Thread by @JeffBurlew

Donna Adelson's oldest son, Robert Adelson, takes the stand.

Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett cautions Rob Adelson, a New York physician, not to express any opinions about whether his mom or family committed a crime.

Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan is questioning Dr. Adelson. He's an ENT, an ears, nose and throat doctor.

He said there's three years between him and his younger brother, Charlie Adelson, and three years between Charlie Adelson and Wendi Adelson, their younger sister.

He testified when he was in school, he would visit his family.
“Who’s the leader in the family?” she asked.
“I think my mom,” Rob Adelson testified. He said she was “more on the controlling side.”
He said his dad, Harvey Adelson, was more “go with the flow.”

Rob Adelson on his mom: "I think she had certain kind of rigid, fixed ideas or impressions for what she wanted for us, and if you went along with that, things were fine. If you didn't, things were not fine."

Dugan asked Rob Adelson whether his mom was "mentally sharp" and thinking about things "from all angles" or gullible. That prompts and objection by the defense. Sidebar ...

Rob Adelson has been estranged from his family for years. His testimony in the trial has been the subject of at least one closed-door hearing, though transcripts leaked out because of a Leon Clerk of Court error.

“I really only heard anything bad about Danny after Wendi moved out. I didn’t hear anything bad about him prior to that date,” Rob Adelson said.
Later, she soured on him, he testified.
“She hated him,” Rob Adelson said.

Rob Adelson remembers his mom saying Donna was being "'depo-ed' to death."

Rob Adelson is staring straight ahead or looking down right now as his mother sits mere feet from him in a Leon County courtroom.

"Did you ever see Donna Adelson doing anything to help Wendi Adelson with the divorce?" Dugan asked.
"I think she was answering a lot of emails and looking over emails that went back and forth, looking over motions and such," Rob Adelson said.

Rob Adelson testified his mom was interested in the divorce, contrary to his younger brother, Charlie, who was into “go-karts, jet-skis, going out, boats, not Wendi’s divorce.”

Rob Adelson, under questioning from Dugan, said his sister sent her a text in the summer of 2014 about a boyfriend she was dating. This was before Markel’s murder in July 2014.
“It was just unusual,” he said. “Wendi was never someone to share her romantic life.”

Rob Adelson testified Wendi Adelson told him in the text that she was dating a Jeff and shared a photo. She indicated she hadn't shared that relationship with her parents.
"They don't know," Wendi said in the text.

Rob Adelson, “The FBI came to my house and I spoke to them once.” He later heard about the murder & reached out to the FBI again to tell him that his sister was in this “secret” relationship. Agents came back for a second interview.
“I wanted to have a clean conscious,” he said.

Rob Adelson said his parents lived in The Continuum, an upscale condo where celebs like A-Rod lived. They were moved in by the time of Harvey Adelson’s birthday on July 4, 2014.

Rob Adelson said he heard about Dan Markel's shooting the day after, on Saturday, July 19, 2014. He was in Chicago at the time and called his mom. "It's one of those moments that you know you'll just remember forever."

Rob Adelson said his mom wasn't crying on the call and was "very matter of fact."
"She said you know we just want to let you know that Danny's been shot, and they took him to the hospital, but he didn't make it," Rob Adelson said.

Rob Adelson said his mom told him that the killers went to Dan Markel's front door, asked who he was, and shot him.
"Later we found out what happened," he said. "But that story bothered me a lot, because there's only one way you could hear that story."

Later, Rob Adelson said, his mom told him not to talk to law enforcement.
"If the police come around, you know, don't talk to them."

Dugan asking about 2016 when the two killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, were arrested.

Rob Adelson said his wife asked whether they should call his parents to let them know that arrests had been made. They decided to wait and see if they called, but they didn't. His parents called two days after the arrest, on Rob and his wife's anniversary.

Rob Adelson said his parents called to congratulate him on his marriage anniversary and made small talk but didn't bring up the murder. When Rob Adelson raised the topic, she said, "I've got to go," he testified.

"That was the last time I spoke to her," Rob Adelson said.

Jackie Fulford asking how often Rob Adelson visited his family in South Florida. He said he visited for Thanksgiving in 2013 and his dad's birthday party in 2014. He said he spoke on the phone with his mom "probably less than once a week."

Fulford, questioning Rob Adelson, said a family friend and attorney had called and advised that the family shouldn't speak with the police.
"That's what she told you, isn't it?" Fulford asked.
"Yeah," Rob Adelson said.

@threadreaderapp unroll