now a tenured associate professor making $193,000 a year, resided with his wife and their two young sons in the upscale Betton Hills community in Tallahassee. He had become a renowned author, teacher and scholar in the field of retributive justice, the study of punishment in proportion to the crime. He also published a popular academic law blog called, "PrawlsBlawg" that helped recent law graduates find careers in the field.

     In January 2012 Professor Markel's life took a turn for the worse when his wife Wendi blindsided him with the news she wanted a divorce. Moreover, she wanted to take their sons, ages three and five, with her to south Florida. This led to a bitter child custody battle. The divorce became final in September 2012.

      In 2012 Professor Markel became the target of derision on a blog called "Insidethelawschoolscam," a site devoted to the proposition that law schools, by promising applicants jobs in the field, were knowingly lying about the dwindling career opportunities in law. The followers of the blog were mostly recent law school graduates saddled with huge education debts and no prospects of finding positions in law.

     Visitors and contributors to "Insidethelawschoolscam" idolized a like-minded University of Colorado law professor named Paul Campos. Campos and his admirers believed that law schools, through false advertising and misrepresentation, were swindling students.

     "Insidethelawschoolscams" enthusiasts considered Professor Markel and his blog part of the problem. In defending his good name, Dan Markel began to engage his detractors by posting messages on the blog. In return, he received responses like this: "Do you have the empathy to compare the terror that goes through a 26-year-old's life when a student loan bill comes due and you can't pay it? When he can't even get a job at Walmart because the education you sold him under false pretenses is so worthless that it won't even advance his candidacy at retail? Now compare that terror, the terror of having your life and financial future pass before your eyes, to the minor annoyance you felt at having your "name" sullied. Get over yourself."

     Over time, name-calling on "Insidethelawschoolscam" turned to the posting of messages that caused Professor Markel to feel under threat of physical harm. He had become the face of the problem and the target of his detractors' wrath.

     Many of Professor Markel's FSU law students considered him abrasive, arrogant and unhelpful. They complained online that they couldn't find him in his office. When they did find him he was difficult to talk to.

     The year 2012 had been a tough one for Dan Markel. He had been through a bitter divorce, had developed enemies in the blog world and incurred the anger and frustration of some of his students. What had been a sweet life had turned sour.

     At eleven in the morning of July 18, 2014 Professor Markel pulled onto his driveway and into his garage while talking on his cellphone. The moment he stopped his vehicle a person who had followed him into the garage shot the 41-year-old in the head through the driver's side window. The killer drove off in a white or silver Toyota Prius-type vehicle.

     A Betton Hills neighbor heard the gun go off and called 911. When police and paramedics arrived at the scene Professor Markel was still alive. A few hours later he died at a nearby hospital.

     Homicide detectives believed that the killing was not a random murder. The killer had marked the professor for death and had carried out the murder plot.

     On May 25, 2016 detectives with the Hallandale Beach Police Department arrested 34-year-old Sigredo Garcia for Markel's murder. Officers booked Garcia into the Broward County Jail on charges of first-degree murder and possession of cocaine. Garcia had a criminal history that included strong arm robbery and burglary. A month later the authorities charged Luis Rivera with first-degree murder.

     According to a police spokesperson the murder of the law professor was being handled as a murder-for-hire case.

     In October 2016 police  arrested Katherine Magbanua, the mother of Garcia's two children, for her alleged role in facilitating the murder of the law professor. Investigators believed that Magbanua was the link between the mastermind in the case and the two hit men. Following numerous procedural delays, her murder trial was set for the summer of 2018. However, when of of Magbanua's attorneys fell ill the trial was postponed to the summer of 2019, five years after Professor Markel's death.